Round 1 of the 2008 OMA Nationals is finally in the books.  After 3 rough rounds of the GNCCs, I was ready for a fresh start at round 1 in TN.  Everything was looking awesome, except the weather, and the parking lot.  Both were a little less then desireable. The track was awesome though!  Rough, Rocky, Rutted, and BIG HILLS.  I felt good going into the race, even coming off my little head injury last weekend. The factory Suzuki boys showed up in force, as well as my Single Wide Racing teammate Dustin “FULL NOISE!” Gibson. 

I had a decent jump off the line, but the 450 had a little too much power and just spun the tire off the line.. (or as the TN Natives would say, “spun da turrrrr”)  so I thought I would pull a fast one on the guys and brake early, tip toe around the inside, and come out around 6-8th place.  And it actually would have worked, except Charlie Mullins decided he wanted to baseball slide through the first turn, collecting Garahan and myself along with him.  I ran into Charlie and stalled my bike… so, again,  I was last off the start.  3 or 4 crashes, 2 stalls, one axel deep mudhole, and some blown berms later, I ended up 9th and 9th overall.  Not bad, but I really would have liked to been up battling for a top 5.  I think I have the speed, I just need to calm everything down and put down 5-7 consistent laps.  I know where I’m going wrong, so hopefully it will only get better from here!

OH… and I’m maybe going riding on Wed (tomarrow) so hopefully I’ll have some pics and/or vids up from that!

Well I’m home from the NC Steele Creek GNCC.  I rode awesome, and felt great all day.  I was running 2nd in my class, and inside the top 20 overall, when I hit my head REALLY hard on a tree.  I tried to tough it out, but my vision became really blurry and I lost my depth perception and kept crashing!  I decided it was unsafe for me to continue to race in the condition I was in, and pulled off and left with a 12th place finish.  Right now I’m sitting 6th in points, 3 points out of 4th place.  I officially have a concussion, so my return to racing this weekend at Round 1 of the OMA Nationals is questionable.  I’ll just have to wait and see how the week progresses.

 BUT, on a better note, there is a new video in the video page!! Its really short, just a clip, but check it out!

 CB28

2nd turn crash, FL GNCC