2007 Newark Enduro Report

My 2003 Gas Gas EC300 all prepped and ready for the start of the 2007 Newark Enduro. Too bad the rider wasn't as prepped as the bike was. Behind my bike is (Sponge) Bob's van. Note the "trick" bike stand courtesy of Rubbermaid and Walmart. That's budget racing at its best!

For the second year in a row I rode the Newark Enduro, hosted by the Wayne County Motorcycle Club. If you read my previous entry, you'll note that this is the longest consecutive running enduro in the U.S. Once again this enduro was co-sanctioned as part of both the NETRA and WNYOA Enduro Series'. The Newark Enduro uses AMA (timekeeping) Rules, which means you ride on the same minute all day. This is great for someone just getting into timekeeping enduros or for guys who want to ride with their buddies all day. I do have some reservations about AMA Rules, but I'll save that for a later post.

After waking up at 3:00 a.m. then driving for over 3-1/2 hours, (Sponge) Bob and I arrived at the start. This enduro starts from the Fairville, NY Volunteer Fire Station. After going through tech inspection, where they made sure our lights worked and we had a valid plate on the bike, we signed up and ended up on minute 29. Keytime for this enduro is 8:00 a.m., so we would be starting at 8:29 a.m.

From the start the course headed directly across a road onto a two-track trail. I was the last to leave the line, but one guy on a KTM pulled over and let me pass, so I ended up following Bob who was behind another guy on a Husky. Eventually we ended up on some trails where Bob got a bit ahead of me until he overshot a turn and was in process of turning around when I passed him and headed down the hill. This first section consisted of single-track woods trails and wide open grass-track. Eventually we popped out on a road and followed that for a bit before turning into a field with more grass-track. I was following some riders who left on earlier minutes when suddenly I saw a large group stopped in front of me. I glanced down at my Pacemaker and noticed it said 2.2 miles and I was running a minute hot. I didn’t expect the first check until 3 miles. From where the riders were queued up the course turned left, going down a hill. I moved to the front of the queue and was about to head down the hill when I spotted the next checkpoint, check two, at the bottom. Luckily I was able to hide behind some trees and bushes to the right of the trail while I checked my odometer and route sheet. Obviously I had missed about 3/4 of a mile of the course, probably just blindly following other riders. The queue was at the 2.9-mile marker. As I waited for my minute to come up Bob rode up and we discussed our situation. We saw the two minutes before ours head down the hill along with some, already, late riders. Eventually I figured it was safe to go down the hill and Bob took the lead. I followed and noticed the keytime for the check was facing us. We were going in a minute early. Bob slowed to a crawl, but ended up burning the check by a couple seconds. I did my best trials riding through the mud in front of the check and just made the flip scoring a zero.

After check two the course went up a steep hill and onto another grass-track. Following Bob into this section I found he was riding quite conservatively in this very fast section. He signaled for me to pass and I took the lead before the course headed into the woods. This test section was an 18 mph speed average. Between the single-track trails and open grass-track it was very easy to stay within my minute. At one point, in the woods, I heard a bike coming from behind. I was in a spot that had a couple lines, so I moved to the right and pointed to the left for them to pass. It was Bob. I took off behind him, but after 50 feet he bobbled then pulled over. I figured he wanted me in front, so I took off. I was doing pretty good in this section as it switched between open fast trails and tight slow single-track. Eventually the trail ran alongside a creek and I could see riders on earlier minutes going the opposite direction on the other side. Finally I crossed a bridge to the other side. There were makeshift bridges crossing various ditches on this side. Down in one ditch I spotted an old XR250 on its side and some EMT personnel helping an injured rider. Just beyond that point was check three, which I hit two minutes down. Past the checkpoint was a four-mile reset. Bob pulled into the reset about two minutes behind me. Evidently, when he bobbled in the woods, he pulled something in his shoulder and moving his right arm was nearly impossible. However he was determined to keep going.

