It rained all night again and was a swamp as usual. On the line, I picked the farthest line out to get out of the mud. I was repositioning my quad while they were firing off the lines in front of us. I put it into reverse backed into my spot and then back into high. I shut down the motor and fired it again when the next line took off. I blipped the throttle and went backwards, not good, the indictor light still said "R" but the shifter was in "H". I quickly ripped off the side panel and the shifter linkage bolt and nut had seperated. Can't find the nut so I left the linkage hang and shifted it into "H" by hand. I just hoped we wouldn't need reverse that often.
We roared off the line and as I can acrossed the field "The Rookie" was in the lead. The turns were all full of mud and he took his time and negotiated them perfectly. I, on the other hand had a heck of a time steering in all the mess. Kevin spun out a couple of times in front of me and recovered quickly. I managed to pass the other Can-Am rider in the last straight away and it was Jordan, CLiff, Kevin, Dan, and then me entering the woods. On the very first uphill, only 1/10 of a mile into the woods, going up a big uphill with waterbreaks in it, Dan comes to a stop in front of me and I quickly shoot around him. As soon as I straighten out, Kevin's quad comes to a stop and I manuever around him. I am about 50 feet behind Cliff when I see trouble ahead. A wolverine is stuck between the trees and there are two quads behind him. I start looking for a place to duck into the woods and before I can react, this guy on the Can AM, throws it in reverse and pegs the throttle. His reverse limiter was disconnected and he hit me at full speed in reverse alonf with my 30 mph of forward motion. It crushed the right side of my frame and shove the upper a-arm in over top of the differential. I didn't even look at it, I yelled a few things to him and off I went. I knew it was steering hard but I was concentrating on catching the other two guys. I was having a really hard time getting through the woods but I pressed onward.
I hit the motocross track and shot off the tabletop and I could see Jordan up ahead, CLiff had already gottne around him. I landed and hit a couple of hard turns and felt the engine stumble. I knew something was wrong. I kept it pinned and roared down past the pit and that is when I knew something was wrong. Ryan, our pit guy was standing there pointing at the right side of my quad as I went by. At the next hard right I leaned over and looked at it. The top of it was leaning in about 6 inches. I knew it was going to be a long race like this but was up for the challenge. I pushed through 3 more field turns and the engine finally let loose about 50 feet from where Kevin's quad was sittin dead with no transmission. I turned around after pulling my helmet off and there was Dan, he couldn't make it up the big hill because he broke the yoke that the rear u-joint goes into. I continued taking off my chest protector and the niext thing I know an Can-AM pulls in behind me with his front end a mess, he was the last rider in our class and was out of the race also. I just happened to be sitting in front of his pit. With 4 of us out of the race in 1 lap. Jordan had the rest of the day to himself. I really liked the fact that I only had to do 1 lap to claim third place and he had to do all the laps to get second. Congrats Jordan.
I did get to see my son, Doug, come roaring by on his Mongoose 300. We put his engine kit from PowRoll in last weekend and it was working perfectly. He was in 9th place, this was his best showing all season. I got pulled back to the pits quickly and waited on him to come by to cheer him on but he never showed. I talked with Cliff (Can AM) when he stopped at his pit up from us and he told me he was fine and that he was broke down. He hit a tree and turned his right side tierod into a boomerang. I tried straightening it this morning with a sledgehammer but it won't budge. He must have been really moving when he caught that one. Better luck on the next one for the Kymco Team!!!
