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Midwest Enduros

Speedy & Gus Offroad

Madison MC Club

Vesrah Suzuki GNCC Team

Sand Goblin Enduro - Roselawn, IN

4-13-08

Saturday started out as any typical race weekend. I was taking the new race trailer on its maiden race trip. Duane "DEWY" Eller was riding down with me and we also had Curt "SMOOTH" Shomberg's bike as well. We departed Cottage Grove and after a quick stop at my office in Hartland, we were off. We hooked up with SMOOTH and Brian "Da Pope" Mullane just into Indiana and after taking Dewy's secrete short cut, we arrived at the start area. First lets back up to the drive down. Now this area, just like the rest of the Midwest, has been getting pounded with rain. As we got near Roselawn, all of the fields had water in them. Not little puddles, but mini lakes. The woods had at least 12 inches of water in them and in most cases, it came right up to the road. If the road would have been 12 inches lower, it too would have been under water. At one point, Dewy said there must be a river around here somewhere. I said you can't see it cause it is under water! This did not raise the confidence level for the next day's ride.

When we arrived at the start area. We ran into the first problem. Remember the rain that I mentioned earlier? Well the ground was soft. Great traction for dirt bikes, but not for an Excursion pulling a big trailer. Got the rig stuck up to the rear axle and had to have a large 4X4 pickup pull us out. After finding some high ground, we set up the pits and retired to Speedy Pete's Ugly Coyote Hotel for some pre race speculation on how bad it was going to be while we listened to the Detroit Supercross on a laptop. After that, it was off to sleep in the back of the Excursion.

Race day morning came and it was cold and windy with the threat of rain (or snow!). I signed up to ride with SMOOTH, Da Pope and "New Guy" Bruce. I picked an early number (16) and we where off. After a wet and muddy field and a short reset, it was off to the woods. The woods trails were GREAT!! All the worrying was for nothing as there was only a few places that were really bad (the fields). I felt like I was riding good and except for a few problems with slower riders, I wasn't off the pace by that much. Half way through the first loop, the bolt that holds the seat on pulled out. I rode the last 15 miles or so holding the seat on with my legs and butt. Not the fastest way through the whoops and woods. I lost a lot of time due to that. Da Pope's day ended at about mile 12 when his 200 seized in a wet field. Dewy's day ended within 10 feet of Da Pope, so they both got a ride back. At gas, Da Pope let me use his seat so that I could at least finish. I was doing well until about mile 80. I just flat had nothing left and after crashing on about 4 or 5 logs in a row, I went into finish mode. Since the last 20 miles the speed average was bumped up to 30mph, I lost a lot of points. I ended up 9th in VET A with 61 points.

After a short break to clean up, we decided to pack up and head for Wisconsin. To add insult to injury, I got stuck LEAVING and had to be pulled out AGAIN.

It was a great event and those that stayed home because of the weather missed a great enduro!

Here are some pictures from the event (Click to view larger)

The race rig                         The Pit                            Mud on trailer after getting stuck