Following the reset we had a short ride down the road before heading back into the woods. Once again this was a mix of fast two-track, open grass-track and tight single-track with some good hills mixed in. There was no check-in to this section. The WCMC must be short-handed when it comes to workers as they rarely have many checkpoints. At one point I hit some fast two-track and discovered riders from the minute ahead of mine coming towards me. They were turning around as I blew past them. Of course I missed the turn they had missed and spent a couple minutes wandering around, looking for the trail. I should’ve followed the guys on minute 28. Luckily I wasn’t the only one to blow the turn. Bob caught up to me, as did some other riders. One rider even crashed into another rider coming towards him. Luckily they were both hard on the brakes when they collided, so it wasn't a major wreck. It’s times like this when a lot of ribbon and wrong way markers are needed so riders go the correct direction. Eventually we found the trail and continued on. Check four was an Emergency Checkpoint, where minutes and seconds are recorded. I dropped five points in this section. Would’ve been a lot less had I not blown that turn and missed the trail. My friend Pete K. was working check four. He just looked at me and shook his head. I said something about missing a turn and he replied with something about following arrows. Way to be a smartarse Pete!

Not long after check four there was another reset and the first gas available location. At the gas available I spoke to a guy on minute 28 and recognized him from the Speedsville Enduro back in August. Eventually Bob showed up. He was, again, a couple minutes behind me, but still insisted he could ride.

From the gas available we headed down the road again for about a mile when the speed average jumped to 24 mph before turning back into the woods. This section was another mix of fast and open trails along with slow and tight trails. They even ran us down a couple short public road sections. Being AMA Rules, I’m sure most riders were hard on the gas going down the roads. This is probably the only criticism I have about this enduro and AMA Rules in general. In my experience a reset, even a short one, should preclude any road section. The last thing and enduro organizer wants is a “black eye” in the community for having quasi-street legal dirt bikes screaming down the road. This section contained one nasty hill where riders were queued up, waiting their turn, while one rider struggled with a stuck bike in the main line. Several riders attempted to find an alternate line up the hill only to become casualties to it themselves. I staged myself for an open line when a stuck rider rolled his bike right into my path. I attempted another line, but got hung up on a small tree. A spectator came over and bent the tree out of my way. I looked over and spotted Bob struggling to get up an alternate line. With time ticking away I gassed it and rode up the hill. Check five was towards the end of this section and I dropped another five points, but instead of a reset, we had 10+ more miles to go before the next gas available and reset, back at the start area. This last 10 miles had to be some of the toughest terrain all day with lots of single-track trails, many of which were off-camber. I recognized one of the ruts I got buried in at the 2006 Newark Enduro. This also meant I wasn’t far from the end of the first loop.

To my surprise there weren’t any more checkpoints on the first loop. I rode back to the start to fill up my gas tank. When I arrived there was another reset, but I only had 40-seconds to fill up my gas and switch out the bladder on the Camelbak. After filling up the tank I had to piss, so I hid behind the van. While reaching down to whip it out I noticed the fly on my riding pants was open and the zipper was stuck at the top. No worries. I could still whip it out and was in the middle of relieving myself when my new high fiber diet kicked in and started knocking at the back door. Talk about bad timing. I tucked things away and dashed for the can inside the fire station. I whipped off my bum bag and was heading for the door when a club member asked if I’d found that (meaning the bum bag) on the trail. I quickly explained my need to take a dump and he pointed me inside. Once in the stall I hopelessly struggled with the fly on my pants and eventually moved the zipper enough to slide my riding pants over my hips and drop a deuce and a half. No major accidents, but it was one of those “you’ll be wiping for an hour” dumps. All this time I still had my helmet and goggles on, so I flipped my goggles up onto my helmet and waited for everything to come out. Once finished I fixed the fly as best I could and headed back to my bike.

Bob was at the van when I returned and I gave him a quick rundown on my situation. His arm was still difficult to move, but he was determined to make it to check 7 before dropping out. That way he’d at least finish more than half the checks, if there were another seven checks. There weren’t.

