Anaheim, Edison International Stadium
Clear Channel Entertainment
Pro-Quads 2003, Round 2
We live in California. Most of you already know that. Our part of California is officially the 'Northern' part. Some people think that 'Northern' California is San Francisco. It's not. We are closer to 'Extremely Southern Oregon but in California' California. To demonstrate this I will recap the weather changes from our front yard all the way to Anaheim. When we left our house in Eureka at 2 in the afternoon, it was raining, 40 mph winds and about 50 degrees. When we landed in San Francisco approximately 1 hour later, it was high overcast with occasional spots of blue, and about 68 degrees with a light wind. When we landed in Anaheim, at dusk, it was 74 degrees, and felt like an oven when we walked into the tunnel that leads from the airplane to the terminal. This should accurately demonstrate the diversity of Southern, Mid and Extreme Northern California for those of you who are unfamiliar with our remote location in Extreme Southern Oregon but still in California.
It was a welcome change to feel the Sun again. Angel Stadium (it will always be Angel Stadium to me... Edison International Field? it just sounds wrong) is a great place to race. Dana made the 14 hour drive from our house to the stadium on Tuesday evening, hauling not only his bikes but Mike Walsh's and a toy for Curtis Sparks. He met up with Nick Nelson and plans to hang out at his place for the next few weeks while he is racing, training, and playing around in Southern California. Mike Walsh made his first trip to California and hooked up with the guys Saturday morning for the trip to the track. Grandpa Jim and Grandma Charlotte Creech also made the long drive to attend Rounds 2 & 3. Greg & Chris Cain also made it to Round 2. Greg and Skip got to catch up on the season so far, and when Greg and Skip took off to do whatever Dad's do when we aren't watching them, Dana and Tavis took their seats. Is this a view of the future??
First things first. We set up pits and teched early way before last call (woo hooo! that's two in a row Jimmy!) Practice began at 10 or so and we were in the second set. The track was considerably more interesting than St Louis. First there was an interesting start/finish line on a table top. From the start line there was a hairpin turn to the right leading to a fast straight with a roller at the end and a hard uphill left to the 'hill' section of jumps. The hill section ended with a downhill sweeper leading into the 'way fast' section of two long straights with only one small roller to take some speed out. At the end of the back straight was a hard left turn that led back to the start/finish line. First practice went well and we lined up for our second turn. I was a little nervous watching Dana do the hill section because I noticed his left wheel seemed a bit off-center when he was in the air. To me it looked like he had bent his axle. I flagged our mechanic (Skip) down and warned him of my suspicions. He told me that it was the aluminum TT axle that was flexing and simply doing it's job. Jeremy from RPM had made the journey from Arizona to watch this race. He dragged his incredibly beautiful and charming better half (Kara) along with him and a couple of friends that had never been to the races before. Jeremy and Skip were observing how well the axle was performing by flexing just enough to keep both wheels on the ground in corners and on the flat. Those aluminum TT axles are so light that I can pick it up comfortably with one hand. The only concern we had was the fact that that aluminum axle was not designed to be used in track conditions like this race. Normally an aluminum TT axle is used on flat ground with only moderate rollers. They can withstand 45 tons of pressure in a vice so the thought is that they could be used in the situation we were subjecting it to. So far so good.
Just before we were to go back out for our second practice, they watered the track. Since we were running Hoosiers, and we had no intention of going for a major pressure wash after practice, we wisely chose to go to the back of the line. In fact pretty much everyone with Hoosiers on did the same. What a relief it was to see the guys with MX setups come off with mud from head to toe. This meant there was less of it out there to mess us up. Gee thanks!
