Orofino Endurocross Race Report

First off, sorry for the delay in getting another post up. Life has been extremely busy between work, racing, training and maintaining any form of a social life. Early mornings and late nights are the norm to juggle working 40 hours a week at my engineering job plus a full time race schedule. A typical day involves getting up around 6am, biking to work by 7:30am. Get off work at 4pm, pedal my bicycle home hopefully before 5pm (12km with grades up to around 10-12%). Have a quick dinner, then go dirtbiking. Get home from that sometime around 9pm, clean up the bike and riding gear, then clean up my basement suite, check my email and maybe chill out for a bit before finally hitting the sack sometime between 11 and 12. Then get up in the morning and do it all over again. On non-ride days I'll lift weights and/or go for longer bicycle rides plus spend more time doing dirt bike maintenance. It's a busy schedule, but I enjoy it and really hope to improve my race results. Which leads me to the past couple weekends...

Let's back track a few weeks to May 8th. I had heard on the internet about the Orofino Endurocross and a rumoured $7000 pro purse. That peaked my interest so my girlfriend, Victoria Hett, drove over from Keremeos Friday afternoon, then together we drove from my place in Rossland down to Orofino, Idaho. Victoria's dad, Rob, and brother, Malcolm, had drove down earlier in the day and had the trailer all set up by the time we arrived sometime after 11pm. Malcolm said the course looked pretty gnarly which worried me a little bit. After a restless night's sleep, Victoria and I got up early (6am) and headed over to check out the track. The course was muddy, with big logs, a couple water pit crossings, rocks, tires, an over/under section and a race through the pig barn. Crazy! While being pretty gnarly, the course was still rideable. My worries subsided and we headed back to the trailer for breakfast and bike maintenance.

We ate then spent the morning swapping tires and finalizing bike prep. After that we took the trucks with bikes and gear over to the field adjacent to the track and setup our pit area. We were parked next to Derek Mahoney and Mike Metzger! With our bikes prepped and pits setup we went and got signed up for the race - Malcolm and I in pro heavyweight (I decided to try the pro class even though I usually race the A class), Rob in Vet and Victoria in amateur heavyweight. After sign-up I helped Tory get her new steering stabilizer installed before the riders' meeting at 12:30pm. Practice started at 1:00pm but my practice wasn't until 3:30pm. I spent most of the time though watching the other practices to try to figure out lines.


When my practice finally came around, I was excited to check out the course. Some guys decided to race during practice but I just spent it trying out various lines and making sure my bike was setup correctly. My arms pumped up really bad in practice so I pulled off after 4 laps, instead of the usual 5. Endurocross is probably the most physically intense form of motorcycle racing. It's a full out sprint with no breaks that absolutely saps all your energy. I figure 1 lap of an endurocross track at race pace is similar to about an hour of a normal harescramble.

After practice I had a few hours to wait for my heat race. They ran all the amateur qualifiers but waited until the night show for the pro qualifiers. In Pro Heavyweight there was 20 racers, with only room for 15 in the main event. That meant finishing 7th or better in the heat to transfer directly. The other 6 would go to the LCQ for a shot at the main event. They did a supercross style start (no gate though, just a flag) complete with 30 second board girl. In my heat race the big name was Mike Metzger. Off the start I was 4th or 5th, but over the first elevated log section I locked handlebars with another guy and went down. My bike did a 180 and was facing backwards on top of the logs and tires. I restarted dead last with approximately a straight away separating me from the 9th place guy. I put my head down and did my best to catch up. In the 5 lap qualifier I managed to catch 2 guys, putting me in 8th place. One place short of a qualifying position. Damn it! Kyle Joiner (American racer who's done many PN races) won the heat, Metzger came 2nd and I'm not sure where everyone else finished. In the other Pro Heavyweight heat, Derek Mahoney won it while Malcolm came in a solid 4th or 5th, even beating pro supercrosser Cole Siebler. Both Victoria and Robb also rode well in their qualifiers to transfer directly to their main events.

After a bunch more qualifiers, the Pro heavyweight LCQ finally came around. I had first starting position pick so I went slightly to the inside to hopefully avoid getting t-boned off the start. After laughing my ass off watching a bunch of guys run around the track in boots, helmets and carrying handlebars for $50, it was time for the LCQ. The flag dropped, I spun out and ended up in 3rd off the start. I quickly moved into 2nd place then set my sights on catching 1st in this quick 3 lap LCQ. I bobbled once in the pig barn so 1st got about a 4-5 second gap on me. On the second lap I took an alternate line through some logs, then coming into the rock section I was suddenly on the ground. The guy in 3rd decided to ram me, punting me off the bike into the rocks and mud. I remounted behind him with muddy gloves and slippery grips. I charged after him to return the favour but had issues gripping the bike. I rolled around to a disappointing 3rd place finish in the LCQ and not transferring to the main event. The 2nd place guy tried to justify his take out move, but I just ignored him. I was pissed off and figured I better not do anything dumb while in another country.

With my night over, I got changed then went to cheer on Tory, Robb and Malcolm in their main events. Unfortunately, Tory tangled with a guy in her race and had bike issues resulting in her DNFing. Robb rode really well in his main to finish 8th in a very competitive vet main event. In the Pro Heavyweight main event Malcolm had a terrible start but managed to work his way through the pack to finish in the top 10. The story of Orofino was all Derek Mahoney as he absolutely dominated both Pro main events to take home the lion's share of the pro purse. Mahoney put on a clinic of how to race endurocross. I studied up and will hopefully be ready for another go on July 17/18 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.