ccdhowell
10-19-2008, 09:27 PM
Round 10 of the ATVCCS at Caddo Point in Cash, Texas. This course is a short, tight, fast woods XC course at only 6.5 miles combined with the practice MX track of AMA ATV MX pros Cody and Hunter Miller. The woods were classic east Texas with about half the woods section running along a twisting turning creek with several crossings thrown in for good measure. The MX track was nuts! Nasty whoops that were set-up to defy rythm, tabletops that have a cliff on the downside, off-chamber turns, berms mid-corner, just a load of crap built by pro racers to practice their trade on. We get most of Saturdays to practice the track; I took two laps through the woods and at least a dozen on the motocross track; felt good. MX tracks scare the hell out of me as a general rule, but I found a form of comfort that I wasn't going to kill myself during the race.
There were 11 guys in my class, I came off the line in 9th, been having starting trouble since I put the pipe on. Anyway, woods were good, thumb started cramping about half way through lap one and I lost touch with my class mates. I battled through it to a tolerable level, found a rythm and motored past several guys in the woods and in the end held my own on the MX track. I don't know about the rest of you XC guys, but most of the racers I run with just want to survive the MX track and make our time in the woods. Anyway I finished 9th in class, not good, but I was less than a minute behind the guy in front of me and closing.
It took me a while to get over the thumb cramps today. I was racing a Boyesen Shokout system for the first time in today's race. I bought it from an XC racer on another forum and installed it last week. I won't say it's coming off, I actually like it. I could feel the grips giving forward and backward as I navigated the woods. I didn't notice them much on the MX track, I guess because the impacts were too big...the Flex bars took over then. I'm gonna leave them on for my next race in 3 weeks to see if I can get used to it. I don't like to give something that looks promising only one try.
My wife went and took some pics of me on the MX track, thought I'd share a few with you guys. Enjoy.
Also, if any of you guys are within a couple hundred miles of eastern Texas and want to give XC racing a try shoot me a PM and I'll let you know how to get started in the ATVCCS. We need racers of all skill levels.
Chris
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356284correctedDSC00258.JPG
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356285correctedDSC00263.JPG
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356286smallerDSC00265.JPG
There were 11 guys in my class, I came off the line in 9th, been having starting trouble since I put the pipe on. Anyway, woods were good, thumb started cramping about half way through lap one and I lost touch with my class mates. I battled through it to a tolerable level, found a rythm and motored past several guys in the woods and in the end held my own on the MX track. I don't know about the rest of you XC guys, but most of the racers I run with just want to survive the MX track and make our time in the woods. Anyway I finished 9th in class, not good, but I was less than a minute behind the guy in front of me and closing.
It took me a while to get over the thumb cramps today. I was racing a Boyesen Shokout system for the first time in today's race. I bought it from an XC racer on another forum and installed it last week. I won't say it's coming off, I actually like it. I could feel the grips giving forward and backward as I navigated the woods. I didn't notice them much on the MX track, I guess because the impacts were too big...the Flex bars took over then. I'm gonna leave them on for my next race in 3 weeks to see if I can get used to it. I don't like to give something that looks promising only one try.
My wife went and took some pics of me on the MX track, thought I'd share a few with you guys. Enjoy.
Also, if any of you guys are within a couple hundred miles of eastern Texas and want to give XC racing a try shoot me a PM and I'll let you know how to get started in the ATVCCS. We need racers of all skill levels.
Chris
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356284correctedDSC00258.JPG
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356285correctedDSC00263.JPG
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/294809/2356286smallerDSC00265.JPG