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| Photo by Rick Cornelius |
Race Report: ECEA Enduro Series Round 3: Tri-County Greenbrier Enduro
Rider: Zack Huberty
Bike: MotoFIT KTM 200 XC
Result: A-200 3rd
Report:
After a month off from riding due to remodeling our kitchen at home and being busy with school, I got back to racing the ECEA Enduro Series. Coming into the Tri-County Enduro, I had figured out that my Mika Metals 48T sprocket is the best gearing for me in the sand and it lets me carry through the gears better. I had to use the clutch too much with the 46T. I also put on a FMF Turbinecore which seems to work pretty well even though it is spark arrested. I packed up at 5am on Sunday and made the trip to Port Elizabeth. The weather forecast looked awful with heavy rain on its way. I started on row 25 with Jarod Kulp, Bobby Kershaw, and Tim Gift. Before the rain started, I put in some solid times in the first few sections but I was still getting my feel for the sand.
Soon the rain started to come in as a drizzle and picked up even more. Other riders seemed to be dropping like flies as the day progressed (a lot of crashes and bike problems). Tri-County kept the race tough mentally and physically. There were some tricky timed sections and there were also some really long sections (14+) which wear down your mind and body. The rain only made it tougher and the sections kept going back to back without much trail riding in between. My endurance training has been paying off as I usually struggle a lot in the longer sections but I kept it together better. Unfortunately, I still made a lot of mistakes throughout each section which I need to work on. Each little mistake costs me seconds. If I can minimize mistakes, I can have a lower score at the end of the day. I also want to strengthen my endurance since these rock races coming up are tough.
At the end of the day, it was only Tim Gift and I going into the last section of the day for our row. I was able to put in a solid ride for the day for a 3rd place finish and 33rd overall. I am slowly improving and I am hoping to meet my expectations during the summer when I have more time to train. My goal is top 20 overall consistently so I have some work to do. The next race is the Pine Hill Enduro in two weeks.
I would like to thank the support of my family and friends, especially my dad for his race support, as well as my sponsors which are Johnny Limp at Torc1Racing, Drew Smith at WER Suspension, Mike at MotoFIT, PowerSeal USA, FMF, Jerod Stoner at JSdesigns for the jersey lettering, EKS Brand Goggles, P3, All Balls Racing, Sixsixone, Mika Metals, N-Style, Vertex Pistons, Fly Racing, DT-1 Filters, Motorex, Hinson Clutch Components, Acerbis, and Clockwork KTM. Thanks to Rick Cornelius for the great photos!
For more information:
Check WER Suspension out on Facebook “Works Enduro Rider (WER)”
Check MotoFIT Motorsports out on Facebook “MotoFIT”
Check Zack Huberty out on Facebook “Zack Huberty”
Check Zack Huberty’s Blog http://zackhuberty323racing.blogspot.com/