Second practice started out good with Dana dicing it up with Tavis Cain and Mike Walsh. Josh Frederick and Jeremy Schell also had some good track battles. You would think they were racing out there. The flagman gave the white flag on practice, and Dana was coming around on the back straight when he went over the little roller and his axle snapped. He tried to rodeo ride it out but there was not way to control the bike at high speed on three wheels and half an axle. There was traffic behind him and the wheel that broke off had nearly beat him down the straightaway. He aimed toward the side of the track where there were plastic covered barriers. They looked just like the one that he tagged in St Louis; you know the ones with foam underneath. However, these were plastic over concrete. He tagged that concrete head on, bending his left A-Arms, ripping his AC Racing Stadium bumper off the bike, munching his Rath Sway bar, and folding his right nerf bar in half. He jammed his thumb and banged his knee hard enough to puff it up. And he was madder than a hornet. Not at the axle bending, we knew it was borderline using a TT axle on this track. He was ticked that he hit concrete and probably took himself out of the race for the day.
We towed what was left of his beautiful quad into our pits and took inventory. Option 1: go home (NOT). Option 2: ride his practice 250R - not a good choice either for a couple of reasons: a- he hadn't practiced all that much on it lately, and b- the engine needed to be refreshed before racing. Option 3: fix the one we had.
Option 3 it was. Everyone pitched in. Mike, Skip, Grandpa Jim, Dana, Wayne Mooradian, Jeremy Young, and several other people who I am not sure who they were helped out. Even Kara helped out; you never know when you will need a good pit girl. I supervised the action (since my mechanic skills are limited to holding the brake on when asked). Thank goodness that we had the best in the business ready to help out. Not only is Mike Walsh our teammate but he is also our frame builder. Jeremy works at RPM and he was ready to get his hands dirty. Wayne Mooridian stepped up and made things happen as well. Then we have Skip and his father, Jim Creech, who both have an entire lifetime of collision repair to pull from- read: fixing bent cars in various states of disrepair. They took the A-Arms into the trailer and turned Jim loose on them. I heard a lot of pounding and a bit of 'verbal' observations coming from the inside. Luckily Jim was able to straighten out those beefy Walsh A-Arms enough to make them reasonably usable. After Jim got done adjusting the A-Arms he began on the Rath Sway bar that was munched as well. Jim has a good sense of metal and was able to true both parts out pretty nicely. In the meantime, Mike had attached the Laeger designed 250R nerf bar onto the Walsh frame. As many of you are aware this took considerable alterations to achieve. Wayne, Skip and Mike went into the careful measurements to determine ballpark geometry with the adjusted A-Arms. This sounds like it only took a few minutes to do, but in fact they worked non stop from 11 am until qualifier time at 6 pm. All through the pit party where we met so many great SoCal people the work went on. And on. And when it was deemed 'finished' Skip still obsessed (it's in his nature you know), and re-tightened everything and then cleaned it and well, obsessed. Dana even had time to chill with some of the SoCal fans that cruised the pits.
Qualifiers began at 6. Dana was in the second qualifier, with Tavis Cain, Darrell Patton and Daryl Rath and a few other guys that I didn't know. Qualifiers are run to determine how many riders will make it to the main. Then they run in a Heat race that determines starting position in the main event. Since there were a lot of riders in SoCal; a lot of high caliber riders, it was going to get rough and we all knew it. Dana had pole position for his qualifier. I am not exactly sure how it happened but somehow Darrell Patton ended up shoving front tire under Dana's rear tire in the hairpin corner. Dana went down hard1,2,3. By the time he got it back together, he was LCQ material, he had some quality practice time his qualifier. Tavis took the lead in this qualifier and the win.
Mike Walsh's heat started out bad as well. He got hooked up; literally. It took six full size guys giving it everything they could to unmate those two quads. Luckily for Mike, someone (or a couple of someones) had jumped the start and they restarted the qualifier after Mike. Mike's second start was much nicer. He cruised easily to the win in his qualifier. Kory Ellis and Keith Little also won their qualifiers.
