Another weekend, another race. What can I say? He loves it. The day Matt quits racing dirtbikes will be the day pigs fly! The boy's been on 2 wheels his whole life. I wish I had something I felt as passionate about as he does. I did have fun this weekend though. The race took place at the Snowshoe Ski Resort in W.V. The resort reminded me of a little "town-like" place. It's like a little town that sits on top of a mountain all by itself. We had to get up at 5AM on Saturday morning to make the drive there. It was me, Matt and Jeff (as usual) in Jeff's van. I couldn't pry those two apart if I tried - they do everything together! (Not in a homosexual kind of way.. just in a "best friends" kind of way! Haha..I swear people that don't know them probably do think that!) It's actually kind of funny. No matter what we do Jeff is usually with us. I'll post another entry about our "third wheel" a little bit later. I really don't mind that he is always there… he's like a big brother to me now. We joke around, make each other laugh and even fight like siblings do! So in the van on our way to Snowshoe… all I can say is thank God I have an ipod now because sometimes listening to those two talk about motocross the whole way to our destination can get a little annoying! That's ALL they talk about ALL the time! Ahhh! It makes me want to scream sometimes! I try to change the subject but that only ever works for about 5 minutes or so and then it's back to motocross! And if it's not motocross…. it's GNCC's, Supercross, Yamaha's, Kawasaki's, Honda's, Suzuki's, dirtbike accessories, riding gear, which friends are riding where that weekend, what bikes they have, various tracks to go to and the list could go on and on and on. (I promise I won't bore you anymore with the xtreme sports lingo!) At Snowshoe...…. We finally made it there and checked into our hotel and little did I know that my day had already been pre-planned to walk the track! There's like 12 miles worth of track! It goes back into the woods and everything! (Ok. Granted we didn't really walk 12 miles it was only about a mile or a mile and a half but still…) It was hot that day and these weren't the easiest woods to walk through. I had mud up to my ankles… I had to maneuver through trees and over logs and dodge about 50 million quads that went flying by splashing mud everywhere! (I guess the quads usually race on Saturday and the dirtbikes race on Sunday.) I mean, your literally right on the track and if you don't move it's not like they're going to stop for you.. It's a race! So while I thought I was going to die by being slammed into by a quad.. Matt and Jeff ran around the forrest like it was no big deal. I was just trying to keep up!(Check out the video above. Matt got the holeshot! #45 on the Yamaha!)
For those of you who don't know much about the sport I'll give a little background info. This was a GNCC (Grand National Cross Country) race. The series consists of 13 rounds each year and all of the tracks are out of state except one (in Somerset, PA). They are usually anywhere from like 8 to 15 miles long which doesn't sound too bad until you actually see the track. The riders have to maneuver around trees, ride through mud pits that are a couple of feet deep, cross wooden bridges that are usually in pieces and some non-existent after the quad race, ride through rock pits, over fallen trees and boulders, through streams - let's just say they definitely don't make these things easy.
According to Matt they are the hardest things he's ever done in the sport. I give him a lot of credit because I could never do it. Oh, and I forgot to mention that he has to do this for 2-3 hours straight without stopping! Matt and Jeff race in different classes so Matt races in the morning and Jeff races in the afternoon. So while Matt was racing Sunday morning I had put up with Jeff for a few hours… haha.. It wasn't bad until Matt was like 45 min. late coming out of the woods and I was worried sick about him and Jeff started singing one of his little spontaneous made up songs that went something like, "Matt, Matt he's my friend but he may have met his end!" Way to make me feel better buddy!
Matt did, however, make it out the woods just fine and he finished the race in 19th place out of like 25 or 26. This was a tough race though and it was at one of the most difficult tracks. Jeff got 1st place in his class… which, didn't make Matt feel much better about his race but we were both still really happy for him. He's pretty good.Now on to the next one! A few more weeks and we'll be in St. Clairsville, OH. =)
lam
