I rocked up in the paddock of the BSEC today to sign in for the racing this weekend. Little bit of video below shows who turned up early. Knighter and Sagar were there already, no sign of Taddy yet, but it looked like there were some Polish fans in attendance...
Friday 10 February 2012
Monday 6 February 2012
Fast Eddy Enduro-X
Enduro X - Fast Eddy 29th January
Enduro X video by 1144DRC
Buoyed by my previous 'mini' race experience I spotted an interesting event being organised by Fast Eddy Racing (Paul Edmondson, UK enduro OG). The event was Enduro X and it was intended to test a midlands venue in anticipation of running the final round of the British Extreme Enduro Championship. Running the event allowed Paul and his team the opportunity to test organisational type stuff like car parking, track access and race turnaround time, while giving the opportunity for budding racers to bounce off the floor using their heads for cushions and flip their bikes onto other people...(or maybe that was just me).
The race was run in what is now known as CMX motoparc, formerly Wildmoor Quarry. Just off the M5 it was easy to get to, despite a couple of attempts at finding the quarry as some comedy genius had put luminous green signs with 'MX' written on, pointing away from the circuit. I arrived about 5 minutes after registration had finished, but was greeted with a no hassle attitude. I signed in, to cheery faces despite the cold, literally, in seconds. I was furnished with a transponder for the princely sum of my ACU licence as deposit and then toddled off to pull the 150 out of the van and try not to look at all the 'proper' racers. As I walked back to the van (parking it turned out was not the venue's strong point) I had a look at the track. The pit area was perched at the top of the quarry giving a birds eye view of the circuit.
The Enduro X circuit was literally Enduro with MX.
Steep declines and inclines built on a sand base, mixed in with some MX jumps, a railway sleeper section and some tyres to hop over with technical rutted areas, made for an interesting looking layout (see video at end of post). The format for the day was one timed practice/qualifying session followed by 4 15 min races for each class.
By the time I'd got back to the trusty van, 9.30 had rolled around and it was time to go qualify.
Sitting in the holding pen waiting for my session, I had the feeling that I wasn't quite ready for this.
I was in no way confident about turning in a fast lap, but thought i'd be able to get by on a mix of riding experience and 'having a goability'..
Watching the tail end of the Pro and Expert qualifying session it looked like the pilots were making short work of the course. Tom Sagar and Danny McCanney (who won all 4 pro races on the day, after Sagar was sidelined with an injury jumping a full bore table top).
were ripping up the place in fine style. The higher ability level classes seem to make it easier for themselves by flowing through the obstacles
and avoiding the stuttering indecision that I'm cursed with at present. When in doubt flat out and all that. With this in mind I vow to flow round, smooth stylee and go flat out if I'm scared.
In fact as it comes to my turn to 'flow' what I actually do is get arm pump the likes of which man has never seen before and bumble my way around.
I don't turn in one clean lap and end up qualifying one from last on a 3.01. At least I wasn't last!. To put this in perspective, McCanney popped in a 1.46 during his first race.
All in all, a stunningly crap way to qualify...but it gives ALOT of room for some progression through the day.
I learnt a few things after practice, answering some of the questions I posed myself after the holeshot hot lap event:
You can practice on half worn tyres.
I need a much, much higher level of fitness. Immediate arm pump is not a good way to start the day. Next time I race I WILL warm up before getting on the circuit.
Racing in January is cold (see above).
Going racing on your own is more boring than I thought!
Sportsmen are faster than I realised.
How good am I? Not very!
How good is everyone else? Better than me...for now at least.
Practice is a good wake up call, I thought I'd be OK, but I'm far from OK. I'm stiff on the bike, uncomfortable and nervous.
I looped the bike onto someone elses head. Not cool...they carry on like I asked them the time, not dropped 100kg on their swede.
I make myself a goals of completing the races and going faster through out the day with the aim of getting under 2.30 for a lap.
Waiting for race time, it was cold and foggy (a new breed of midlands fog called 'fog-ice' composed of icy fog) and I was getting ready to deploy the crying baby and flip open the book of 'Britain's Best Racing Excuses, Vol.2.'
When you're waiting on the line it's an odd place to be for the first time, a lot of aggression is required to blast into the first turn like you mean it. It's a great part of the race and I start looking forward to getting going as engines start bouncing off rev limiters.
Race 1: The race got underway in a cloud of unburnt 2 stroke oil and went better than practice. The course was more cut up than during the first session, but I felt a little more comfortable on the bike. I got stuck on one of the hills near the start and lost a lot of time.
