Last weekend we travelled up to Morganton, North Carolina. The race "Steele Creek" GNCC is set in the Smoky mountains of NC. Very pretty area. It is an actual caravan park set along a mountain stream. You cross the stream-creek several times, across the water, over bridges and under bridges. The one under the bridge you have your chin on the handle bars to miss the bridge and the water is about a foot deep with large rocks.
The morning race is at 10.00am . I got a pretty decent start again this week. into the tree's in third place. Along about 100 metres then hard left uphill for about 30 metres then hard right into a steeper uphill for about 200 metres. This was the pattern for most of the race. Climb up the mountain, then fly down the mountain. Some of the downhills were, "oh crap, hope I can stop at the bottom" You could have the back wheel locked up and it didnt slow you down at all. The uphills were fun, usually 6 or 7 feet wide with four foot walls on each side. Like gullys, you would just hold it wide open in 3rd and hang on.
Half way through the first lap my right fore arm pumped up solid. Couldnt do anything, couldnt accellerate, couldnt brake properly. It was hard to open and close my fingers. I had to stop and massage,smack,bang and rub my arm for about 3-4 minutes, drank a bunch from my camel back as well.
It took me a while to get back up to speed again, but the arm was much better after that.. On the second lap there was a big bottleneck on one hillclimb, it was a sandy gully that became red dirt, clay the higher up it went. There were approx thirty bikes stuck up in the gully and another twenty or more piling up at the base.. I spotted a bike riding through the tree's to the left of the gully, then another. I dropped off the trail into the caravan park to get around the masses waiting to enter the gully of doom and found some bystander pointing me up the hill where these other bikes had gone. I rode up the hill making my own trail parallel to the gully and dropped back into the race course just past the pileup...
It was 11 miles per lap. I completed 4 laps and ended up 17th in class. Only one crash on the 4th lap, fast uphill I got bounced into the wall of the gully and the bark buster caught and threw me down, bike sideway across the trail. I dragged the back wheel downhill and lifted it up. It was still running, It was so steep the front brake wouldnt hold it from sliding backwards, I used the throttle and pushed uphill about six feet where I was able to get a leg back over it and get going again. This is where auto clutches are magic. No fancy clutch work required, just put it in the right gear and roll on the throttle.
Shane Watts overalled the morning race. He entered Sportsman-A, that is a non points class for fast riders not chasing the series points.
Here is Johnny getting ready
