Friday, March 20, 2009

Cow Dung Run Race Report March 2009






Cow Dung Race Report
March 14, 2009

A group of 8-9 boys line the EnduroCross section of the Cow Dung Run watching anxiously for the leaders from the Expert wave to come and showcase their talents through the rocks, logs, and tires.

One rider, then another, and then #163V (Cory Pincock) on a KTM300 blitzes through the EnduroCross course faster and smoother than anybody else. Someone in the crowd says audibly, “Who was that?”, and a proud brown haired little boy, turns and says, “That’s my Dad!”.


That moment right there captures the fun and emotion of the Cow Dung Race experience on Saturday the 14th.




The highest priority is that everyone finished safely and had a great day. In addition, the team experienced some great success. A few highlights are as follows:

* Cory Pincock finished 1st overall Over 30 Expert and 4th overall Expert!
* Josh Knight finished 1st overall Mini Amateur
* Benji Knight finished 1st overall 65B and second overall 65
* Karson Bailey finished 2nd overall Mini Novice
* Quinn Pincock finished 2nd overall Schoolboy (unofficial)
* Sam Tams, Bridger Langeveld, Dylan Pincock all finished in the top third of their respective classes and had a fun day of racing.
* Michael Knight finished 19th overall expert and third in Over 35 Expert.
* Travis Tams finished in top third of Amateur wave (official results not known yet)

Also, despite the team name being “Fathers and Sons Team Racing”, there was a great effort of supporting crew by the Moms of the FAST Racing Team. Thanks Jennie, Kara, Yvonne, Jamie…..and Chad and Jason (Chad and Jason aren’t Mom’s, but they make a great pit crew).





Friday, March 6, 2009

Rhino Rally Race Report February 28, 2009








The Rhino Rally turned out to be a great weekend for FAST Racing. The weather, racing, and company were great.

We had a total of 7 Sons racing (Josh, Benji, Karson, Sam, Trevor, Dillon, and Quinn) and four Fathers racing (Mike, Cory, Travis, and Eric).

A few of the race weekend highlights are as follows:

Travis took a digger on Loop one in the big bike Amateur class and broke the clutch master cylinder off his KTM. He headed out on Loop 2 unaware of the challenge that awaited him in Dutchman’s wash. Miraculously, he made it through Dutchman’s without a clutch!


  • Cory Pincock was 3rd to the corner in the Expert wave behind T.J. Hannifin and Shawn Strong and held that position for a few miles until he suffered a flat and unfortunately a DNF for the day. I had predicted a top ten finish for him at this race but it wasn’t to be.


  • Josh overcame an average start in the Amateur mini class but pulled off the overall win.

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  • Sportsmanship Award – After a 3 Loop finish in the 65 class we were sure Benji had a near top of class result. When his name wasn’t read at the banquet, he was fighting back the tears. Fellow FAST Racing teammate Sam, quickly and quietly handed over his well-earned Trophy from the 85 Novice class to Benji. There are plenty of great life lessons to be learned in this sport and good sportsmanship is one of them.

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  • Pay it Forward moment of the weekend – I’m always teasing my kids that they have a “full factory ride”. After all, they receive transportation, meals, bike prep, pit support, and have all expenses paid. I wish I had that kind of gig. After teasing my son Josh about this on Friday night, he said, “Don’t worry Dad, I’ll do the same for my kids.”


  • Karson and Sam finished 5th and 7th respectively in the Mini Novice class with a whopping 38 riders.
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Here's some amateur video Josh and I took of the race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX9rK2aqmgY

I can’t speak for everyone else, but here’s a race report from my perspective:

I shuttled my bike up to the start right after they closed the mini loop. As a result, the main trail where the mini loop intersected the start line, was totally open. I lined up with almost a straight shot of the main trail. My chances were great for a good start with exception to the fact that Dave Pearson was about 5 bikes to my left J

The banner dropped, the 300 lit right up (I love that happy button), and I got pinched off a bit and before I knew it, the horrendous wall of dust was so bad I had to completely back off the throttle. I worked my way over to the right of the main wave to get out of the dust. Women and children were running as the mass of bikes seemed to get closer and closer trying to avoid the dust.

