Race Venue: Wilkesboro NC
Series: SE&TRA Bootlegger Enduro
I headed down to the track on Saturday the 4th so I could get
signed up and make any last adjustments to my bike. I arrived at
about 4 o'clock pm and proceeded to find Chris Gosselin (a friend
who said I could stay with him). I found him sleeping in his camper
so I woke him up to let him know I had arrived. We then walked up
to scoring and signed up for the race the next day. I signed up for
A 250 considering this was my first enduro, and I had no clue what I
was doing. We had reserved row 18 (which I heard was a good row)
and some of the other NC guys had signed up for row 19. We headed
back to the camper to start setting everything up. After that we
had to put our numbers, scorecards and silencers on our bikes. I
usually just run a fmf titanium silencer but I had to switch to a
fmf by ktm silencer because it included the spark arrestor and was
required to run this series.
We waited around till about 7 o'clock when the other guys finally
arrived and then started to cook some dinner. I had this chicken
alfredo stuff that I always make the day before the race and the
other guys had burgers and brats. We sat around for the next couple
of hours talking about the track and past race stories. This enduro
was going to be around 30 miles (shorter than most enduros) of
single track, open roads, paved roads, roots, rocks, uphill’s,
downhill’s, and off-camber sections. Everything sounded exactly
like where I ride, and I was excited about the next day. We all
decided to call it a night since our race started at 9:18 (since we
are on the 18th row) the first row going off at 9:00 AM
When we woke up it was a little chilly but the forecast was 75
and sunny so we were all wearing sweatshirts. I suited up and
headed to the line around 9:00. 18 minutes later and we were off.
The first section was really good stuff, a little single track, some
open roads; I was totally digging this enduro stuff. I came to the
first check 7 minutes late and was a little disappointed. I talked
to some of the guys I was ridding with while we waited for our next
section to begin, and they told me that no one comes on time
anymore. Then I saw Bryan Henson and asked him how many minutes he
“dropped” and he said around 5 so I felt a little better. As the
race went on I felt more and more comfortable in this new style
racing but loved the way it was set up. I complete the last 3
sections totaling up to 30 miles about 10 minutes late. I turned my
scorecard in at the finish and waited until everyone had finished.
As it turned out I finished 1st in A 250 and something around 6th
overall. I dropped 17 minutes and the top AA riders were around
13-14.
The trail was perfect I couldn’t have asked for a better day, my
Kenda tires worked great in the soft virgin soil. My Fastway/PMB
handgurads made it easy for me to squeeze through the tight
single-track sections, and my Fasst Co flexx barrs worked hard in
absorbing all the breaker bumps on those long down hills. Results
can be seen at
www.setra.org/results.htm, also Chris Gosselin rode behind me
with a helmet cam that can be seen later on this week at
www.p2profile.com under off-road and then weekly
videos. Please check both of these sites out. Thanks again for
your support in 08 and now 09.
Seth Miller #27
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