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| Hmm. wonder what's going on here??? |
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This is all done from recollection, so if you have any comments on missing or incorrect data, let me know.
The 2008 Virginia City Grand Prix (VCGP) was another interesting event. As I pulled up on Saturday afternoon, most of the crowd was already there, bench racing about the 1st race that already occured that morning/afternoon. Even Chuck was there in the min-tent trailer that he pulls with his motorcycle. Chuck was enroute to Utah, and stopped by to visit.
Bret Eckert decided to ride, even though his leg was still bothering him. I think he finished 3 laps, which is commendable considering his condition. How come I cannot find Steve Pratt in the results...didn't he race? Bill Fain soldiered on to a full 4 laps, looking like he had just come back from a retreat to the Bahamas! Great job considering how old he is...hahaha. Chris Worth and Rich Solis got their money's worth, even though they decided to call it quits after one lap, because of the bottleneck on that big hill. Joe 'Davis' Dowd was forthcoming on his day, which is good because it helps me to write these stories. Joe Davis...err, I mean Joe Dowd, fell once and took a knocking. And then later he fell again, and took another knocking, in which he decided to slow down and call it a day...I can relate, as I will of course let you know about later. Dave Debold toughened out a full 4 laps, getting the holeshot for his line. Ryan Mushrush was one of the top Dots in placement. Mike Fallon pulled off an amazing 1st place in 30+ Amateur class on his Honda CRF 250X, finishing 5 laps. Congrats on that achievement!
The late afternoon was a time for libations (alchohol) and bench racing. I'm surprised I did not hear any puking that night or the following morning. At about 6pm that evening, Chris and Rich headed up together on his dirtbike to the top of the hill, for some unknown reason. Within a 1/2 hour, Chris proudly waved his new racing entry for the following day, on row 9484!!! Around 9pm, some of us headed up the hill to go the famous Blood Bucket solution for some celebrating, of which I took no part, as I had to race the next day.
I woke up tired from a relentless cold, but decided to race anyway. Wayne fouled the plug on his vintage bike, and I did not see him on the starting line. I thought that failure to start his bike was the cause of his absence, but he supposedly got sick before the race..throwing up and all, because of some sickness he got from his kid. Sorry to hear you couldn't participate, after all that preparation Wayne.
Sunday's racers included Curt Backhaus on Row 2 (lucky bastard), Cliff Gormley on row 17, Kevin Allec on Row ???, and Chris Worth on row 8454. Tom 'Skeet' Pocus never made it to the race for some reason. After listening to race announcer, , Motormouth, for what seemed an eternity, the race was off! Flying down the road over that first hill/jump is always fun. Within about 15 minutes, was The Hill. Oh my God. There were people stuck everywhere. You had to get as much momentum as possible so you could get as far up that damn hill as you could, because once you stopped, it was going to be slow going frorm that point on. After making it past the hill, there was the rest of the VCGP course: rocks, sand, rocks, hills, rocks, dried out river beds, and then some pavement, and then some more rocks. VCGP can be a scary race, because it can get fast in some sections. I think the worst places are those 5th gear sections, that have those embedded rocks placed in strategic spots like military mines. You can be hauling ass in one of those sections, but if you hit one of those rocks just the right way,...BAM, you are down, and probably got a broken collarbone, a conscussion, a broken something, or you just got the sh*t kicked out of you. And once that happens, you probably drop your race pace about 10%, to where now you see people passing you at a rate that you had not seen before the crash.
About 1/3 of the way through the first loop, I felt like I was maintaining a good pace, when I came upon a conga-line of about 6 racers behind this guy who would not move over. It was on one of those long, gradual downhills on a fire road, that had a nice clear line through the rocks. I decided to pass all of them on the right through the rocks , praying that my stiffened steering stabilizer would assist me. The handle bars were going back and forth within a manageable range of motion, until I caught up to the last guy to pass. The handlebar went left and right wildly, but I was able to maintain. Just as I passed the guy and was about to turn back into the good section, my front tire must have hit an embedded rock, throwing my front end completely to the left. I fell down, knowing the last guy that I passed was right behind me. I put my arms up over my head, waiting for the inevitable. Then came the baa-boomp-boomp, as I felt the tires go over my head (now this is not funny!!!! don't laugh!!!). The pressure of the his tires on my wrists (I can see the red marks now), putting pressure on my helmet, and then putting pressure on my goggles, and then putting pressure on my eyeglasses, caused that plastic eyeglass nosepiece to push against my eyelid, causing some bad swelling.
From that point on, it was time to slow down.
The guy who rode over me was mad because I fell in front of him. So I told him that he should have pulled over a long time ago, and it would not have happened. I finally asked him if he was alright. He said "yeah", and we parted without any bad blood between us. The only blood was the blood that was coming out of my nose, but that soon stopped.
As we most of us were decampoing, Kevin Allec came in with his finisher's pin. He had some good stories, after completing 2 laps. He rearended a girl's bike, and flew over the handle bars and 25 feet down the side of a hill. He looked ok when he came in. and congrats to Kevin for what I think was his first VCGP.
Thanks to all how attended, pitted, cooked, converesed, and assisted in anyway at the 2007 VCPG!
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|
Racer
|
Race#
(starting position)
|
Day
|
Overall
Out of 295 starters
|
%Overall
|
Class
|
InClass
*includes DNFs
|
%InClass
|
|
Mike Fallon
|
047
|
Saturday
|
47
|
16%
|
30+ Amateur
|
1/48
|
2%
|
|
Ryan Mushrush
|
309
|
Saturday
|
93
|
32%
|
250 Amateur
|
3/21
|
14%
|
|
Dave Debold
|
340
|
Saturday
|
174
|
59%
|
30+ Amateur
|
25/48
|
52%
|
|
Joe Dowd
|
044
|
Saturday
|
181
|
61%
|
30+ Amateur
|
26/48
|
54%
|
|
Bill Fain
|
045
|
Saturday
|
198
|
67%
|
Open Amateur
|
21/31
|
68%
|
|
Bret Eckert
|
046
|
Saturday
|
234
|
79%
|
Open 40+ Expert
|
20/24
|
83%
|
|
Chris Worth
|
048
|
Saturday
|
287
|
97%
|
30+ Amateur
|
DNF
|
|
|
Rich Solis
|
043
|
Saturday
|
DNS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Racer
|
Race#
(starting position)
|
Day
|
Overall
Out of 322 starters
|
%Overall
|
Class
|
InClass
*includes DNFs
|
%InClass
|
|
Cliff Gormley
|
179
|
Sunday
|
65
|
20%
|
40+ Nov
|
17/90
|
19%
|
|
Curt Backhaus
|
024
|
Sunday
|
106
|
33%
|
50+ Nov
|
6/25
|
24%
|
|
Kevin Allec
|
8843
|
Sunday
|
268
|
83%
|
40+ Nov
|
76/90
|
84%
|
|
Chris Worth
|
299
|
Sunday
|
299
|
DNF
(1 lap)
|
30+ Amateur
|
|
|
|
Wayne Halozan
|
025
|
Sunday
|
Did not start
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tom Pocus
|
023
|
Sunday
|
Did not start
|
|
|
|
|
|
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