We left the gas available around 20-minutes late. With a 24 mph speed average and only 22-minutes of resets on the second loop it was going to be tough to make up that time, especially since the second loop was the same as the first. Immediately I discovered my mistake on the first loop, a missed turn into a short woods section. Oh well. Then I had my first crash of the day. A guy riding an older Husky had dumped it in a turn. In his attempt to get the thing up he rolled into my line and I bounced the front tire off a tree, falling over on top of him. Some “not so kind” words were mumbled under my breath. Bob rode up and asked if we were having a party. I should have hit him in the shoulder. Most of this loop was a blur. Leaving 20-miutes late meant I just had to ride all out. I arrived at check six 17-minutes late. I’d made up some time in the fast stuff, but not enough. Check seven was another Emergency Check. In fact it was the same spot as check 3, the first Emergency Check. Pete was still there. This time his back was turned to me when I arrived. I was 22 minutes down by that point and was glad he wasn’t shaking his head. Also I didn't want to explain my excuse for being so late.

I should probably point out that this years Newark Enduro was dry and dusty. There were a couple small mud puddles in spots, but dust du jour was the menu for the day. Quite a change from the conditions we had at the ’06 Newark Enduro. Where, after two straight weeks of rain, the trails were muddy, sloppy and slippery. The one bright spot was somewhere between check seven and check eight. It was here the course deviated from the morning loop and we were treated to a freshly cut section of trail. The best part was the pages taken from nudies magazines and stapled to trees. There’s nothing like a snatch shot to motivate you when your tongue is hanging down to the pegs and you can’t lift your butt off the seat. Unfortunately this nice little section had no checks. In fact check 8 was right at the spot I had recognized on the first loop... that stupid rut I got stuck in last year. I was 28 points down at this point, but I knew it wasn’t much further. In fact there was another 2-mile reset coming up and I was going to be happy as a pig in slop when I could finally finish. My entire body was aching and my bike was beginning to run like crap, probably because the air filter was caked with dust. At least that’s what I was hoping. Worst case I sucked some dust past the filter while going WFO down the road sections. In fact my computer recorded a top speed of 73 mph. Yeah, I know it’s wrong, but I was just hoping to finish and not hour-out.

Eventually I hit check 9, some 32 minutes down. My bike died and the guy marking my scorecard told me it was the last check so I could take it easy on the road back to the fire station. This was great news because, after 90+ ground miles, I was about ready to fall over in one of those "help, I've fallen and can't get up" scenarios. I kicked my bike to life and rode back to the fire station where a club member took my scorecard. I asked them if they could return my balls should the sweep riders find them. Everyone standing around laughed. I'm sure it was mildly amusing, but I’ve been using that joke for years.

Bob was already back at the van, stretched out and napping in the back seat. He made it to check seven, his goal, and retired for the day. After getting out of my gear and cleaning off the dust caked to my face I got some lunch. I swear a burger and fries always tastes better, going down, after and enduro. I loaded up the van, as Bob was almost useless without his arm. Surprisingly the scores were posted quite early. I did a quick check of my scorecard. While I dropped a respectable 12 points on the first loop, my second loop was an awful 99 points, for a total of 111. However I figure starting the second loop 20-minutes down played a major role in this. If I hadn’t pinched a loaf my final score should’ve been in the mid-30s... yeah, right? Oh well, better to finish the event with clean underwear, I always say. The real shocker was that I had third place in B-Open. The two guys ahead of me literally smoked me. In fact one was in-line for Overall B, which would've bumped me up to 2nd place. He lost on tie-breakers (Emergency Points). The other two riders in the B-Open class DNF’d. At least I finished. I also discovered a problem with my score. The club had me down for 116 points. It didn’t change my finishing position, but the referee corrected my score. There was also a huge protest in the AA class regarding the actual mileage point of check three. Per the AMA rulebook, three bikes were used to check the mileage and it was found to be off. Check three was thrown out, netting me a total of 109 points. Why couldn’t it have been one of the checks on the second loop?

In the end I bagged some hardware for third in B-Open. My first enduro trophy this season and my best in-class finish to date. Now I’ve got to perform some much needed bike maintenance before the NETRA Rocktoberfast Enduro on Sept. 30th.

The trophy (plaque) I took home for third place in the B-Open Class ay the 2007 Newark Enduro. I was also the highest placing NETRA rider in that class. This year the enduro was in memory of Charlie Jensen, a 60+ year member of the WCMC. For such a small turnout (there were only 31 rows x 4 riders/row = 124 riders) the club handed out a large number of plaques. Very nice looking plaques as well.