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Ride 2 Happened, oh yes
my brothers, we were soaked right through our pirate pantaloons and loving
it. How would you define core, how about eight guys who get up at
the crack o' dawn on a Saturday morn' to come out and play in the mud in
the midst of a storm which chills, blinds, and blows them straight out of
the air. So we didn't have a turn out to match Ride 1, that was off set by
the pure passion which was thick in the water logged air.
For some this was their first gated race, and the gate worked beautifully,
adding a significant fun factor and professional touch to our humble scene.
Special thanks to Hank Matheson for toting the behemoth down south,
Matt Snyder for dreaming up and initiating the ridiculous scheme, and Will
Spurling for investing his skill and wisdom bringing our ambitious
venture to a wonderful conclusion. The ride progressed smoothly as
all were anxious to get this one under their belts. By the time riders
were ready to qualify the course had become notably more demanding, with tires
chewing through the rocky exterior and rain continuing to saturate the course.
Berms were turning to soup near the bottoms so it was important to
ride high and keep both wheels underneath, not to mention the sudden gusts
of wind which were whipping across the face blowing riders off course
as they launched the jumps in the second straight. It was Sean T
grabbing the fastest qualifying time, as he showed that strength and smooth
skill in the corners was the key to cleaning the technical course. This
won him a by to the second round as young Mr. Rhall was not feeling up to
another run after braving the elements to qualify. This left three
matches in the first round, with the only upset being Greg Newkirk besting
Andy Lane down the hill. Andy blew up on the first roller and was lucky
to keep his head out from under Greg's ominous wheel. Round two saw
no upsets as Sean edged out Hank and Justin beat Greg to the bottom. So
the two fastest qualifiers pushed back up the hill for a winner take all
head to head battle down the SoHum slip'n slide. Graves succeeded in grabbing
the snap and maintaining the lead down the majority of the course with Mr.
T not far behind, pushing his Santa Cruz V-10 with enough torque to gain
ground on a much slimmer Bullit. Going into the final berm Graves went
high outside and scrubbed enough speed for Mr. T to put a fantastic move
to the inside which gave him half a bike length lead going into the final
jump. Graves managed to get position on T as the two leaned into one
another with Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. Amazingly the two continued
to roll locked in this fashion up, onto, and over the final jump both expecting
to hit the ground. It was Graves with a final push, which threatened
to ride Mr. T off the course to the left, which gave him victory by half
a wheel. The small crowd was rewarded for their vigilance through the
storm as T threw a tackle and the two wrestled on the ground sufficiently
amped by their demanding battle. "Coming out of the soupy stadium berm at the bottom i couldn't see Sean in my periphery, but i could hear him, that's when i knew i was in trouble. "When he put the move on me in the berm i thought i was done for, any more juice and T would've sent me out of the berm, it was a really good move." -Graves |
| Qualifying 1st - Sean Teatrault - 42.92 2nd - Justin Graves - 43.59 3rd - Hank Matheson - 43.78 4th - Andy Lane - 45.66 5th - Greg Newkirk - 46.36 6th - Jason Allen - 47.99 7th - Andrew Morin - 48.86 8th - Robbie Rhall - 56.25 |
Final Placing
(Shoulda staged a consolation match to decide
third, oh well, still learning. so in lew of that we will base the breaker on qualifying times.) 1st - Justin Graves - 35 2nd - Sean Tetrault - 30 3rd - Hank Matheson - 27 4rd - Greg Newkirk - 25 5th - Robbie Rhall - 23 5th - Jason Allen - 23 5th - Andrew Morin - 23 5th - Andy Lane - 23 Points |
