January 24, 2005

When your best riding group calls with a plan!

(2005 Steel Shoe 3 Hour Endurance Ice Race Fort Atkinson, WI)

By Ryan Moss

Everybody has that group of riding buddies that when they call with a plan; you know it’s going to be a good time (and a little haphazard). I got that call one week before the 2005 Steel Shoe 3 Hour Endurance Ice Race. I’m in my garage building some shelves and the wife comes out laughing, she hands me the phone and says “it’s Tony”, she knows I’m going racing or riding soon. I grab the phone and get “the 500’s ready, are you in”. Without hesitation I say, “I’m in”. Not really knowing what I got myself into I assume it has something to do with dirt bikes and know it’s going to end with smiles and good stories. As the conversation progresses, I find out that I just agreed to race the 2005 Steel Shoe 3 Hour Endurance Ice Race on a KX500 and one of my teammates will be Shawn Higbee (a very good road racer). There is also a KX250 that can be ridden but that is for a second team that is being put together. At this point I’m a little scared, I’ve never raced on the ice, only ridden a KX500 for about 10 minutes (which was 9 minutes to long in my eyes), and have a very fast road racer to not let down. The conversation ends with little detail except that I’m to recruit two more buddies and that we may test on Saturday and Tony will call me later in the week.

As the week progresses little detail comes about and I was only able to recruit one other buddy (one has his pink skirt on and just wants to watch). Saturday comes around I get another call, “not sure about practice, to much snow, Jeff Fredette is on the team, call you back in one hour”. I never get another call, looks like we are racing with no practice. Plus now I have another fast rider on my team, this isn’t improving in my eyes. Finally get a call about 6:30pm, “the KX250 isn’t back together, our pit crew leader is mad at the world, things don’t look good, call you in an hour”. I’m at the Forest City Riders winter banquet, so I think great, no racing, I’ll have a drink or two, or three. Around 8:00pm the phone rings again, “we’re on, be there at 9:00am”. It takes me a minute to figure out what that call was all about, and then I realize that I’m racing a KX500 on ice, I put down my drink.

Morning comes quick and I pile the family into the race van with every piece of winter clothing we have. We get there about 9:30, my phone had been ringing since 9:00 as they thought I partied to hard and overslept (not that this has happened before with this riding group). I sign up and get down to our pits. Finally I see the KX500, it looks new and doesn’t have any pink on it (a big relief for me, you have to know my riding buddies), it’s lowered, has Fredette ice tires, hand warmers, and 8 once flywheel. The riders meeting is called and they announce that there is 45 minutes of practice. Things are looking better. Practice time comes and Jeff goes out for the first couple of laps to make sure the bike runs ok. Jeff’s happy with the bike and it’s handed to me, I make it to the first corner and my goggles are fogged up from two much moisture (guess my death grip was causing me to breath a little too heavy). The goggles get worse and I’m on a KX500 trying not to run into anybody or hurt myself in practice, not a nice first experience. I come in and give the bike to Jeff for some more laps and start asking about goggle prep. Come to find out my ski mask is directing all my breath straight up into my goggles. We cut holes in the mask and everything is much better. I get two more laps of practice and find out that the 500 has a huge grin factor. Shawn completes practice but seems a little nervous about the 500. I guess he needs more practice or something. Everybody else in the pits has big smiles.

They start lining people up and no one is around. I finally see Jeff running over and says “I think I’m doing the first 40 minutes, Dave (another buddy) says the 500 is only good for about 45 minutes on a tank”. I help him get the bike off the stand and away he goes. Jeff blows the start, and is way back in the pack. I talk to Dennis (our pit crew chief) and ask when I’m riding, he reports “the second hour”, I report the gas situation but Dennis said he has it covered, I trust Dennis. We start wondering how to signal Jeff to come in, as we never talked about it and no one is sure. We figure we’ll just wave the 1 lap sign and he’ll come in, it works. Jeff comes in and reports only one slide out, that the track is rough and to have fun. I hop on and blast out onto the track. It’s rough, and other riders are either flying or creeping along. I get into a grove and try to ride hard. Then I see the evil snowplows, they are both good and bad in my eyes. They are great as you get clean ice and can fly, but trying to pass them is a disaster for me. Almost every time I end up in a snow bank trying not to crash. Other then the snowplow incidents I only had one big scare, I knew I couldn’t make a turn so I just straightened up and pinned it (thanks Jeff for the advice). I made it through the snow bank and back onto the track (a little short cut never hurt anybody) without crashing. I had been out there for a while and was wondering when I was due to come in. I kept looking for my pit crew, but everybody looks the same with hats, boots, and snowmobile suits on, plus you’re at speed where everyone is standing. I finally see my dad waving a gas can and figure out that it’s time to go in. I come in, give the bike to Shawn and tell him it’s rough, hold on and have fun.

Shawn finishes up his hour and the race is over. Everyone is laughing and smiling. My main mission was accomplished; I had fun and didn’t hurt the bike or myself. We load up the bikes and start pit racing. Most of the group has to leave ASAP but I had to find out how we did. I load the family back up and stop at the bar to see if the results are up.

The results are already up; we ended up 9^th in the Heavyweight class (251cc and up) and 17^th Overall. I’m happy with that, but the racer in me is already thinking about next year and how much practice I need for a top ten finish.

Next year I’ll be the one calling the group with a plan!