Once I got going again things started to smooth out a bit. I tried not to death grip the bars and managed to relax a little.
It still wasn't good, but it was better.
My body positioning was poor and I couldn't work out why. I felt really tired and struggled to look up, where I wanted to go. All keep techniques that help you to go faster with less effort.
I also found I was being far too polite, waiting for people when they are stuck, letting people through, it's supposed to be a race, not a tea party! I ask for 'Milk with one please' as someone crashes past me.
All told, race one is pretty uneventful. I found that I could get through the small tyre section OK and enjoyed trying to rail through some of the turns,
but the ruts were causing me some problems. This will go on my list of things to work on.
Another area requiring immediate work is 'race face'. It's very difficult to switch straight on to race mode, I remember this problem from circuit racing. Coming from a few years of trackdays it takes a little while to get conditioned out of taking it easy and warming yourself up for a few laps. But this is the idea. To find these things out. I didn't feel particularly out of my depth as I hadn't seen anyone else really. I finished 11th and a couple of laps down on the winner, with my best lap a 2.12. A big improvement on practice, but still a way off the quicker sportsmen who are dipping under 2 minutes.
I hoped that in race 2 some fast would rub off on me and I'd be able to actually race with someone to drag the times down. From race 1 experience, the track didn't seem to be lending itself to racing very well as the deep sand had created some single line sections.
Between race one and two I cut the sleeves of my body armour to see if it helped to ease the chicken choking arm pump I was suffering.
In doing so I got really cold as it was close to minus a lot centigrade. Note for future: try to stay warm!
From race 1 I observed the bike was working OK, it seemed to be stalling a lot, but I needed to be wringing it's neck. That wasn't happening.
The sand was tricky to ride. Like deep wet mud with a much more vague feeling. Despite the lack of feel I found there were some nice corners cutting in with solid berms.
As I'm writing this I recall some advice I was given about lowering the rear of the bike and raising the forks in the yokes while riding sand to stop the front wheel digging in so easily. I'll be trying this out next time!
Race 2: I set off on the front row of the grid and get into the first nadgery rut in about 6th, from here I go backwards to tenth.
On the way I get my goggles run over. I had them on the back of my helmet because they'd steamed up, they flicked off and became my first racing casualty (after Sagar's
sore behind from seat dropping the biggest tabletop on the course).
The cut sleeves on my body armour seemed to help the arm pump issue quite a bit. It's difficult to tell, as once you have done a bit of riding under your belt for the day
the blood starts flowing and you don't seem to suffer as badly.
I had an enjoyable race, managing to slide past a couple of guys on a fast section that approached the small tyre hops. Goals were clicking off OK. In race one I turned in a best lap of 2.12, under my 2.30 goal. In hindsight this was probably a bit slow for a 'goal'! Race two I nipped a 2.03 putting the 2.30 to bed. Ideally I'd have liked to go under two minutes which would have put me in the mix. but that wasn't to be.
Race 3: I got away OK again. People were jumping the start. Eddy told everyone to wait until the flag drops before dropping clutches, but people were
off as soon as it was raised. It wasn't a problem for me as I wasn't going to win one on the day (or anytime soon) but it would've been nice to get in the mix for a holeshot!
So race three is ticking away. I'm riding smoother and managing to get through the ruts better than the previous outings.
I came up behind a slower rider on the table top, hit the gas in a fit of Carmichael aping foolery and head planted into the ground. Bugger. The bars and front wheel were pointing in
opposite directions and the guys I had previously passed came back by me as I flopped about in the mud hoping the tweety birds would go away.
I said a few words to myself that Grandparents shouldn't hear, whacked the bars close to straight, fired up the KTM and put some more laps in. Surprisingly I felt pretty good,
carrying some OK corner speed until Jack Edmondson came past me like the true beginner I am (I'm not sure how old he is, but I'd guess between 10 and 15, nearly sucking the graphics off my bike as he blitzed by...).
Lots more gears and brakes later and I was back in the pits. I go to check the results and find I'm tenth again with a slower lap than last time round 2.06. Considering the
whack on the head I'm not too disappointed. I broke out my emergency can of generic energy drink for race 4...
Race 4: Ready to right the wrongs of the previous attempts, I necked some of the energy speed juice (Rossi said it works so it must be true) and cruised down to the holding area.
With no throttle applied and the bike pinging off the limiter, I thought something might be a miss. Adding some slack to the throttle seemed to help and the bike briefly idled normally.
Waiting for the start I wasn't sure if it was a great idea to race with a sticking throttle, but I was already there and one of the marshalls gave me a reassuring 'it'll be alright' nod.
