My first heat was the Senior class and was about halfway through the race order. The groove was beginning to form. When reading the coverage of Grand National events, I would always hear about the groove, but wasn’t quite sure what it was. What happens is that the common lines of the track gets packed so hard that rubber starts getting laid down on it. It feels like riding on asphalt. The groove was pretty narrow at this point so I kept missing it or drifting off of it.

The other class I entered was the Beginner class. At first, I didn’t feel quite right about signing up for it. I was definitely a beginner at dirt track, but I’m not a beginner racer or rider by any stretch of the imagination. When I saw some of the other bikes out there with me, most of that guilt went away. By the time that heat rolled around, the groove was getting wider and I was feeling a bit more comfortable. I was in the same race as the Knobby class. I could tell by racing with those guys that the rear knobbies were pretty sketchy on the groove. The front knobby seemed to feel OK on mine.

Between my heat races and mains, I had a chance to watch quite a few races. I noticed several things that point to a bright future for the sport. The first was the youth classes had good turn-outs and good competitive racing. Another is that it isn’t just the same few veterans taking all the Pro class cash. Many of the riders up front in the pro classes didn’t look old enough to vote. The third is the increased popularity of converted motocross bikes. Now, I love the old bikes. I was walking around the pits taking pictures of them like a tourist. But I also know that many people, such as myself, have never tried the sport because of the perception that you had to go find a one-off bike just to compete.

A lightly modified motocross bike such as this was a fairly common site

Before my mains started, I thought I would cut the tire. Rick had mentioned earlier that I should take a razor blade and cut the fringy edge off the tread on the left side of the tire. This must be a common practice, because when I asked someone if they had a razor I could use, they had a whole box of them in their toolbox. Other than that and the changes I made before practice, I did nothing else to the bike.

The Senior main went pretty well. I got a really good start and ended up fourth. The groove was getting quite wide, almost the width of the track in a few spots. The tire hooked up great on the groove, so I wasn’t venturing off it at all now. Cushion riding would be a lesson for another day.

I went to the line for the Beginner main feeling like I should win, a feeling I hadn’t had since my late 70s BMX days. I got the holeshot and tried to get into my Senior pace right off the bat. I didn’t know it at the time, but there was a pile-up behind me that gave me an immediate gap. I finished with a pretty big lead.

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