Jacob911.com

August 20^th marked the first day back in Lucerne for me in over a month.  It felt awesome to be in a place that I consider a home.  Ed had to get some work done around the house on Saturday, so I followed my dad out in the Off Road Support truck. Joining me was my friend and club member Levi Jones who is moving to Pomona to go to school.

Levi and I followed my dad and the drive went pretty smooth. We arrived at North Anderson around 4 pm, and quickly unloaded the bikes to go for a ride.

It was great to be back in the desert on a 450. I love this bike and the EFI, and I really feel like I am fast on it. We screwed around for a bit and went to a place I call “Jake Rock” which is virtually a goat trail down a rocky mountain in the middle of Johnson Valley. It is too far to get to with a trailer, so it generally never has anyone around.

Saturday morning we woke up early to have a “garage sale” out of the Off Road Support Rig. It went over pretty well, and we basically cleaned out garage out of some of the items that we really won’t be using anymore. A few older rims and plastic and even some of the gear that I wore a couple times were sold.

This was fun and it allowed me to share my Endurocross stories with people who I didn’t even know. I love being at the District 37 events because everyone is so nice and we always have someone that wants to talk. As the day went on, I saw a lot of my friends and eventually sanders showed up. Once he got there my parents had some help around, and me and the guys went for a ride. We took a trip out to Cougar Buttes and really got ready for Sunday!  I ran the bomb a few times and felt comfortable that I had the best line.

Saturday night my club, the 100’s, had a meeting and a potluck and we called it an early night.

I woke up about 530 am on Sunday, and placed my bike on the line with my dad. Ed finally showed up and moved the Off Road Support truck over to pit row, and we were ready to rock and roll.

On one side I had club member Rob Kraft, and to the other I had a couple members of the checkers.  I was surprised to see that Kendal, Quinn, Burson, and all the faster guys were on the left leaving me to the right by myself.  When the banner dropped, however, I was gone and it didn’t matter who was around me.

At the bomb I tucked in right behind Quinn Cody. I could tell that Kendall Norman was out front, but I just tried my best to keep up.  I have been training really hard all summer, so I figured that even if I didn’t get those guys early, I would get them at the last 20 miles of the race.  Apparently Kendall checked out, and Quinn and I were left to battle for 2^nd and 3^rd overall. It was hard because I felt like Quinn would pull me in the tight stuff while I was stuck in his dust, but every time it opened up I knew that I was gaining ground on him.

Into the pits it was Kendall, then Quinn, then Me. They said that Kendall had about a minute on us, and with the lappers I was determined to gain that back. Speaking of lappers, I had a chuckle when I passed Sanders and our friend Gen Lourenco about 5 miles in on our second loop. Ryan was following her on her first long race, and apparently they saw me coming after she had crashed and decided to cheer me on as I passed.  After I got around them, it was all business as a couple quads stood between me and Quinn Cody.

It was about 5 miles later that I got Quinn on a sandy valley crossing before check two. One around him I set my sights on Kendall and actually almost caught him.   Into check four they said I was only a couple seconds down. I was going so fast, that if I was any faster I wouldn’t have been able to stop! It was an incredible feeling and I was excited to be out there with some of the fastest racers on the planet.

Down the final hill and into the finish I got a little confused. I saw the finish, but the flag man pointed me to the pits! I ended up missing the finish shoot and heading the wrong way. I quickly turned around and finished about 15 seconds back of Kendall. He is one of the fastest guys out there, and if he is the one to beat me, then I am happy to say that I was right behind him at the end.

Quinn Cody finished 3^rd, followed by my friend Nick Burson in fourth. A weird thing happened with Ryan Kudla and Justin Imhof came down the last hill side by side. Justin was leading, but the flag man pointed him into the pits like he had done for me, Kudla was also pointed that way, but he went to the finish.

It looked like Kudla was first to the Checkers, but we later found out that Imhof was credited with 5^th because it was the course workers error. So Kudla took 6^th and Justin and I sat down to talk. He is going to help me prepare for a WORCS race that I am doing next month, so we quickly changed from Desert to Track before I could even think about what we were saying.

I would like to thank Kawasaki of Simi Valley, Kawasaki Team Green, BRP, FMF, IMS, TBT Racing, Scotts, Dirt Digits, Rekluse, Moose, 661, Pro Moto Billet, and Fastway for helping me out with all of my racing this year.

Additionally thanks again to my club, the 100’s, who without my racing success would not be possible. And finally as always, Special thanks to my Dad, Steve, and Mechanic Ed who spend more time than is imaginable to make sure that I have the best equipment week in and week out.

My next race will be in September at the Lost Coyotes/Shamrocks race weekend in Red Mountain, Ca.

Jake - jacob911.com