Well, another race over and it is break time from the GNCC. Here is how it all went down this
past weekend at the Geico Mountain Ridge GNCC.
I arrived early on Friday morning seeing as how it was a Holiday and I didn’t have to work. We got our pits all set up and then the work begins. Kevin had some new tires, Dirt Commanders, for me to try out this race so I went to work on breaking down my old ones and getting them mounted up on my beadlocks. By the time I got them done, Rodney Baker had convinced Kevin to let him run a set of Afterburn tires on his quad. Four more tires to go. But these were a real pain in the butt to mount up. They were on Hiper wheels and getting the tires over the rims on those things is a challenge in itself. As soon as I was about finished with those, Mr. Holeshot (Jordan), finally decides to show up at the track. They act like they live a long way away for some reason. His dad, Kent, brings me over project #3. It is a rear differential that the bearing went out on. We spend the next 45 minutes pulling pinions, seals, and replacing bearings. Soon after that we had a quick photoshoot with GBC Motorsports for their website. Then its dinner and bedtime.
Saturday morning, cool and drizzling rain, but looks to be a great day for racing, no dust and no heat. We fire off the line and there he is again, Mr. Holeshot himself to the left of me. I wonder if I will ever be able to beat this guy. Through the turns it is Jordan, myself, and the top two Can-Am riders. They manage to get around me in some kickers in the field but I hold fourth. Soon after they out horsepowered Jordan and got around him. We were heading down a long downhill field section and I could hear a Kymco breathing behind me. Just then, Kevin comes strolling by me in the kickers. I just don’t like hitting those things at high speed like that until I get comfortable with the track, for some unknown reason, he doesn’t hold back. I actually think he has hit his head one to many times. Now I am in fifth. We head out into the woods and hit the big rock sections. Kevin and I are having flashbacks of our quad terrain days with Arctic Cat as we a beating the snot out of these Kymcos on the rocks. I am not sure but we may have even bumped each other a few times. Soon after that, Kevin was able to get around Jordan. I followed him for the longest time and was able to get by him with a quick stealth like maneuver that I have been working on. Immediately after I see a faint glow of red beneath the mud on my dash, my engine is overheating. I stop at the end of the rocks and rip the Duct Tape on the grill off that I was using as a shield and take off again. Soon after in the high speed fields, the light went out. Into the finish on Lap #1, Kevin and I are rubbing tires in the turns. These are the kind off races I love.
We took off on Lap #2 and we start down over the first hill and Kevin pulls over and lets me by. I am sure it was because he realized that he was only slowing me down not because he ripped off one of his floorboards like he told me. C’Mon Kev. Everything was going great into the lap when that darn light came on again, this time it stayed on for the entire lap. At the finish line, I took goggles and told Jordan’s dad, Kent, of the problem and took off. I was running well but could smell the engine getting hotter, and towards the middle of lap #4, I knew I was in trouble. I could feel the power loss in the engine, especially on the uphills. I was probably about the 8 mile mark when the engine finally started to die out and I pulled over. Within minutes, Dan, came strolling by with a huge grin on his face. I continued working on my quad trying to figure out my my fan wasn’t running, but couldn’t find any problems. I took off my gear and popped the radiator cap. I dumped the gatorade and water mixture into the radiator and as quick as it went in, it came back out. It looked like Mt. St. Helens erupting. Smoke was shooting 8 feet in the air and smoke was also rolling out of the exhaust pipe. I know what you are thinking, this was a new one for me too. After about 7-8 minutes I tried starting it and it fired up, I quickly threw on my gear and took off. Very little power but it was running. I was able to catch up with Dan who had ripped off an upper a arm after he went by me. I started up one of the last hill climbs and it started rattling badly and trying to die, I threw it into low range and that seemed to help. Needless to say, I made it to the finish line and actually was supposed to do one more lap, but had to pull off. Kevin and Jordan were both sitting there with floorboards ripped off and Dan came strolling in behind me with his front tire barely hanging on. The only Kymco to come out of the race unscathed was my son’s Mongoose 300. Back to the shop and we will get rebuilt and ready for the next brutal stop on our tour, Snowshoe, W.Va.
Have a nice break...........See you in September.....................Ken