LCQ was kind of stressful (duh, it's the last chance - that's why they are stressful). There were nearly 20 riders all looking for the top two positions to make it into the main. Dana knew it would be tough, and he had to start in the second row. The lights changed and the pack was off with Dana working toward the inside line. There was a huge pile-up in the first corner; no one fell off their bikes, they just all wedged together like cord-wood. Dana narrowly avoided the mess by taking the hard inside line with a few other guys following his lead. He passed the leader and took off to lap about half the riders before the end of the moto.
There were two Heats to determine start position. Dana was in Heat 1 with Kory Ellis, Daryl Rath, Tavis Cain, Mike Walsh, and every other seriously fast guy other than Keith Little, Josh Frederick and Jeremy Schell that were together in the second Heat. Kory, Dana and Mike ended up trading spots throughout the heat in one of the best races of the night. At the checkers it was Kory, Dana and Mike leading the pack. Jeremy Schell had the hard luck night of all hard luck nights. He started out good, dicing it up with Josh Frederick. He ended up off that hill area in between the hill and the stands. In fact this seemed to be a favorite landing area for a lot of the riders this day. I hear those garbage cans don't give much. I know one of the riders pitted next to us is going to be sore for a few days.
On my way out to the main event, I was stressing (hey, it's my job to stress - I'm a Mom!). Dana had a good start position, but the way his starts had been tonight, it might not be a good thing. Kory, Keith, Dana, Greg Stuart, Mike and Jeremy Schell made up the front row. Dana had drew the center of the line, and on this track the center was a very good position. Mike Walsh earned the holeshot, with Kory and Dana on his bumper and Keith, Jeremy, Tavis Cain, Josh Frederick, and Greg Stuart were very nearly on top of the front riders. That critical first corner and first lap very nearly decided the final five. The only unknown was all the other riders that made up the bulk of the race. Southern California had shown up with faster riders for this Pro-Am class that I have ever seen. The overall caliber of the rider was very high. I know a couple of guys were way excited to make the main event. I never take it for granted that we will make the main. It is quite an honor and a relief every time we qualify. Frank Batista, Robert McClure, and Scott Shaw were pitted next to us and made the main event. They were pretty wound up when it came time to take the line. But then everyone is. I caught Nick Nelson saying his prayers before the light turned. At least that's what I thought he was doing. When I asked Nick about this, he said he starts by sound, he just goes when the other riders do. Actually Nick was lucky to get out there. He had a major problem after qualifiers and finally found out, after trying any number of possible solutions, that his reed cage had grenaded. Anyway, there were a 24 riders in this main event. The fact that a lot of guys were way fast riders and then there were five or six scary fast riders in the front made for one of the most exciting races I have ever seen. There was the first group that separated themselves from the second group of really fast guys. The top six or so riders were in one fast clump, then the next four or five riders clumped, then there was a really big clump, and then there were a few guys that got bad starts or spun out or something. So basically there were four or five big races going on all at the same time. Since I couldn't watch everything all at once, I tried to focus on the key points for each little group. The problem was, there was too much action. The fans in Anaheim loved it. There was fast racing going through lapped traffic, and battles for position everywhere. I can honestly say that the people that were getting lapped were very courteous this time. Sometimes when one of the leaders comes around and laps someone, the rider being lapped thinks it's time to go for it, and ends up putting both the leading rider and himself in serious danger. The problem with this particular race is that there simply was so many riders on this tight track. Working their way through traffic has always been a scary place for the leading riders. Not only do they have to go fast, they have to predict where the riders behind them are and what the lapper will do when they figure out that there is race coming up behind them. To be fair, most of riders that make it into the main are the fastest guys on their local tracks. In fact getting lapped is probably something that has rarely if ever happened to them. The battle for first was tight. Keith held the lead by a narrow margin of inches between him, Kory and Dana all pushing and trying to find the niche that would put either of them into lead. These guys were running sometimes three across and most of the time two across at any given point in the track. If one guy