West Virginia (sorta) and Another ISDT

So, my bike was blown up. Really truly broken. And I had 4 weeks to fix it. Our points standings for the season were looking pretty tight if we were gonna each win our classes. Max in particular was in a real close fight with Dave Lamberth (Ahrma head honcho) which was looking to go down to the wire and be decided by a couple points either way. I was more comfortable, but my main competitor in the points was seriously good guy Keith "Skipper" Voss who was seriously quicker than me on a 100cc Hodaka. The math meant Max had no choice but to make the next race, and I'll be honest, I was pretty sure if I was gonna win I was gonna do it by attendance. So with a wrecked engine and four weeks I set to work to try and make Mountainfest in West Virginia. Almost the minute I got home the engine was pulled and torn down. Everything was trash, from big ends to timing side bush to (sigh) crank the entire bottom end would need replacing. With mighty help from Jay and John French's Part Department a useable crank was acquired. To get as much time as possible, as well as being able to fit the race in, we left at the last minute. With Max watching, the finishing touches were done at 5pm on Thursday afternoon, the bike was ridden up and down the street, and it was loaded in the van. We were on the road for our overnight drive by 6pm the same afternoon, arrived at 10am next morning, and racing 2 hours after that.
Sadly, I don't have a single picture of this race. Not one. It was a good race, a shorter lap laid out by Chicago Jerry. Amazingly, my bike survived and ran a good, solid race bringing home the points from a much needed first. Max was running solid second in his class until his headlight/kill switch came apart shorting his bike costing him nearly 3 minutes to fix and dropping him to third. Even so, he still got critical points and the math was looking much better for his season.
Racing over we immediately loaded up and headed back to Florida. In all, the trip was less than 48 hours. It was the most excruciatingly exhausting trip we've ever done.
We had a leisurely month and a half till our next race, an ISDT in West Point Tennessee. All three of the Florida boys would be in attendance for this one. The first day started clear and sunny as we pulled our bikes out of impound and lined up for the start.

I really hadn't run my bike at all since WV, but had removed my timing cover to put in an oil seal and it was ackin' da' fool. I thought I had screwed up the timing, but it seemed fine when checked. Since I only had a short time to play with it before it went to impound, my plan was to start and go the required minimum distance then head back to camp and recheck everything. Going the required distance was enough. Apparently there was some gunk in the carb and it cleared out pretty quick, so it was on with the race. There was nothing too nasty over the two days, just a lot of ping-ponging through trees that required a lot of energy and focus, which meant I was very tired and hit a bunch of trees.

But it was pretty straight forward and the day went quick. Voss was beating me to death, but that was no real surprise so I finished the day in second with a silver. Max was running unopposed in expert, so finished the day with a gold and more much needed points.

George had clutch problems, with slippage bad enough to make it difficult to start. The twisting through the trees only made matters worse and when he didn't show up at a break we hoped he wasn't stuck on the course unable to restart. Luckily, he had made it back to camp and when we rolled back in he was preparing to go to work on the steels with a rock and rusty file, which seemed to do the trick.
Day two was more of the same, except that Voss must have taken pity on me and decided to get lost on a timed section, earning a pretty hefty penalty. We all made it back safe and sound, finishing with the traditional grasstrack race for the last special test.

 

That's Voss, #119. He clearly ran wide because the sight of a bike that doesn't stop and can't turn coming right at him scared him off the tight line, which meant I got the hole shot and held the lead for approximately 3 seconds until he flew past me...followed by Max....then pretty much everyone else.

Max got another gold and some good points, Voss' penalty cost him enough that I got my first Gold and ISDT 1st, with him and George close enough behind they both got silver. We finished out the weekend with an incredibly refreshing wash and sit in the nearby creek and it was back in the van to sunny ol' Florida.