As I piled into the first turn on full gas, which was meant to be no gas, I thought I should have listened to myself. The KTM pinged its head off to a suitable resting place through the tapes.
DNF! Balls. That was my shot at getting it right. Race 3 had been pretty positive, despite the whack on the head, the track conditions were getting better through the day and I ended up getting sidelined by a sticky throttle.
Investigation is required in a hurry as the following weekend was to be the Fast Eddy XC at Stoneleigh where I'd try and put some of the lessons into practice.
Results were posted up on Enduronews.com the following day. To my surprise I was 7th overall. 11th in the first race, 10th in the second race, 10th in the third race (with head plant), 4th race DNF, but points for starting (bonus!). There was a reasonable attrition rate as a few people didn't complete all the races on the day (including me).
Some people only completed one race, others dropped out after two.
So with my first full meeting behind me I'm excited to get out again at the Fast Eddy XC for my first taste of that competition.
I'm anticipating it to be significantly different to the Enduro X, with a different type of terrain and a different mindset required
to ride for 2 hours turning in the laps, instead of a 15 min (relative) dash.
Below are some notes I made through the day. A learning brain dump that I'll try to digest before the next outing:
More positive throttle application required. More gas all the time. I need someone to compete against...
Feels frantic.
Downhill off camber corners? Where is your technique. Weight pegs, weight in the correct position.
Tricky downhills into ruts, look up, out of rut, not into it! Stand up, strong and forward.
Jump off bike, push and clutch to get going when stuck on sand hills.
Fitness is super critical!!!!! Cardio required. Any trainers available for this?
Enduroland is not real racing...
Arm pump is the main problem, aggression, put the bike where you want it to go, look where you want it to go.
A few notes on going racing with Fast Eddy
My first experience of racing with Fast Eddy was about as painless (in terms of organisation) as I could wish for.
I emailed Mandie Edmondson to enter the race and was given my race numbers. Any information I asked for was responded
to within 24 hours. It's possible to call as well.
On race day I arrived just outside the prescribed time for rider registration but there was no fuss. I was able to sign in
and receive my transponder (just my ACU licence for a deposit) within about 5 minutes.
All the races were announced by loudhailer, plus the current race category was shown on the live timing screen so
it was straightforward to work out when my next race was. Races were turned around super fast with minimal waiting around
and Fast Ed himself even helped me out when my throttle stuck open. A big double thumbs up to the Fast Eddy crew.
Enduro X video by 1144DRC
Buoyed by my previous 'mini' race experience I spotted an interesting event being organised by Fast Eddy Racing (Paul Edmondson, UK enduro OG). The event was Enduro X and it was intended to test a midlands venue in anticipation of running the final round of the British Extreme Enduro Championship. Running the event allowed Paul and his team the opportunity to test organisational type stuff like car parking, track access and race turnaround time, while giving the opportunity for budding racers to bounce off the floor using their heads for cushions and flip their bikes onto other people...(or maybe that was just me).
The race was run in what is now known as CMX motoparc, formerly Wildmoor Quarry. Just off the M5 it was easy to get to, despite a couple of attempts at finding the quarry as some comedy genius had put luminous green signs with 'MX' written on, pointing away from the circuit. I arrived about 5 minutes after registration had finished, but was greeted with a no hassle attitude. I signed in, to cheery faces despite the cold, literally, in seconds. I was furnished with a transponder for the princely sum of my ACU licence as deposit and then toddled off to pull the 150 out of the van and try not to look at all the 'proper' racers. As I walked back to the van (parking it turned out was not the venue's strong point) I had a look at the track. The pit area was perched at the top of the quarry giving a birds eye view of the circuit.
The Enduro X circuit was literally Enduro with MX.
Steep declines and inclines built on a sand base, mixed in with some MX jumps, a railway sleeper section and some tyres to hop over with technical rutted areas, made for an interesting looking layout (see video at end of post). The format for the day was one timed practice/qualifying session followed by 4 15 min races for each class.
By the time I'd got back to the trusty van, 9.30 had rolled around and it was time to go qualify.
Sitting in the holding pen waiting for my session, I had the feeling that I wasn't quite ready for this.
I was in no way confident about turning in a fast lap, but thought i'd be able to get by on a mix of riding experience and 'having a goability'..
