Needmore XC Report

After last weekend's Wyco's Revenge I decided to take some time off.   I let stress and things outside of my control get the best of me.  I have a habit of doing that often and hopefully with letting go of some things I can get back to a more balanced fun life. 

Christopher and I headed to another round of the Midwest Off Road Events (MORE) this weekend.  A few weeks ago we raced at their NEBO Hill round and had fun.  The MORE series was really laid back and had different classes that we could compete in including Saturday and Sunday events.  They try to make it really family orientated and they have succeeded with classes for all including three different women's classes,  three different Pee Wee classes and even a 50+ division.

The Needmore XC race is held in Fair Play, MO.  A very small town east of Bolivar with a population of 475. The owner has a nice piece of property that has some nice sandy single track just like I like.  When I heard that the course was sandy I bought a ticket.  The one negative of sand is the dust if it does not rain which was the case on Saturday.  The local store brought out their water truck and was nice enough to water the start section which was very nice.  

I told Christopher before the event began that the start was very important if he wanted to do well.  The dust was going to be a huge factor.   He just installed a new Dunlop MX 51 and I passed along my lightning quick reflexes so he had no excuses. Me on the other hand had a worn out tire but I did have one advantage with a live engine start - another great idea by Steve Leivan. I really like the idea of live engine starts and wish all events would do this.  When the green flag flew I rolled on the throttle while releasing the clutch ever so gently and the result was no wheel slip and a sweet holeshot.

Poor Christopher must have gotten Carolynn's reaction genes as he ended up choking on a lot of dust after his start.  He did listen to me and took the outside when he did dump the clutch.   I told him if he got off the line poorly go to the outside because there would most likely be a crash on the inside. This indeed was the case so at least he did not start in dead last. 

The MORE series does things a little different than the Forward Motion series.  One of the things I really like is the finish line.  It is a little more open and you do not have to come to a complete stop while getting scored.  You slow down of course, but then you can get on your merry way without having to scrape your bars squeezing through a narrow set of posts and cones/  I have a bit claustrophobia so I dislike narrow spaces :-)

I got on the gas hard for the first lap and had clear sailing which was a big advantage.  I started catching the tail end of the Schoolboy  class on the first lap and it was very hard to see in the dust.  I was happy to clear them after about a half lap.

 Christopher put in a charge in the woods and rode hard.  He passed his way up to 6th place in the Sportsman Amateur class by the 3rd lap and even put in a 19 min lap on the final lap which was quicker than my 20 min  last lap!

The course was mostly sandy single track with a creek bed or two thrown in for good measure.  This course reminded me of some of the trails in Florida, especially the sandy whoops in the corners.   I had fun on the course and was able to cruise in for the win in the Sportsman Amateur 40+ class.  

Christopher paid for his effort after the race.  The 90 degree heat and his pace caused him to get sick after the race.  I guess he takes after me on that regard as I also have issues with heat.