It was about a 7-7.5 hour drive from Houston, which isn't so bad. We've gotten used to making road trips with the baby, so traveling without him all of sudden seems like a breeze. Jacob is a pretty good traveler for an 8 year old and not too overbearing with the "are we there yet" but he does have his moments.
We arrived in Guthrie on Friday afternoon, Jan 22 and headed out to the track for our practice sessions. Practice is segregated by age groups. I went first and then Jacob got his 25 minutes on the track. The track was really nice. I heard one of the pros complaining about a little bumpiness. I was thinking, well where do you ride because our outdoor track is extremely bumpy. The indoor National tracks are always pristine as they usually make them with rodeo dirt and groom them to near perfection. Jacob and I both dug it. I loved the track because it wasn't too difficult like so many tracks can be. It was extremely ride-able and fun, which we both liked.
Jacob raced the pre-race on Friday night, just to feel out some of the competition and get more track time. There were 5 riders including him in the pre-race in 8 intermediate; he got 1st place and a huge trophy (national trophies for the top three are always huge).
The Sooner National races started on Saturday. Actually they treat Saturday and Sunday as two totally separate races. So its not like you are qualifying on Saturday for the race on Sunday type of thing, rather Saturday is National #1 and Sunday is National #2. While the whole weekend was incredible, Saturday was extra awesome for Jacob. He raced two classes, 7/8 mixed open, which consists of 7/8 year old boys and girls in both the novice and intermediate class and he race in the 8 Intermediate class, which is just 8 intermediate boys. There were approximately 13 riders or so in each class. Jacob wont 1st place in both classes in the qualifiers and then got 2nd in 7/8 mixed open and 1st place in 8 Intermediate, which is the class that counts. He got beat by an 8 year old girl in open class that was every bit as big or bigger than Jacob and just as fast. Those girls are really fast! I told him there was absolutely no shame, he had a good race and just got beat. The 1st place in 8I was incredible. The whole National was streaming live on the internet by go211.com. Here is a video of Jacob's 1st place win. He's the one.... well in first place :-) And no the head shaking is not normal and something we are working to stop, which will only speed him up more. Not sure how he rides with his head floppin' around like that :-)
http://www.go211.com/u/abasoonernationals2010/videos/20342
Jacob ended up with two 3rd place wins on Sunday, which we are still extremely proud of. He did make some mistakes and I think he understands what they are as he was in 2nd both races and literally let a rider pass him in both main events almost at the finish line, which he could have avoided had he peddled a little harder at the end. Oh, your being too hard on him you might say, well the video tells all friends... you can't stop pedaling until you cross the finish line ;-) He did awesome and we are extremely proud of him.
So how did Shane do at his first national? Well I didn't qualify for the main on Saturday but I was extremely proud of where I fell in the pack of experienced riders. Sunday was interesting. There were 17 riders in my class, which is 36-40 cruiser. I qualified to the semi final by winning against two other riders in my second moto. I raced 5 other really fast guys in the semi; four of us were going to the main event. Here's how it unfolded... gate drops and one guys chain busts, so he's out, but I didn't realize this until after the race. As we approached turn one, the 2 riders in front of me got tangled up and went down, I ended up running in to the back of them and also went down. All I was thinking was... get up, get up, get up... this is your opportunity to get one of the four spots. As I got up and back on my bike, I saw one rider still on the ground, one of the riders from the crash (one of the local riders from Houston that I know) had got back on his bike and was in front of me and then two riders heading down the track that got past the crash. I was peddling as hard as I could to regain speed and it finally dawned on me that there were only four of us left. At that point, I still wasn't sure what happened to the 6th guy and then I was told at the finish line that he busted his chain. I had qualified for a main event at a National! Friends, nothing mattered at that point. I didn't care what happened in the main, I was just happy to be there :-)
I got lane 5 in the main and had a really good gate against some really fast guys but my front tire hit another rider's back tire as we entered the first jump. You see the outside riders were all converging to the middle of the track as everyone wants the inside line in to turn one. I was being extremely bullish and wasn't going to back down. I was like I am headed this way and you can't have this spot, but he was already just enough in front of me that I clipped his back tire and almost went down. My clip shoes came unclipped from the pedals as I tried to stay upright. I didn't end up crashing, but when something like that happens, it's race over. You can't catch up unless the other riders crash or something. I ended up passing one rider at the end of the race to get 7th, but reality he had shut it down because he didn't care whether he got 7th or 8th. I cared however. I wanted the extra points. Nationals points count as triple district points. So I got 90 points instead of 60; works for me :-) Wow, it was really fun. I mean 17 riders, only 8 in the main event. It felt really good. Just for kicks you can see how fast these old guys are. I'm in the very back coming out of turn one and you can see how my near spill really slowed me down. If I hadn't gone done I probably still would have been in 7th or 8th but at least with the pack :-)
http://www.go211.com/videos/20400
The guy to the left of Jacob with the #1 on his jersey is the current National #1 AA Pro, Randy Stumphauser. The starting gate is in the background.