Watching the tail end of the Pro and Expert qualifying session it looked like the pilots were making short work of the course. Tom Sagar and Danny McCanney (who won all 4 pro races on the day, after Sagar was sidelined with an injury jumping a full bore table top).
were ripping up the place in fine style. The higher ability level classes seem to make it easier for themselves by flowing through the obstacles
and avoiding the stuttering indecision that I'm cursed with at present. When in doubt flat out and all that. With this in mind I vow to flow round, smooth stylee and go flat out if I'm scared.
In fact as it comes to my turn to 'flow' what I actually do is get arm pump the likes of which man has never seen before and bumble my way around.
I don't turn in one clean lap and end up qualifying one from last on a 3.01. At least I wasn't last!. To put this in perspective, McCanney popped in a 1.46 during his first race.
All in all, a stunningly crap way to qualify...but it gives ALOT of room for some progression through the day.
I learnt a few things after practice, answering some of the questions I posed myself after the holeshot hot lap event:
You can practice on half worn tyres.
I need a much, much higher level of fitness. Immediate arm pump is not a good way to start the day. Next time I race I WILL warm up before getting on the circuit.
Racing in January is cold (see above).
Going racing on your own is more boring than I thought!
Sportsmen are faster than I realised.
How good am I? Not very!
How good is everyone else? Better than me...for now at least.
Practice is a good wake up call, I thought I'd be OK, but I'm far from OK. I'm stiff on the bike, uncomfortable and nervous.
I looped the bike onto someone elses head. Not cool...they carry on like I asked them the time, not dropped 100kg on their swede.
I make myself a goals of completing the races and going faster through out the day with the aim of getting under 2.30 for a lap.
Waiting for race time, it was cold and foggy (a new breed of midlands fog called 'fog-ice' composed of icy fog) and I was getting ready to deploy the crying baby and flip open the book of 'Britain's Best Racing Excuses, Vol.2.'
When you're waiting on the line it's an odd place to be for the first time, a lot of aggression is required to blast into the first turn like you mean it. It's a great part of the race and I start looking forward to getting going as engines start bouncing off rev limiters.
Race 1: The race got underway in a cloud of unburnt 2 stroke oil and went better than practice. The course was more cut up than during the first session, but I felt a little more comfortable on the bike. I got stuck on one of the hills near the start and lost a lot of time.
Once I got going again things started to smooth out a bit. I tried not to death grip the bars and managed to relax a little.
It still wasn't good, but it was better.
My body positioning was poor and I couldn't work out why. I felt really tired and struggled to look up, where I wanted to go. All keep techniques that help you to go faster with less effort.
I also found I was being far too polite, waiting for people when they are stuck, letting people through, it's supposed to be a race, not a tea party! I ask for 'Milk with one please' as someone crashes past me.
All told, race one is pretty uneventful. I found that I could get through the small tyre section OK and enjoyed trying to rail through some of the turns,
but the ruts were causing me some problems. This will go on my list of things to work on.
Another area requiring immediate work is 'race face'. It's very difficult to switch straight on to race mode, I remember this problem from circuit racing. Coming from a few years of trackdays it takes a little while to get conditioned out of taking it easy and warming yourself up for a few laps. But this is the idea. To find these things out. I didn't feel particularly out of my depth as I hadn't seen anyone else really. I finished 11th and a couple of laps down on the winner, with my best lap a 2.12. A big improvement on practice, but still a way off the quicker sportsmen who are dipping under 2 minutes.
I hoped that in race 2 some fast would rub off on me and I'd be able to actually race with someone to drag the times down. From race 1 experience, the track didn't seem to be lending itself to racing very well as the deep sand had created some single line sections.
Between race one and two I cut the sleeves of my body armour to see if it helped to ease the chicken choking arm pump I was suffering.
In doing so I got really cold as it was close to minus a lot centigrade. Note for future: try to stay warm!
From race 1 I observed the bike was working OK, it seemed to be stalling a lot, but I needed to be wringing it's neck. That wasn't happening.
The sand was tricky to ride. Like deep wet mud with a much more vague feeling. Despite the lack of feel I found there were some nice corners cutting in with solid berms.
As I'm writing this I recall some advice I was given about lowering the rear of the bike and raising the forks in the yokes while riding sand to stop the front wheel digging in so easily. I'll be trying this out next time!
Race 2: I set off on the front row of the grid and get into the first nadgery rut in about 6th, from here I go backwards to tenth.
On the way I get my goggles run over. I had them on the back of my helmet because they'd steamed up, they flicked off and became my first racing casualty (after Sagar's
sore behind from seat dropping the biggest tabletop on the course).
The cut sleeves on my body armour seemed to help the arm pump issue quite a bit. It's difficult to tell, as once you have done a bit of riding under your belt for the day
the blood starts flowing and you don't seem to suffer as badly.
