Since my last post, most work on the RGV has come to a grinding halt. I purchased 1st gen SV650 in the summer of 2020. The story of that transaction should be a subject of a separate post. I managed to do one track day at Nelson Ledges with it before ending up in the gravel. Repaired the bike and Gabe was able to use it for his first WERA weekend and race school. I also picked up a salvage Ducati 749s with the intention of turning it into a track bike as well. I was able to swap some of the stock bodywork for race bodywork and I still need to change the timing belts and do a valve adjustment. Other than helping out Gabe and Alex with their roadracing last year, I haven’t done much on that front.
Cue the dirt bikes
In the meantime I started to get into dirt bike riding and last year started participating in hare scrambles. I found this to be most enjoyable as well as being a bit less expensive than the asphalt. My first race last spring at Mansfield with CRA (Competition Riders of America) was forgettable and it took me a few months to make another attempt. I then did six more CRA races, 3 more at Mansfield, 1 at Big Game, 1 at Big Valley and 1 at Pine Glen. I also did one EROC race in Carrolton. I started by using my Yamaha WR400 but after the second race at Pine Glen I realized I needed something else if I was going to continue. The WR was both too heavy and the manual start procedure meant I was always going to have the opposite of the hole shot.
I picked up a lightly used 2021 Beta 200RR and used that the rest of the season. It is my first foray into the 2-stroke dirt bike world and has taken me some time to get the hang of it. Towards the end of the year I was finally starting see some progress in my riding. I definitely got my fill of “mud races” as it seemed like every race the second half the year was a slop fest.
What’s next?
I plan to race even more often in 2022 with the first race consisting of a road trip down south to Union, SC for the first GNCC of the year, Big Buck. I am both looking forward to some warmer weather and getting back out in the dirt after a month of snow and single digit temperatures.
I will be posting a tentative schedule for the rest of the year in a follow up post.
