This year's Parker 250 was starting out to be a stressfull race from the get go. My co-rider Marc was not going to be able to race, due to a restructure at his job that took away his vacation time at the last minute - which left me having to try and find some one to help ride. My friend Kurt Sofka, who last year won the over 40 Expert class on his XR650 (this year Kurt and his team are running 30 Expert class) said he would ride the second lap for me. .
Once through tech we hung out for a while talking to some of the great people that we have met through racing BITD. Then Bob Kuriyama and I headed off to the alternate pit to rope off a pit box for Saturday's race. Saturday morning came way too early. I was up and getting ready when every one else started to roll in. After the last minute going over, we loaded up the 450R and headed over to the start line. We were third Expert off the line, behind the Youngblood team. After Casey came over and gave me his pep talk that he gives to every one, all I had to do was wait for the light to turn green and I would be off and running. That was the longest 30 seconds! Once the green light lit I was on the gas and did a small wheelie for the crowd. Once I got on the course I found it to be soft. With all the rain the ground was like riding on the beach. I felt like I needed a set of paddle tires to get through the Parker Python. The main race course was a bit better to ride on. A few miles up the track Q80 passed me. He had found a better line through the whoop section than where we were. I figured I would let him go - my goal was to just finish the race. I didn't have enough time from the Henderson 300 to the Parker 250 to really go through the 450R the right way. About mile 20 it started to rain, which made it hard to see the course. I hit a couple G-outs that I didn't see. Needless to say it made it real interesting. Once the rain let up I could see the Youngblood team ahead of me. I caught up to them at a section that was flooded out. Casey had told us about it the night before at the driver's meeting. It was a cut in the road that was full of water and that we would be able to ride the embankments on either side of it but we where not allowed to go up top in the virgin terrain. Once I started up the embankment behind Steve it just was tiring to stay behind him until after we got to the other side. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. We ended up bumping and Steve got the worst end of it. Sorry again Steve!
Once on the bike and riding again I realized I was beat from trying to restart my bike. At the end of the wash you go into one of the few rough parts of the course. I was just trying to get my bearing again when other riders started to catch me. I just waved a couple of them by. I wasn't going to hold them up. When I was going down one of the fire roads I came up on a checkpoint. What caught my eye was Kurt standing there waving at me. I'm like “no, this isn't a good thing”! He should have been back to the pit by now getting some rest before he was to get on my quad and ride the second loop. Kurt had thrown a chain on his 650 and cracked his case. He told me that I would have to ride the second lap and he would get on for the third. I continued on my way. I was just on cruise control trying to conserve my energy since I now had to ride 2 laps in a row. I came back into the Parker Python again to find it was worse then it was off the start. I came into my pit to get gas and some food before I went back out. Kurt's teammate told me that he was right behind me if I wanted to wait. Well guess what - I wanted to wait. I was in no shape to get back on. It turned out neither was he. He did a great job though, getting the bike around the track for his loop. He did spend a little time at the alternate getting something to eat and drink while Bob pulled some parts off his spare bike to take out to Phil who was teamed up with Bob's son Shaun of Team Fubar 450R. We had a report that Phil had lost the lower radiator hose. Kurt was going to drop off the parts to Phil so he could get their bike going again. Unfortunately it turned out they had lost the water pump. Kurt stopped and helped Phil push the bike up a hill to get to the next checkpoint. BITD changed the point system this year so you get points for every checkpoint you clear so Phil was just trying to get some points. We all know every point counts in the end.
I would like to thank my sponsors: Guilty.com, Alba Action Sports, IMS, AC racing, Flow exhaust, Elka shocks, Precision Concepts, Off-Road.com and Team FUBAR! I would also like to give an extra big thanks to the people that help me get there and finish the race: my friend Kurt Sofka for stepping up and riding a lap for me, my girlfriend Chantal, the Kuriyamas, the Youngblood's, Todd Johnson, Stacy Doerksen, Pete Garcia, Max Messina and of course my team mate, though he wasn't there, Marc Choquette. Next race is Terrible Towns 300 and Team Guilty will be there ready to race !! Talk ATV Racing on our ATV Racing Message Board
Best in the
Desert
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We arrived late Thursday night and
set up at the main pit area. After a good night sleep we woke up to
rain falling. That let us know that it was definately going to be a
wet weekend. We headed over to the Blue Water Hotel and Casino to
register and go through tech. It was early so we met up with the
Kuriyamas for a hearty breakfast and to work out the last of the
pit details.
I came into the alternate pit and had
an excellent pit stop from the Kuriyamas. Just a gas and go. When I
left there I was physically in third. Every thing was going good.
The bike was running awesome and I was passing some of the slower
motorcycle teams. Then that came to an end when I was at the end of
the last sand wash. I saw a turn that looked like it was an easy
one. Ended up not being so. It increased as you went through it and
at the speed I was going I was unable to turn and ended up going
into one of the trees that is along side of the wash. The bike got
stuck and stalled. I was just pulling it out when Steve came along
and did the same thing I had done. We just looked at each other and
laughed. Steve was able to get his 450R restarted before I could.
It several kicks to get mine to fire up. Just as I got mine to
finally start along came another rider who repeated what we had
already done.
Kurt came into the Python and dropped
the bike off to me so I could get out for my last lap. This lap
went pretty much uneventful except when I came up on the amateur
team Q63 who was stuck on the embankment of the flooded part of the
course. I stopped and asked the kid if he was ok, all I got was
this blank look of “no, please help”. So I hopped off
my quad and grab the front of his YFZ and helped him turn it in an
angle that he could ride it up the hill. Once he was on top of the
embankment I headed off to finish my lap. I managed to cut 10
minutes off my first lap time. Which gave Team Guilty a 10 th place
finish in the expert class.
