Vet261
PR Addict
Muddy Creek Report. Sorry long read but I had fun and it's fun to do this again!
Wow been 4 years since I've raced a Regional. Since then I've lost about 70lbs, turned 55, and switched to a 350! And also spent 2 years racing off-road so I can ride forever now (just not fast haha).
Good to be back at the races and see lots of familiar faces. Hung out a bit with newly minted AMA guy Willy Browning. Ran into Tollivers, but they were parked totally on opposite side of track from us. Of course Opligers there with all 3 of them racing. Saw Chad Reed around, Zach Osborne, Nicoletti. Cool to see those level of guys at the races just being normal folks.
Forecast was thunderstorms EVERY DAY Thursday through the weekend. Got there Thursday and got setup on the upper grassy hill area near signup/vendor row. Sold camper so just truck and trailer and no pit vehicle except our feet. Parked by a nice 50+ guy from Florida, and a huge Renegade rig rolled in and parked next to us. Tanner Dorman and his Dad, super nice and kid is a rocket -- look him up.
Hotel Thursday ran into Kenny Henry/wife/kid checking in. They are in room next to us LOL. Hotel of course is basically all racer families, Jeff Cernic in room a few down from us too. Kenny ended up parking right near us.
Friday for practice weather is totally fine. They put a bunch of sawdust on track in areas and really didn't disc it much at all, just left it like 3 inches of light prep which makes sense. Practice was awesome, track was really fun, jumps fun. We got 2 rounds of practice run through as the exact race order. Had a really weird issue Friday evening driving to dinner - I have two 35 gallon water tanks, they were both full and strapped in bed of my truck. We left hotel and turned onto street and heard a loud BOOM and then water pouring everywhere -- turns out the one tank turned a little bit and exploded! Literally the tank just burst open like an egg. So now was down to one 35 gal tank.
Saturday started out weather totally fine, and since no rain they prepped it deep. I was struggling with all the deep ruts and really struggled my first motos in 50 and 45. I was nervous, got arm pump, and just fought everything. Myself and Opliger were only Ohio peeps in 45 and 50.
Saturday goes on, lots of heat races of course....here comes the clouds....and rain....just steady rain with about 3 motos left in running order....then LCQs it's getting really bad out there. Now I'm sweating because 50+ is moto 3......
Sure enough they announce they are running right back into 2nd motos after LCQs and I have to race. I hurried up and installed hand guards, got 2 pairs of roll-offs ready, and had to race one of the worst mud races I've ever done. Some areas that had more sawdust were not horrendously bad...but other areas were almost impassable and it was the greasiest snot I've ever ridden in. Worse than the epic Wildcat Creek mudder of 2020. Shockingly, I was in 12th at one point and ended up 14th. Never crashed, never lost goggles. Some areas I was in 1st gear just trying to get through and not stall. Lap times nearly 5 minutes. I got lapped at the end thankfully so only did 4 laps and didn't have to ruin bike and me more. Took HOURS to wash bike, and water fill lines were backed up for hours also. Didn't get back to hotel until almost 9pm.
Saturday ended at moto 6, so I was 3rd moto Sunday morning. Kenny Henry was moto 2 in +25. We go out for our 2 laps of practice, and Kenny blows a hole in his front brake line! He scrambles around and actually finds someone with a spare front brake line and starts replacing it. I got ready for my moto, then came over and helped him bleed it out, and he took off and made it to the line right as the 2-card was going up. Crazy.
Track was still decently muddy Sunday morning from all the rain Saturday. They basically just dozered it as best they could but it was really soft and muddy in spots. Super deep ruts. Track kept getting better and they went out and kept fixing little areas during the day. It got so rough -- I forgot how crazy rough these regionals get.
I ended up 16th out of 30 in 50 and 18th out of 35 in 45. Opliger went 9th in 50 and 10th in 45. Kenny Henry had a bad start in +30 moto 2 and came from mid 20's to 8th. He went 1-8-1 for 3rd in 30+ and got 12th in +25. Ayden Tolliver had some tough motos but his laptimes were good. Really didn't watch a whole lot, just busy all day. Only really watched Open Pro-Sport.
You can see results here:
I had a blast! Yes it's crazy money but you just can't replicate the experience. I'm just not fast enough to get into LL, but had great races with guys and it was really fun. In 50+ there were 4 of us TIED going into the last moto and whoever beat who was the order we would finish overall! My only crash of the whole event was last moto of 45+. I was running 16th with 1.5 laps left and just slid out and fell over in a rut and 4 guys passed me before I could get going. I passed 2 guys back on the last lap to get 18th. That was one of the most fun motos of the whole weekend!
