Yavapai County Fairgrounds, Prescott AZ
May 13, 2000

For the first time in about 8 years, I raced in a motocross race again. The track was a small stadium type race and was narrow and short. There were a couple places to pass but basically it was a holeshot race where if you didn't get the holeshot or close to it, you weren't going to win. There were 14 quads in the first moto and 12 in the second (2 people got hurt in the first moto). The quads consisted of two 400EX's, I think a 300EX, about 5 Banshees, about 5 Honda 250R's, and of course my Suzuki was the only one (as anti-Suzuki owners would say, it's because there aren't any others running).

Moto #1
When I raced a long time ago, I always did really well on the starts and getting the holeshot. Well I guess I still got it cause I took the holeshot. For the first 4 laps (out of 5), I held the lead until I got passed by a 400EX. The guy was really out of control and sure enough, he flipped his quad going around a corner shortly after passing me. I passed him and then caught up to lap riders which was not a good thing because it was hard to pass and other riders were catching me. On the 5th lap I still had the lead but with a couple corners left, I was trying to pass more lap riders and I thought the 400EX had caught up and passed me to take 1st place and me in 2nd. But, according to the people who were watching the race, they say he never caught me and I got 1st.

I anxiously awaited the results and after about an hour, I saw a guy going to post them. He told me that the scorers had never scored a race before and screwed up all the results and they had no way to score the first moto. So, the second moto would determine overall finish. This did not make many people happy (at least those that finished towards the top). On the score sheet, it said that the reason they couldn't score the race was because the numbers were not visible enough which was not true because they were. If they couldn't read someone's number, then the rest of us shouldn't suffer. But then again, this wasn't the real reason for the results.

Moto #2
Once again I grabbed the holeshot going into the first corner (yes, that's Suzuki power for you) but as I was braking and turning, I slid sideways into the berm and came to a stop. Luckily I had the clutch pulled in and I didn't stall so I dumped it and took off but was barely beat into the second corner by a Honda 250R. I tried to pass him and I hit his back tire but I couldn't get the pass. During the first lap, the 400EX guy got by both of us (he knocked the 250R off the track) so I was in third. It stayed this way until the 4th lap when we caught up to lappers again and with a couple corners left in the race (which I didn't know at the time), I got tangled up with a lapper. He came into a corner slower than I wanted to and my front tire got lodged between his rear tire and fender. I had to jump off my quad and pull backwards to get our quads separated. Unfortunately I got passed by several quads and I knew I lost a couple positions. As I came to the finish line, they were waving the finish flag but it had only been 4 laps and it should have been 5. If I had known that, I probably wouldn't have been so aggressive trying to pass the lapper but I thought I had one more lap left and I wanted to at least catch 2nd place and hold off others behind me.

When the results were posted, I ended up in 6th place which wouldn't have been as bad if it was combined with my first moto's results. I was kind of bummed because I wanted a cheap trophy to put on my dresser. Oh well, I still had fun and it felt great to be racing again.