(Pictures courtesy of Erin Lyn Photography)
Race Report: ECEA Round 10: SORR Foggy Mountain Enduro
WER Rider: Zack Huberty
Bike: KTM 200 XC
Result: A-200 2nd
Point Standings: 3rd
Before the Race:
Prior to the Foggy Mountain Enduro, I spent more time than usual on building my endurance. Swimming at the pool and small runs helped build my endurance. I also recently got a membership to blue diamond but I haven’t been there recently with the excessive heat. After Foggy Mountain Foggy Mountain
Report:
I spent most of my Friday night double-checking everything on my bike. Sunday morning, I got up early to make some changes to my skid plate which was somehow denting the back of my pipe, and my dad shaped up a new hand guard. Around 4, we headed up to Foggy Mountain
Sunday morning, I got up early and was feeling good. I was looking forward to a fun day of riding. I had a small mishap before going to the starting line because I forgot to turn my gas on when warming up my bike. The bike sputtered out so my first assumption was a fouled plug which was not the case. After turning the gas on, I rolled up to the starting line. After taking off, I realized that it would be a very dusty race and that passing would be difficult.
After a short ride, we headed into the first section of the day. This section consisted of grass track, woods trail, and some rock gardens. I was surprisingly feeling good and confident, and I was able to keep with a rider on my row who normally easily beats me. I was able to follow the rider in front of me the whole section but the dust was so bad that I could not pass. Another problem with the section was that the arrowing was bad and this resulted in me missing a few turns. After the section, I found out that I was one point off of the leader’s pace. We then headed to the next section of the day where I was able to ride smoothly with the 3rd fastest time for my class. I was feeling great with little fatigue after the section. My suspension was working great as well.
We then had to ride a ten mile transfer section which was overgrown with vines and weeds. I started to get in a rush as I saw that I was starting to get behind. While riding between a log that had a slot cut out of it, I snapped my right side foot peg off. I looked down and nothing was there at all except the pin. I ran back down the trail and picked up the peg. At the next reset, I took a bunch of zip ties and tried to attach the foot peg back on in some sort of way in order to create a platform. Unfortunately, we had two sections to ride which scared me. One mile into the third section, the foot peg snapped off the zip ties. For that section and the next, I had to ride without the foot peg. Riding without the right foot peg is a lot harder than it seems. I was not able to stand and I could not weight the right peg in corners. It left me uncomfortable and I had to hold up my leg for a full 9 miles of racing which is a difficult task. In the fourth section, I was not feeling very comfortable as the trail opened up. I wanted to keep a good pace in order to minimize damage, but I had my worst crash to this date. I was going down a rocky ATV trail when my rear end kicked up throwing me into an eight foot fence. I went face first into the fence which knocked the lense out of my goggle. I got up stunned and finished the section. After the section, I noticed that the rear end was a little crooked from a broken fender.
At the gas stop, I was able to run into my dad who offered to give me his foot peg off of his bike. I had found a friend who had an extra one but it was in his truck down the rode. I did not want to risk the chance that there would be another section in between that and his truck, so I took my dads. I am so thankful that my dad gave me his. In the last two sections of the day, I was able to put in two solid times. Even though I lost 3 points to Pete Wright (leader), I felt good and comfortable. I was mentally exhausted from the bike problems. When you have something break, all you can think about is finishing the race and the effect it will have on your points.
At the end of the day, I was surprised to see that I placed 2nd and around 40th overall. I am glad that I was able to make up more points on 3rd place but that is not where I want to be overall. I dropped a 28 on the day, but without the footpeg problems, I think I could have dropped a 24-25. As we head into the next race, I hope to practice some more and make more adjustments to my bike. I look forward to writing about the BER National Enduro.
Once again, I could not have done all of this without the support of my family, especially my dad for his race support, as well as my sponsors which are Johnny Limp at Torc1Racing, Drew Smith at WER Suspension, PowerSeal USA, FMF, BRP, EKS Brand Goggles, P3, All Balls Racing, Galfer USA, Sixsixone, Kenda, N-Style, Vertex Pistons, AXO, DT-1 Filters, AP Brakes, Motorex, Acerbis, Matto Cycle, MotoConcepts, Renthal, Clockwork KTM, and Topar Racing.
For more information:
Check WER Suspension out at Facebook “Works Enduro Rider (WER)”
Check Zack Huberty out at Facebook “Zack’s Racing”
Check-out Zack Huberty at http://zackhuberty323racing.blogspot.com/
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