Twas a brisk , misty morning, felt about 10 degrees colder than home so Tanna and I were well under dressed and I was a little worried about the lack of warm riding kit I had packed. Nevertheless we busied ourselves with pre race routines and wasn't long before we were heading up to the start, which was a short ride that drove home the fact that I hadn't ridden the big 450 four stroke since the last national about a month ago. Didn't feel comfortable at all.
A chilly, highveld winter morning
I was again lined up alongside Ian, my team principal. We have our own little challenge going which often leads to some good scrapping out on the trails. I am 5-2 ahead in that little fracus, with all the pre-race banter and trash talk the pressure is always on. Time to move into position, adjust goggles, give Ian a last knowing look of domination, flag drops, "Clunk" bike stalls...WTF !!!
Ian shoots off, not to be seen again till the end. Crap! 5-3 is the score already and I haven't left the start line yet, "frickking amateur". Hit the starter button, bike in gear, lurches forward. Try neutral. No - bike lurches again and then again. Never occured to me in my haste to grab a hand full of clutch!
My niece Tanna - getting into bikes and racing at a young age!
Time to get off and move out the way for the next group, off to the side try and stay calm while all the 100 or so spectators all seemed to be looking at me and taking pics and I just knew the T.V. camera man was lapping this up... "What people! Never seen a guy stall on the start line before?" Clearly not ! Battery is now flat, bike still wont take. Flustered now, kick kick kick kick. "Start you Bastard !!!!"
Finally, off I trundle. Knew if i had to gun it and vent my anger I would bin it properly in the first corner, so just kept it tidy until the spectators thinned and then got down to business. The courses for this Inland Off-road series offer a good mix of everything from rocks, tight twisties, flat out 140 kmph sections, mud, dust you name it. So it is a really cool bit of saddle time. I started to get a good rhythm going and rode hard, really enjoyed getting the bike sideways into fast corners, flicking the back against the outside berm and punching out. Starting to get the hang of that, and it really makes a big different to your times if you can maintain good corner speed in these fast Off-road races.
Igor getting some air-time on the big Four-fiddy
The race wore on and everything went smooth apart from a little incident where I only saw a whoop at the last second and hit it under braking. Kicked my ass so high in the air - never ridden a bike doing a handstand before...styling!
After 200km of racing I felt remarkably fresh. Got stuck into the cooler box for a little larger action to drown out the chatter from the team members. A cool days riding after a epic balls-up at the start, defiantly not my finest moment in motor sport.
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