Check out this race report from our friend and Silkoline poster guy, Steve Leivan. Yep those new Silkoline ads feature our man Steve. Steve reported on the Last Man Standing for us here at trail rider and he plans on attending and reporting on the Endurocross series too. My hats off to him, cause I sure ain’t picking a fight with him!!!
STEVE LEIVAN
2008 RACE REPORT
EVENT: Round 4 OMA Nationals; Waukon, IA; June 8
RACE BIKE: Yamaha WR250F
RESULT: 2nd +30 “A”
PRE RACE: I have heard that adversity introduces a man to himself. Well, over the last eight days I feel like I have been “introduced” and I am now on a first name basis with this adversity thing. In the process of throwing away a win at the MHSC round at Eugene in the last turn, I tore up my rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I took it super easy all week and tried to do what therapy I could to get better. I had already obligated myself to go to the OMA in Iowa and the other guys that I talked into riding the series were planning on going, so I felt like I needed to be there. Riding was probably not the smartest thing to do, but sometimes I don’t make the smartest decisions.
I thought that if the race were held under “perfect conditions” I would be all right. When we finally got to the track, I was quite obvious that it would be far from perfect. It had rained during the ATV race and it was now a “full on” mud race. Then it started raining again and the wind blew and it got dark. I ate some super and went to bed by 7 pm and listened to it rain for the next 12 or 14 hours. I don’t know how much it rained but the closest town got 9 ½ inches and was evacuated. Before I heard that, my guess was 10 or 12 inches so I guess I was close.
Bill Gusse doesn’t cancel races and he didn’t cancel this one. The turn out was light but he knew how much time and money the riders had invested to be there so he was going to give us a race. The light turn out no doubt helped me in the end since my day was full of problem after problem. My plan of riding conservative and staying out of trouble turned into a day of dealing with “what the hell is gonna happen next”. One thing for sure is that it was an experience.
RACE: All of the “A” classes started on the same row (maybe 30 bikes or so) and I was maybe eighth or tenth through the first couple of turns. I pretty much pinned it through the grass track stuff and tried to avoid the roost from the guys ahead of me and eventually I got up to second; behind one of the Open “A” guys but leading the +30 class. That didn’t last long though since I hit a slick log and fell allowing five or six guys to go past.
After half a lap we came through the pit area and I had already made a shambles of my goggles so I stopped for a fresh pair. Garretson was leading our class and I was right behind him when I stopped, so he got away from me a little. I caught back up to him and was just content to follow him and the other guys in the early stages. Just before I got to the pit area the second time, a fitting on the side of the cylinder head came loose and created a massive exhaust leak (and I lost a good bit of power). I was probably in the pits for six or eight minutes while Dad “McGyver-ed” an air hose chuck and some wire into the hole. I was way behind by now, but still going.
The next lap was fine until I nearly hit a big buck deer (many points and in velvet) that ran across the trail in front of me. I may have missed him by 20 feet or so and I hope he was as scared as I was. I kept plugging along – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, and sometimes semi-stuck or completely stuck. But for the most part I was “going”.
Then I got wadded up in a five-strand barbed wire fence that was hidden in the grass while I attempted to go around a guy that was stuck in the only line through there. Almost the only time I carry a fanny pack is in a mud race since I have found that things like this are likely to happen. Thankfully I had a pair of cutters in my pack and I cut and pulled and cut and pulled until I finally got most of the wire cut out and I could continue on my merry way. I probably spent another six or eight minutes there.
I think I got stuck two more times that were pretty major and required lifting and flipping the bike end over end to get out. During both instances I also had to negotiate several big slick logs on off camber hillsides to get back to where I had started. Each time my second attempt was successful and I wished that I had been able to do it that good on my first try. I had one lap to go and was just looking forward to getting the day over with no more trouble. That didn’t happen.
There were only a couple of creek crossings and by the end of the race they were pretty gnarly. I rode up to one and it looked far more vicious than the previous laps. As I tried to ride across the current grabbed my bike and started to shift it down stream. I jumped off and while I was falling over (and still holding on to the bars) the bike pivoted in my hands and headed down the “river” pulling me behind it. It was all I could do to hang on to it in the waist deep water and the current was way to strong for me to “muscle” the bike to the bank.
After it drug me 30 or 40 feet, I could see a bunch of logs that had been washed into the creek and I knew that if I got swept into there I was in trouble. I bailed out and let the bike go. At that point, my bike wasn’t all that important to me but getting out of that creek was. I got to the bank and watched the bike get jammed under a big log. All that was above water was the end of the throttle side handlebar. I got a hold of it and held a tree with my other arm, completely stretched out. I couldn’t begin to move it but I could sort of hold it.
A guy on a Suzuki rode up (sorry, I didn’t catch his name) and ran over to help. We both held but couldn’t move it. Then Marty Michels got there and tried to help pull. Then Aaron Branham. Then a guy on a Kawasaki (sorry, no name again). Even with five of us we could not get the bike out. We couldn’t lift it up since the log was jammed in it and the current was too, strong to pull it upstream and away from the log. Finally Kenworthy and Dennis Stapleton got there and between the seven of us we were able to pull the bike out.
My bike had been under water for probably five minutes and I figured that we were lucky that no one got hurt. I was happy to still have my bike but happier to be safe. Obviously, no one crossed the creek after what happened to me and I don’t even know how all those guys behind me got back but I know it wasn’t on the marked trail, which is a good thing since there would have been more “almost” lost bikes – or entirely lost.
Somehow through all of that drama, I still finished second in the class. I’ll take that and be happy about it.
POST RACE: I rode out with Kenworthy on his bike and then got to go back out with Gusse to get my scooter. The creeks were still rising and I had to talk the crazy old SOB out of crossing it on his ATV in one place and going a different route. We finally got to the bike but getting back was a bitch. I walked and pushed until I wanted to puke and then the landowner took over for me while Gusse made fun of me and reminded the landowner and his buddies that I was the “15-time” Missouri champ over and over again.
NOTES: I have spent the last two days completely disassembling my bike. It was basically pulled from the bottom of a raging river so it has dirt and sand and rocks and water and grass and sticks and seaweed in every place where that stuff can get. Today I split the engine cases apart and cleaned all of that stuff up. The suspension and chassis is next. So to my sponsors who are reading this: I may very well be calling you for parts.
My other travel partners had good days. Tanner Kenworthy almost missed the start of his race since he was busy eating powdered donuts. He got there just in time though and managed to finish second even though he “crashed a lot”. His dad; Shannon; was able to muscle through a “broken leg” that he suffered in the first turn and somehow win the +40 B class. He tends to exaggerate things “just slightly” so I am thinking his broken leg might have just been pain from a shaving incident. Kole “I am sooo, tired of mud races” Henslee found a way to have fun and got second in the “A” Lites. He only got “really stuck a good 12 times” this trip which is far better than the 50 times in Tennessee. They all did well and were so tired that I got to drive the first 500 miles back home.
I don’t think I did any more damage to my shoulder although it still hurts like hell. I am taking this weekend off (and maybe more) and focusing on being healthy for the Las Vegas EX on July 5th. Right now that is my main priority.
TOP 5: 1. Garretson (Hon); 2. LEIVAN (YAMAHA); 3-4-5. I don’t even know – I never saw the results.
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT!
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1 response so far ↓
1 wyatt // Jun 11, 2008 at 11:39 am
Strong work!
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