Wow been 4 years since I've raced a Regional. Since then I've lost about 70lbs, turned 55, and switched to a 350! And also spent 2 years racing off-road so I can ride forever now (just not fast haha).
Good to be back at the races and see lots of familiar faces. Hung out a bit with newly minted AMA guy Willy Browning. Ran into Tollivers, but they were parked totally on opposite side of track from us. Of course Opligers there with all 3 of them racing. Saw Chad Reed around, Zach Osborne, Nicoletti. Cool to see those level of guys at the races just being normal folks.
Forecast was thunderstorms EVERY DAY Thursday through the weekend. Got there Thursday and got setup on the upper grassy hill area near signup/vendor row. Sold camper so just truck and trailer and no pit vehicle except our feet. Parked by a nice 50+ guy from Florida, and a huge Renegade rig rolled in and parked next to us. Tanner Dorman and his Dad, super nice and kid is a rocket -- look him up.
Hotel Thursday ran into Kenny Henry/wife/kid checking in. They are in room next to us LOL. Hotel of course is basically all racer families, Jeff Cernic in room a few down from us too. Kenny ended up parking right near us.
Friday for practice weather is totally fine. They put a bunch of sawdust on track in areas and really didn't disc it much at all, just left it like 3 inches of light prep which makes sense. Practice was awesome, track was really fun, jumps fun. We got 2 rounds of practice run through as the exact race order. Had a really weird issue Friday evening driving to dinner - I have two 35 gallon water tanks, they were both full and strapped in bed of my truck. We left hotel and turned onto street and heard a loud BOOM and then water pouring everywhere -- turns out the one tank turned a little bit and exploded! Literally the tank just burst open like an egg. So now was down to one 35 gal tank.
Saturday started out weather totally fine, and since no rain they prepped it deep. I was struggling with all the deep ruts and really struggled my first motos in 50 and 45. I was nervous, got arm pump, and just fought everything. Myself and Opliger were only Ohio peeps in 45 and 50.
Saturday goes on, lots of heat races of course....here comes the clouds....and rain....just steady rain with about 3 motos left in running order....then LCQs it's getting really bad out there. Now I'm sweating because 50+ is moto 3......
Sure enough they announce they are running right back into 2nd motos after LCQs and I have to race. I hurried up and installed hand guards, got 2 pairs of roll-offs ready, and had to race one of the worst mud races I've ever done. Some areas that had more sawdust were not horrendously bad...but other areas were almost impassable and it was the greasiest snot I've ever ridden in. Worse than the epic Wildcat Creek mudder of 2020. Shockingly, I was in 12th at one point and ended up 14th. Never crashed, never lost goggles. Some areas I was in 1st gear just trying to get through and not stall. Lap times nearly 5 minutes. I got lapped at the end thankfully so only did 4 laps and didn't have to ruin bike and me more. Took HOURS to wash bike, and water fill lines were backed up for hours also. Didn't get back to hotel until almost 9pm.
Saturday ended at moto 6, so I was 3rd moto Sunday morning. Kenny Henry was moto 2 in +25. We go out for our 2 laps of practice, and Kenny blows a hole in his front brake line! He scrambles around and actually finds someone with a spare front brake line and starts replacing it. I got ready for my moto, then came over and helped him bleed it out, and he took off and made it to the line right as the 2-card was going up. Crazy.
Track was still decently muddy Sunday morning from all the rain Saturday. They basically just dozered it as best they could but it was really soft and muddy in spots. Super deep ruts. Track kept getting better and they went out and kept fixing little areas during the day. It got so rough -- I forgot how crazy rough these regionals get.
I ended up 16th out of 30 in 50 and 18th out of 35 in 45. Opliger went 9th in 50 and 10th in 45. Kenny Henry had a bad start in +30 moto 2 and came from mid 20's to 8th. He went 1-8-1 for 3rd in 30+ and got 12th in +25. Ayden Tolliver had some tough motos but his laptimes were good. Really didn't watch a whole lot, just busy all day. Only really watched Open Pro-Sport.
You can see results here:
I had a blast! Yes it's crazy money but you just can't replicate the experience. I'm just not fast enough to get into LL, but had great races with guys and it was really fun. In 50+ there were 4 of us TIED going into the last moto and whoever beat who was the order we would finish overall! My only crash of the whole event was last moto of 45+. I was running 16th with 1.5 laps left and just slid out and fell over in a rut and 4 guys passed me before I could get going. I passed 2 guys back on the last lap to get 18th. That was one of the most fun motos of the whole weekend!
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