My “Managing Director of ATV Remobilisation” (or rather my pit bitch Phil), and I went up to the enduro track near Andover on Saturday afternoon. We parked up my race truck and after a good bit of catching up with a few of the racers from last year, we went and walked the track.
The track was a very fast track with lots of open loose dirt field edges, with a mixture of open woods, but with some tight lines and rough terrain. The ground was fairly smooth to start, but it was obvious that it would quickly be torn up into a rutty and rocky track.
We went back to the truck and did some final quick checks on the quad then it was time for the usual pre-race bacon butty marathon. 3 packs of bacon and a loaf of bread later, we were stuffed! We then had a more then a few beers with the race team from Exmoor, before it was time to retire to the truck to watch a DVD and get our heads down.
It was the morning of the race and it was an early start by signing on, getting the quad through scrutineering, setting up our pit area, getting changed in to my race gear etc etc. Before I knew it, I was on the start line and waiting for the flag to drop.
The flag dropped and the 525 started on the button, but I was slightly held up by a slow starter on the front line. In to the first corner I stuck to the clear outside line (the race is 3 hours long and there is no point in crashing in the first corner by trying to gain just a few places) and pulled away in the top 15. The 525 was awesome in the rough sections, whilst also pulling very well on the open sections. On the first lap, it was exceptionally dusty due to the dry earth sections – I sped into a dusty section, looking for a turn into a long wood section, when all of a sudden, out of the dust came 4 quads towards me (they had overshot the turn in the dust). Once the dust cleared a little, there was a pile up of more than 5 quads and I was stuck on the wrong side of it. After a short time the hold up cleared and I was back on the track, but the leaders had a good minutes head start on me now.
I always love a fight, so I kept my head down and gave the track all the 525 had. The track got rougher and tougher with each lap, but the 525’s rear IRS soaked up the ruts and the 525 was competitive with everything in its sights on the open sections. Before I knew it, it was just over half way through the race and it was time to pit – I had a quick pit for fuel with essential help from Phil, and I was back out on to the track.
Going was getting harder with each lap, and it became apparent that although I thought I was fit, I wasn’t race fit. This meant that each rut, tree stump and rock started to take it out of me, as I don’t mind admitting, I was starting to get truly knackered. The dust in some sections was so thick, most sane people would have slowed down to a walking pace, but racing removes all sense of logic so it was flat out as usual, but I did slightly over shoot some turnings which lost me a few vital seconds each time. I also sped down into a steep overgrown bomb hole and the quad stalled at the bottom – I spent about 45 seconds trying to start her again, before I realised that the overgrowth had pulled the kill switch out – how stupid did I feel!
At the end of the 3 hours I rolled in in 19th, with the other 525 just 3 seconds in front of me in 18th. 3 pesky seconds – hey ho, that’s racing for you. Overall the 525 was awesome – completely different riding from the fixed rear axel that I’m used to, and with some practise, training and suspension tweaking, I sure I’ll be able to improve with each race.
Pete Day