Rocks!
I love them but couldn’t ride them to save my life until about 1 hour 10 minutes into the WORCS Pro/Pro 2 main in Northern California this weekend. It was at that point when I finally started looking ahead, picking good lines, and flowing for the first time of the weekend.
I have spent the last few weeks practicing a ton of motocross and I went into this racing feeling better than ever on my 450, but on Thursday at noon I was facing the 16 hour drive solo. Luckily my good friend Colt Jones called me up and announced that he wanted to come to the race and help me drive and the trip was immediately looking up. Colt and I arrived around 10 Friday night. Practice in the morning went well, but the 450 A race was another story. I ended up a disappointing 8th. We walked the pro only sections that consisted of a gnarly rocky climb, a tight steep canyon and an uphill waterfall section. Off the start I had a really good jump but got pushed wide in the first corner and came out around 5th. I was definitely riding stiff and wasn’t flowing until around 1 hour 10, but then it was like something clicked in my head and I was confident and smooth again and I was starting to make up some ground. Then I got a little too confident and maybe a little too loose. One of the Pro only sections had a 10 foot face on it and the run up to it was getting pretty torn up. Instead of timing the bumps I kind of just skimmed them and hit the waterfall face way too hard. I got sketchy and my feet came off the pegs when I landed my front wheel came down on top of a rock and my body was hanging off the back. The front wheel bounced and my extended right arm got cranked up by the handlebars and dislocated. I landed on my feet but I knew my shoulder was out. Took a deep breath and rolled my shoulder forward and felt the satisfying clunk of my shoulder going back into place. I got back on and kept pulling on 3rd and 4th but ran out of time still 15 or so seconds back, finishing 5th overall. My shoulder doesn’t feel so good today, it’s back to rehab. Should be fine for the next round though so no big deal! All things considered I think I had a solid race, definitely room for improvement but I am pumped for the next few rounds!
A lot of people have come through for me this season and I want to thank all of them. Valcom Motorsports, KTM, Stillwell Performance.com, TheORC.com, OffroadChampions.com, Motorex, Fly, AXO, Bell, Easton, Topar, Rekluse, Racetech, Carbon Raptor DLC, Enduro Engineering, Steve Hatch Racing, Mapleton Hills Orthopaedics, Harris Used Parts, OrangeJuice.com, IMS, FMF, ZLT, Rampart Drywall, Aactive Sattelite, and most of all my Mom and Dad. Special Thanks on this one to Scott Bright and Colt Jones.