makes even the slightest mistake or hesitation, he may take the other out, and probably more than one guy at the close quarters that they were running. By lap five, Dana had worked his way in front of Kory and was side by side with Keith challenging for the lead. Dana and Keith came down the hill wide open side by side with Dana on the outside. Keith didn't give on his line at all and when they went into the back straight, where Dana broke his axle earlier, he and Dana bumped stalling Dana's bike. Kory edged by Dana, but Dana quickly regained position with Kory and Keith was again just in front of them. Two laps to go, the leaders came around a clump of lapped traffic. In the switchback just before the finish line, Keith tried to avoid a lapper, who got a little squirrelly when he saw what was coming. Keith ended up stuck on one of the track poles. Kory took the inside line to get away from the lappers and Keith's pole dancing, and Dana went to the outside around the clump of lappers. Kory had lead and Dana was right with him. Again, side by side Kory and Dana fought for lead. Every second they flirted with taking each other out of the race completely, simply by their close proximity to each other. Literally this was a side by side dance with each one having a tire on the other all the way around the track for the final two laps. At the checkers it was Kory by inches over Dana. It was a good race. Keith finally had got himself off the pole and was trying to regain position, but he would not regain enough to put him on the podium. John Angel gets the 'never give up' award for the day. He stalled his bike when he and a couple of other riders had issues just before the finish line, where he bailed off the bike (it wouldn't start), and pushed his bike over the checkers. On podium was Kory with the win, Dana in second, Mike Walsh in third, Greg Stuart in fourth and Daryl Rath in fifth. Nice work gentlemen.
This race was so crazy I keep remembering little parts. For instance, Mike Walsh had spun out on the start and ended up working his way through the pack to finish third overall. He was pushing it to the extreme. Greg Stuart rode a smart race and stayed consistent all the way through the heats and the main. Just to tell you how crazy this thing is, there were riders everywhere off the track. Jeremy Schell had a good race going when he took the outside line on the hill, and with three riders across on the hill, Jeremy's line ended up between the hill and the bleachers. Trying to focus on one part of the race with so many other things happening around you is nearly impossible. I even had Frank Batista wipe-out and come to rest right behind me on the infield, but I didn't know until I turned around to watch the leaders and he was looking at me with a 'Oops' look.
The leaders were treated to interviews in front of the sold out crowd at Angel Stadium. After they were interviewed, they were given bottles of champagne to spray after everyone was done. Since Kory won he was the last to be interviewed, and unluckily the last to be given his bottle of champagne. The other guys had their bottles primed and ready to hose Kory. They did. Dana saved a little bit back for the trophy girls (note the other guys showering Kory, and Dana in the background working the unsuspecting objects of his attention). Mike Walsh made it on the Big Screen for the first time. Congrats to Mike on his first podium with CCE. And congrats to Greg Stuart on his continuing competitive career.
When Dana was interviewed, he took the time to thank his incredible sponsors (you can link directly to all of their websites right here), and also to take a minute to dedicate this series to his good friend, Matt Bartosek, who passed recently at much too young of an age. This season Dana will be running stickers on his bike and over the heart on his chest protector for Matt. Dana is also changing his nerf nets over to a more sane webbing system that AC Racing has already finished for him. See more about that in my next update.
As I followed the top five through the interior tunnels of the stadium and listened to them retelling war stories, I am at odds to explain just how competitive they can be with each other on the track and then laugh and smile and be good friends off. I can only say that the ATV community, both race and recreational, is a great place to be. The people are so awesome and the riders are like family.
After hanging out and waiting for our bikes to be released from quarantine (they keep the top 5 bikes in case of protest), we went to dinner. Mike, Daryl Rath, & Darrell Patton hung out with us.
We celebrated with Wayne Meridian, Kory and his wife Rebecca, Nick Nelson, Mike Walsh, Jeremy and Kara Young, and one of Nick's friends at a glamorous dinner at Denney's.
All in all, we are off to a great start and a wonderful year with the best sponsors in the industry and the best riding partners a guy could ask for.
Be safe, play hard and call your Mom,
Mom
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