I had an enjoyable race, managing to slide past a couple of guys on a fast section that approached the small tyre hops. Goals were clicking off OK. In race one I turned in a best lap of 2.12, under my 2.30 goal. In hindsight this was probably a bit slow for a 'goal'! Race two I nipped a 2.03 putting the 2.30 to bed. Ideally I'd have liked to go under two minutes which would have put me in the mix. but that wasn't to be.
Race 3: I got away OK again. People were jumping the start. Eddy told everyone to wait until the flag drops before dropping clutches, but people were
off as soon as it was raised. It wasn't a problem for me as I wasn't going to win one on the day (or anytime soon) but it would've been nice to get in the mix for a holeshot!
So race three is ticking away. I'm riding smoother and managing to get through the ruts better than the previous outings.
I came up behind a slower rider on the table top, hit the gas in a fit of Carmichael aping foolery and head planted into the ground. Bugger. The bars and front wheel were pointing in
opposite directions and the guys I had previously passed came back by me as I flopped about in the mud hoping the tweety birds would go away.
I said a few words to myself that Grandparents shouldn't hear, whacked the bars close to straight, fired up the KTM and put some more laps in. Surprisingly I felt pretty good,
carrying some OK corner speed until Jack Edmondson came past me like the true beginner I am (I'm not sure how old he is, but I'd guess between 10 and 15, nearly sucking the graphics off my bike as he blitzed by...).
Lots more gears and brakes later and I was back in the pits. I go to check the results and find I'm tenth again with a slower lap than last time round 2.06. Considering the
whack on the head I'm not too disappointed. I broke out my emergency can of generic energy drink for race 4...
Race 4: Ready to right the wrongs of the previous attempts, I necked some of the energy speed juice (Rossi said it works so it must be true) and cruised down to the holding area.
With no throttle applied and the bike pinging off the limiter, I thought something might be a miss. Adding some slack to the throttle seemed to help and the bike briefly idled normally.
Waiting for the start I wasn't sure if it was a great idea to race with a sticking throttle, but I was already there and one of the marshalls gave me a reassuring 'it'll be alright' nod.
As I piled into the first turn on full gas, which was meant to be no gas, I thought I should have listened to myself. The KTM pinged its head off to a suitable resting place through the tapes.
DNF! Balls. That was my shot at getting it right. Race 3 had been pretty positive, despite the whack on the head, the track conditions were getting better through the day and I ended up getting sidelined by a sticky throttle.
Investigation is required in a hurry as the following weekend was to be the Fast Eddy XC at Stoneleigh where I'd try and put some of the lessons into practice.
Results were posted up on Enduronews.com the following day. To my surprise I was 7th overall. 11th in the first race, 10th in the second race, 10th in the third race (with head plant), 4th race DNF, but points for starting (bonus!). There was a reasonable attrition rate as a few people didn't complete all the races on the day (including me).
Some people only completed one race, others dropped out after two.
So with my first full meeting behind me I'm excited to get out again at the Fast Eddy XC for my first taste of that competition.
I'm anticipating it to be significantly different to the Enduro X, with a different type of terrain and a different mindset required
to ride for 2 hours turning in the laps, instead of a 15 min (relative) dash.
Below are some notes I made through the day. A learning brain dump that I'll try to digest before the next outing:
More positive throttle application required. More gas all the time. I need someone to compete against...
Feels frantic.
Downhill off camber corners? Where is your technique. Weight pegs, weight in the correct position.
Tricky downhills into ruts, look up, out of rut, not into it! Stand up, strong and forward.
Jump off bike, push and clutch to get going when stuck on sand hills.
Fitness is super critical!!!!! Cardio required. Any trainers available for this?
Enduroland is not real racing...
Arm pump is the main problem, aggression, put the bike where you want it to go, look where you want it to go.
A few notes on going racing with Fast Eddy
My first experience of racing with Fast Eddy was about as painless (in terms of organisation) as I could wish for.
I emailed Mandie Edmondson to enter the race and was given my race numbers. Any information I asked for was responded
to within 24 hours. It's possible to call as well.
On race day I arrived just outside the prescribed time for rider registration but there was no fuss. I was able to sign in
and receive my transponder (just my ACU licence for a deposit) within about 5 minutes.
All the races were announced by loudhailer, plus the current race category was shown on the live timing screen so
it was straightforward to work out when my next race was. Races were turned around super fast with minimal waiting around
and Fast Ed himself even helped me out when my throttle stuck open. A big double thumbs up to the Fast Eddy crew.
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