Rattlesnake Enduro

IERA / District 22 & 23 / Moose Enduro Series
Winterset, Iowa - September 14, 2003

Class Winners: (2002)

Overall Winner: Ryan Moss KTM 20; AA: Kirk Foster KAW 21, Jamie Driskell YAM 23, David Campbell HON 28, Scott Hofmann KTM 28, Jeff Fredette KAW 39; A 200: Brad Dameron KTM 30, John Ryan HUS 38, Daniel Ryan KTM 42, Mark Watkins KAW 42, Mike Black KTM 60; A 250:Ben Shafer KTM 23, Kevin Dimond YAM 28, Mark Burghardt KTM 33, Eric Burghardt KTM 37, Lucas Neavin HON 38; Open A: Tom Farris KTM 31, Adam Wyant HON 34, Richard Krajicek HON 36, Randy Gregerson KTM 44, Paul Kelley HON 46; Senior A: Dennis Murphy HON 34, Martin Algya KTM 34, Tim Anderson GAS 39, Larry Crosby KTM 41, Lonnie Ross 41; Super Senior: Ron Less KTM 46, Sheldon Otto KTM 52, Steven Hardine KTM 54, Layton Erickson KTM 70, Jim Spencer KTM 72; Golden Masters: Veryl Shaw KTM 44; Benson Ashmead KAW 143; Overall B: Jerod Dobbs KTM 45; B 200: Jason Drivenga KTM 51; David Coon KTM 52; John Kalkirtz KTM 84; Brain Flaig HUS 88; William Minard KAW 191; B 250: Tug Denotter KTM 46; Travis Hoveling YAM 46; Tobin Miller KTM 50, Brian Richlen KTM 53, Chris Mumm YAM 58; Open B: Eric Sieh HON 49, Terry Venteicher KTM 50, Scott Fleck KTM 52, Brad Krauth YAM 52, Roger Devore KTM 56; Senior B: Bruce Mueller KTM 52, James Cunningham KTM 58, Jeffery Manley HON 60, Gene Topliff YAM 61; Tim Ellsworth GAS 65; C: T. Mark Sullivan SUZ 53, Steve Pohmeir YAM 65; Cory Olson KAW 118, Bruce Meyer KTM 130, Edward Stoll SUZ 137.

Race Start Photo by Ed Stoll

No screwing around this year. This race starts when it starts. No three miles of road before you hit the woods. No doinking around on pavement until the first odo check. No getting familiar with the bike before the terrain starts. Just pull up to the edge of the woods and dive in when your number rolls over. And you don’t worry about stopping again for more than 14 miles later.

The time keeping and checks were straightforward. Riders followed the course on a continuous 24 mile per hour average. Each of the three off-road sections were set up on a simple check-in and check-out format. Between each section, riders received a twenty minute or better reset, allowing most to get back on time.

The club basically ran the course in the opposite direction as that run in 2002 with the addition of some new ground. Tight woods along the North Branch Creek comprised the bulk of the first section which ended, specifically, 14.4 miles after you started. The 103 participants were particularly lucky this year in that the region received a good deal of rain in the week prior to the event. Had that precipitation failed to fall, this race would have been a complete dust bowl. Those who road the 2002 event dealt with a great deal of parched trail caused by the dry conditions preceding. And 2003 looked to be a repeat, but then the skies opened up and, thankfully, conditions became perfect.

But the moisture created an obstacle unique to Winterset, as opposed to the other three Iowa enduros; wet, slipper, shale covered hillsides. The stuff is everywhere. The Des Moines Enduro Riders (DMER) describe the event as containing only “do-able terrain.” And, when compared to Bartlett or Stratford, this probably poses a true statement. But a “do-able” hillside loses that characterization when you’ve been riding for ten miles and that twenty foot knoll is covered with wet, slimy flat rocks and a thin coat of soupy Iowa topsoil. More than a few bikes got tagged by these hills. And if you were skilled enough to successfully negotiate these obstacles, the nine or ten C riders laid out on the inclines in various states of distress ahead of you greatly increased the level of difficulty. Ya, listen to me, the “C riders.” Like that doesn’t essentially include me.

Hey look, its me & my sweet XR.

I road out on the 34^th minute with C riders Ed Stoll on his trusty RMX250 and Josh Luke on a KTM 200 EXC along with Senior A rider Lonnie Ross on a WR250. All three promptly left me behind. But there was good fortune in being last into the woods. Due to the rain, the DMER organizers eliminated an unusually sloppy section. Lonnie, being extremely fast, flew past the redirected turn and became embroiled in the sloppy test. That’s the problem with being so quick. Those arrows and ribbons just go by so quickly. I never spotted Josh again. He told me later that the hydraulic clutch line on his KTM simply separated with no prompting at all, ending his bid in the first section. Ed got caught up on this huge downed tree going across the trail and I slicked around him.

So, within about two miles, I moved comfortably ahead of the boys on my minute. With this knowledge, I promptly stopped paying attention and ended up hanging upside down from one of those aforementioned rock and slime-covered valleys. I won’t even go into the number of kicks that XR required to restart. Suffice to say, I finally got it running, but the red John Deere situated itself with a thigh sized, soggy log just in front of the rear tire. I was so out of gas that I was too lazy to simply move the bike. Instead, I pegged it and promptly launched the bike over backwards into the air. Time to restart again. All in all, several minutes lost. Never mind that I assumed all three of the guys on my number probably passed me.

After what seemed like 50 miles and, don’t get me wrong, really fun miles, the trail finally opened into a nice pasture full of bikes waiting at a reset. Thanks to my restart issues, however, I was about a minute behind even at that. Still, the following 2.4 miles of road allowed me to get back on my minute without a great deal of effort. Oddly, none of the boys on my minute were anywhere to be seen.