We headed up the rocky wash and then a hard left. The dust was suffocating and the racing tight as everyone jockeyed for position early in the race. I got bumped by somebody and went down. Immediately I knew I needed to get out of the way or both I and my bike were going to get run over. I looked up just as someone was about to run over my bike. It was my friend Rich Black. He didn’t even know it was me. I got up and going and shortly thereafter I saw a bike off to my left laying on its side….I thought it was my friend Cory P., and I later found out he had gotten a great start but got a flat tire in the first couple of miles.

The Conga line spread out a bit and I did my best to stay close but remain safe (relatively speaking) in the horrible dust. The course was primarily fast jeep roads for the next 15+ miles. Eventually everyone spread out a bit and passing was a matter of making an aggressive run at somebody to get out of their dust.

I did this, picking off several guys over the next several miles. About mile 25 was the gas check. I knew I couldn’t push it on the 300 so I had to stop. There was some help there and I gassed up fairly quick, but in the process I witnessed all the guys I had just worked so hard to pass, go right past me.

On the gas again, I quickly passed 2-3 guys back…the only one I remember was Josh Goimarac and I waved as I went by, wondering if he would recognize his old bike.

Now the course got good….we were into the singletrack and washes and out of the fast road sections. There seemed to be no whoops and just great terrain. I was feeling great and flowing pretty well. Before the gas check I had passed number 2f. He passed me back at the gas check and for the next 40-50 miles I chased him. He was always within site but he was riding well. I made a few stupid mistakes and he’d put distance on me, and then I’d get up to him but couldn’t make the pass.

I came into the pits without a real sense of where I stood overall. I wasn’t getting passed, but I was sure that my average start would have a lot of guys in front of me.

My great FAST Racing/Sage Riders pit crew had me in and out in a flash and I took off on the second loop.

Within the first mile or two I was starting to have déjà-vu……”Hey, haven’t I already ridden this section, except last time it was a wall of dust.” If there hadn’t been other guys in front of me, particularly 2F, I would have probably done something really stupid and turned around thinking I had missed a turn on the second loop. It was an exact repeat of Loop 1 for the first 15 miles.

At mile 15 we took a hard left at the top of Dutchman’s. I had never ridden Dutchman’s and kind of had myself psyched out. For the next 3 miles I was thinking to myself, “What’s the big deal, my 9 year old could ride this.” I no sooner had that thought and bam, big huge boulders with nice technical drops. It was like an endurocross boulder section for the next 1 and a half miles.

I focused on staying smooth. At the top of Dutchman’s I had passed at least one guy who was on the side. As I pushed down the wash I caught site of 2f again (I think this was Joe Clark). I got close enough to him and was just waiting for a mistake. In one section, he went left and I went right and I went around him. We had a great battle going for the next half mile. There was another section where he took an alternative line and I was convinced he had me, but we converged on the main trail and I just barely eeked by him.

A moment later we got into another tight boulder section with only one line. I was getting tired and pressured by leading. I dropped the front wheel down and just about went over the bars. In my exhaustion I almost let him just go by but there really wasn’t anywhere for him to go. I just picked up my bike and pushed on hoping he was tiring too. Then all of a sudden I saw another bike, 55 (Clay Davies I think).

Almost the same thing happened…he went left in a section and got stuck and I went right and I got by him. I was convinced at this point that we had to be getting close to the end of the draw. Sure enough, the canyon walls started to open and I could get on the gas.

I started the internal dialogue, “Stay smooth Mike, keep up the speed and don’t make any mistakes, just finish.”
We were dumped back onto some fast road sections and then on top of the big mesa overlooking the pits. I glanced over my shoulder a few times hoping that I wasn’t getting pressured. I had a nice gap and should be able to relax coming into the pits. I had passed another 4-5 guys on the second loop and figured I was slowly inching my way up the list.

Into the pits, and to the checkers where my fellow FAST Racing teammates were waiting.

I had inhaled enough dust for the day to last a lifetime, but I had finished safely and had a great weekend of racing. I don’t have any official results, but rough estimate was about 15th overall.

Thanks Wizards.