The first national of the year was held basically in my backyard, at my local track in Fontana, CA. Don Jackson has been running races there for 15 years, and I’ve been racing there for around 8 of those years. Donny has always brought the family/good times atmosphere to his races, and the national was no exception to that.
The Team Houseman Racing rig pulled in on Wednesday afternoon, and settled into our normal spot that we always have during the local races. Luckily it ended up being right on the XC finish straight-away and right behind the 4X finish. Since I was the lone Yeti rider that weekend, and the Yeti trailer wasn’t showing up, THR was flying the flag for Factory Yeti! We set up next to the SponsorHouse motorhome, and made the pits one big compound with DT-Swiss right next to us.
Thursday was DH and 4X practice only, and I was really stoked with the layout of the DH course. It was every bit like some of the local races we’ve ran in the past, and I really felt like I could finish well. I went with my usual “Fontana Flyer” bike (ASX) and Larsen 2.35 rear tire. The famous “wall” section was once again included in the course at the finish, and you definitely need to roll fast for that! Practice was pretty good all day, and I felt like I’d dialed the course after my 3rd run. 4X was a pretty short course with times around 25 sec. There weren’t many obstacles to worry about and it was going to basically be a sprint from top to bottom. I did maybe 5 or 6 runs on the 4X and called it a day.
Friday was DH practice in the morning and 4X qualifying in the afternoon. My 2nd run on the DH course I flatted the rear, which scared me a little bit on running the single-ply Maxxis tires. I decided to just keep them on, and miss the rocks! 4X qualifying went pretty well, and I ended up 3rd. Jared Rando was 1st, and C-Dub was 2nd.
Saturday was 4X finals and DH practice during the afternoon. After 3 runs on the DH course I really felt like I was going well, and expected a podium finish. 4X finals started at 6:30 pm, and they only qualified 32 men into the finals. First round I got a pretty bad gate start and had to settle into 2nd the whole way down behind Des Curry. 2nd round I had Brian Schmith and Kirkaldie to deal with. I had lane choice and chose the very inside lane. Kirkaldie got out really good in lane 3 and cut me and Schmith off. Out of the 1st turn I was in 3rd but got a good drive on Schmith who was in 2nd. Going into the 2nd turn, Schmith left the door open on the inside and I shot in there. I made the pass stick and advanced to the semi-final along with Kirkaldie. The semi final I had Kirkaldie, Haderer, and McClendon. I chose lane 1 again and came out of the first turn in 2nd. I stayed there the whole way, and advanced to the final. In the final I had 2nd lane choice, but I chose lane 3 since Kirkaldie was beating me out of the gate every round! Rando was lane 1, KirKaldie 2, me 3, and Garrick Anderson 4. Out of the gate I was super late and ended up swinging really wide in the first turn. I got a good drive out of the first turn and was sprinting up the inside of Garrick, and Kirkaldie going into the 2nd turn. Garrick left the door open wide and I jumped to the inside of him. I thought I made the pass clean, with most of my body being by him. He got squirrelly in the air though, and ended up planting his foot right on my rear wheel upon landing. His foot taco’ed my rear wheel and sent me flying to the ground super hard. I was sliding on my belly before I even knew what happened. I slammed pretty hard and it rung my bell pretty good. Luckily I only came away with some stitches, and bruises, but I was way too sore to race the DH on Sunday. I was definitely bummed on not racing DH, as I thought I could do well, but I was pretty thankful to be walking around!
Next race is on the East Coast in North Carolina……see ya there!