The next section followed exactly eight miles of trail and was plenty of fun. More woods, but the path also presented some lengthy grassy sections with more open trail. The section provided an interesting two-way traffic section separated by a snow fence. In both directions, participants crossed a rocky, shallow creek. Not a big deal the first time, but really painful on the other side. The crossing had a nasty drop-off that caused a harsh, and horribly nauseating, pain to those riding bikes with 80’s era “safety” seats. Well, at least it was better than 70s era protruding steel gas tanks. You really do have to wonder how it took designers thirty years to determine that running padding up a gas tank would greatly alleviate damage to the rider’s nether regions.

After nearly upchucking your beef jerky and trail mix at the two-way traffic water crossing, riders followed about three more miles of friendly trail to the next reset. After a twenty-minute rest or, in my case, twelve minutes, another five miles of gravel road followed. A pretty nice rest in fact.

From that point, the last section followed 6.7 miles of extremely tight woods. There were few, if any areas, to really air things out. The trail simply wound endlessly back and forth around trees of varying sizes. In many cases, you simply had to stop wind your bars back and forth through the fence of growth.

Gross, my foot.

After a thirty minute lunch break / reset, the riders ran the entire loop again. It was during the repeat of the third section that I again received the most damage. With only three miles left, I slopped over in a slow turn in the woods. Somehow, my left leg flapped behind the XR as it fell over. My left foot hyper extended backwards and I felt a pronounced “pop.” I got the bike back up and restarted, but could tell that the foot was disabled. Still, just about done. Not a mile later, I swung around a corner a bit too wide and came in contact with a wrist-sized branch. The chunk of tree jammed through my frame and chain just behind the countershaft sprocket. No bike damage, but wouldn’t you know, the branch totally crunched my left foot, again. And in the same place. At that point, I could tell my foot was starting to swell as the boot started to feel pretty tight. I drove the Honda the rest of the way like your grandmother cruises her Crown Victoria to the grocery store.

Ryan Moss rode his KTM Moose-Racing/Motion-Pro/Braking-Brakes/Splitfire/Borrelli-Suspension/FunMart-Cycles/One-Industries/FMF/WD-40/EVS/Arai /Works-Connection/Hinson/Sprocket Specialists/Smith/Pirelli/Pro Grip (Grips) EXC 200 took the overall. Ryan finished both Fremont and Stratford in second place behind Minnesota rider Craig Holasek and Illinois star Jeff Fredette, respectively. That puts Ryan into the first overall position for the season in District 22 so far.

Is this Jeff Fredette?

Ryan reported that the rerouting in first section proved costly for some riders as they missed the reroute section and followed the original trail. Ryan said that Jeff Fredette encountered this problem, costing him about 3 minutes. The course provided perfect traction for Ryan and he has no real issues. There was a rocky ravine that held 10 people or so waiting in line. Ryan found a quick way through and lost no time there. One of those 10 people was undoubtedly the writer of this article. Another AA rider, Scott Hofmann, found troubles there and lost about 4 minutes. The quickest scores of the section included Ryan with a 7:21, 250A rider Ben Schafer with a 7:22, and Kirk Foster with a 7:52. Jeff Fredette came out with a 10, Scott Hofmann came out with an 11, and Jamie Driskell came out with a 9.

Ryan noted that a check at the first possible in the second section kept everyone honest. This section had extra mileage added this year so no one knew what to expect. Ryan reported that this was one of the most entertaining sections he had ridden all year. Fast, flowing woods, with some ups and downs made it a blast for Moss. The checkout was a couple miles from the end of the section with most AA's dropping a 2.

As with prior sections, a check about one mile in on the third section caught a lot of riders late. The check out materialized right before the half-way point with Moss going 3:26, Ben Schafer going about 3:46, Jeff Fredette losing around 3:56, Kirk Foster and Scott Hofmann dropping 4 and some seconds each, and Jamie Driskell was either a late 3 or an early 4. At this point it looked like a race between Ben, Kirk, and Ryan, with Jamie and Jeff having a outside chance.

The second loop moved even faster with the trail broken in and the reroute marked off better. Scott Hofmann again encountered problems with the rocky ravine and decided this section just didn't like him on that day. Jeff, Kirk, and Ryan came out with 4's. Ben came out with a 5 just missing a 4 by seconds. This gave Ryan a cushion on Ben that he needed and kept also kept him ahead of Kirk.

In the repeat of the second section, the club moved the check in a little and some got caught. With Jeff Fredette being 3 minutes down, he tried to make it up and went in hot, very hot in fact, and got caught. He was four minutes early at the check, basically ruining his day. To his defense the check was off a little on mileage according to Ryan, as he almost came in early also. But Ryan was only 10 seconds early and was able to lolligag around before entering. The out check moved to the end of the section and most AA's came out at with a 1, Jeff being the only 0, but he went in 4 early.

The in check in the final section was about twenty feet after entry into the woods and kept everyone honest. It was a race to the end, and Ryan believes most AA's came out with 4's. Ben Schafer lost a contact in this section and dropped a 5, giving up second overall, but still scored 1st in 250A.

In the end Ryan got Kirk by 1 minute. Jeff Fredette tried to protest the first section and the reroute, stating it should be thrown out due to people getting lost. He also protested the in check that he burnt by 4 minutes, stating that the check was not at the correct mileage. The club listened but did not change either checks.

Ryan said, in the end, that this was one of the most fun enduros of the year. And not only cause he finally won one, but the club did a great job with the trail, the rain made the traction like Velcro, and the club had good check placement.

Eric Neu, Carroll, Iowa.