Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Oxford Mountains Idaho - May 25, 2009

The Oxford Mountains just east of Malad Idaho are a FAST Racing favorite, particularly in the late May/early June timeframe. The trails are great, the scenery beautiful, and the laughs are plentiful.

A large contingent of the FAST Racing team showed up for a great ride on Memorial Day. Rains the day before made for damp and sometimes slippery conditions but the kids loved it! This is one of their favorite rides of the year.

Here's the whole clan before taking off for the day:


What's a kids trail ride without a little bike maintenance by Dad:


But how can you argue about it with views like this!!


You can see why this ride is one of the kids favorites. Here Trevor navigates one of the many creek crossings:


This picture pretty much sums up what FAST Racing is all about:

Cherry Creek Sugarloafers AMA National - May 16, 2009

The Cherry Creek/Jericho area of Utah is home to many desert races each year. With a great variety of terrain, it can offer up some of the most amazing desert races on the entire AMA National Series. However, with dry conditions, it can result in dust-bowl like conditions that make it very challenging.

The FAST Racing team was up to the challenge on May 16, and had many members of the team racing. Conditions were dry and VERY dusty, but the team had a lot of success.

There were 10 Minis racing: Josh Knight, Kobee Knight, Benji Knight, Karson Bailey, Johnathan Morrell, Trevor Smith, Dylan Pincock, Quinn Pincock, Tyler Ekins, Colby Ekins, and Elle Ekins.

Some highlights included having Josh take 1st place overall Mini. Kobee took 1st place Schoolboy, and Benji and Karson finished 3rd overall in the 65 and 85 Novice class respectively. All others racers finished and were great competitiors in a very tough and dusty race.

Having this many mini racers coming through the pits made for a fun and exciting day. This allowed the "pit crew" to stay plenty of busy wiping goggles, gassing up, providing drinks, and shouting words of encouragement.

Here Benji Holeshots the 65 class and ended up for a third overall for the day in the 65's:


Several members of the Team wait for the mini start (Josh, John, Benji, Kobee, Trevor, and Karson).


Nothing like coming into the pits and having 10 arms coming at you, swapping goggles, gas, drinks, and whatever else is needed:



Some of the Fathers of FAST Racing enjoy Friday evening in the pits before the next day's chaos and fun.


For the Big Bike race, both Mike and Cory were racing in the Expert class. They lined up right next to one another for what was to be the dustiest start of the year so far. After the banner dropped, Mike and Cory wouldn't see each other again for the rest of the day.

Cory's day went well, and he pulled off a 16th overall finish for the day in a National. Way to go Cory!!! He was also Top 5 USRA for the day, his second top 5 USRA finish for the year.

Here's Cory finishing out almost 100 miles of National level tough course, on his way through Cherry Creek to the finish.


Mike's day didn't go nearly as well. After a top 20-30 start, he settled into the Conga Line of dust and was riding hard when he suffered a flat rear tire at about the Mile 10 marker. He limped back to the pits and swapped wheels and sprockets and tried to salvage the day starting dead last behind the last ATV rider.

After passing about 50 riders and heading out on the second loop, Mike continued picking off riders until the dust and heat got the best of him and he did his best "Pukey the Clown" impression and got sick. After multiple stops on the trail, he finally settled for giving a broken down rider a ride back to the pits and suffered his first DNF of the year. Better luck next time.

Thanks Sugarloafers for an incredibly challenging and fun course despite the dust.

Ought Six Enduro - Montana 4/25/09

FAST Racing Team Member Cory Pincock and friends attended the Ought Six Enduro in Montana the same day as the Salt Lake Supercross. This is an ISDE style reliability enduro held on a private ranch in Montana.

According to those that attended, the course and event was awesome despite some chilly weather.

Cory had a very successful weekend with a first place Overall A rider on Saturday.

A few pics:





Cory's smashed Pipe:




Impound area at Ranch:

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Salt Lake Supercross, April 25, 2008

Many of the FAST Racing Team members and families attended the Salt Lake Supercross at Rice Eccles Stadium on Saturday night. Despite a cold and rainy day, the night turned out awesome as the skies cleared and the track dried out.

We were treated to some great racing battles in both main events and the kids loved it.

It was cold so no pictures, but we were grateful that the Supercross came back to Salt Lake. This has always been a fun tradition for us and our families.

Knolls Knockout, April 18, 2009

We had a great time at this race. There was 4-6 inches of snow on the ground on Thursday and by Friday, conditions were near perfect.

Josh was making his "debut" in the expert mini class. He pulled a great holeshot and was feeling on top of the world, dicing with his buddy Carson Giles all the way out to the fence. He said they were back and forth and right with each other. They entered the first checkpoint, down the fence, and then back on the loooooong straight. Well....2-stroke, pinned, and lake bed, equaled seized bike.

Here's some video of the mini starts:


Of course, back in the pits, we didn't know this until some of the other FAST Racing Team in our group came in. Josh wasn't the only one that met this fate....apparently it was a bike graveyard out on the flat. Bridger's bike seized too and at one point, we saw one of the Desert Foxes UTV's hauling in three mini's loaded up on the bike....all blown up.

Kobee hasn't raced this year but did great in the Schoolboy class, and was somewhere in the top couple of positions after the first loop, but he'd had enough, so he hung out at the home check for his finisher pin.

Benji is a real trooper, putting in 3 loops on his 65 for a first overall 65. We were all proud of him and he loved every minute of it.

Karson survived a big over-the-bars getoff and managed to to be one of the only 85's in the group to not blow his motor. He dug in hard to ride through the sand and finish 7th or 8th overall out of a pretty big group of mini novices.

Father and Son duo Eric and Trevor Smith also had a fun day, both surviving and enjoying the big bike and mini bike courses respectively.

Mike pulled a surprise great start in the expert big bikes, rounding the corner in the overall 3rd position heading out on to the course.



After hitting the first big lakebed flat, he backed off the gas a bit to avoid another blown motor for the day and got passed by several bikes. About 5 miles later, Mike came upon Gregg Godfrey who had wadded up hard right in front of him. Mike stopped for a few minutes to make sure he was OK. Gregg eventually got his bearings and it was back to racing and playing a bit of catch up.

Mike caught up some positions and had some super fun battles, finishing 9th overall expert for the day.

It's time to tear into some motors and assess the damage.

See you next month at Cherry Creek.

Thanks Desert Foxes! You did an amazing job with what you had to work with out there.

Friday, May 1, 2009

White Wash Utah, April 2009

It was time for some more relaxed riding and camping fun. The location, White Wash Utah for Easter Break. The majority of the FAST Racing team was there with a very large group of extended friends and family's broken up into multiple campsites.

White Wash did not disappoint and we had some really epic rides!!

Here's a short video of a few of the rides:


Cory and Mike outfitted their 300's with new headlights from TrailTech and enjoyed several more hours and miles of riding late at night. Riding the technical terrain in the area at night became an entirely new experience.

This is always one of the favorite camp trips of the year and we all can't wait to get back.