FROM THE RIDERS SEAT

A Weekend at the Wisp (Rocks, Trees, and more Rocks)

-         By Matthew Foutch

Deep Creek GNCC – McHenry, Maryland             June 29^th 2002

The 2Fast2Crash race crew (Shepard, Buchanan, and Myself) made the trip to Maryland from Illinois for round nine of the 2002 GNCC series.  After driving all night, we arrived in Maryland bright and early Friday morning.  Sometime around 7:00 am, Shepard was handling his share of the driving duties.  Buchanan and myself were sound asleep in the back of the Avalanche when we were awakened by the sight and sound of a Maryland State Trooper’s squad car.  Shepard was apparently too busy looking for arrows to pay attention to the officer following us.  The officer was trying to pull over a logging truck and didn’t appreciate the fact that Shepard didn’t allow him to pass.  (Shep won’t let anyone by on the track either.)  After a long lecture, the straight-laced Maryland trooper handed Shepard a warning ticket for Failure To Yield.  Buck and I think he got off too easy.

Welcome to Maryland.

Outside of the law, the Wisp Ski & Golf Resort was beautiful.  I have always wanted to roost up a pristine golf course.  Riding this facility is probably as close as any of us will ever get…  Legally that is.

The course was set up on the green grass of the Ski Slopes and in the neighboring woods.  The race start was actually on the Driving Range of the Golf Course.

The only problem with the facility was the fact that there wasn’t much room for Parking.  The Top 10 Pro’s were allowed to park on the asphalt parking lot.  The rest of the competitors parked on the steep grade of the driving range / ski slope or at the neighboring fairgrounds.  Even in dry conditions, the ski slopes were steep enough that you couldn’t pull a trailer up with a 2-wheel drive.   I’m sure the race promotors had a contengency plan in the case of rain.  They would have needed it.  The racer

Deep Creek Arial View

Photo Courtesy of www.gnccracing.com

productions people did a great job getting the racers in and out of the facility and actually had a good plan for the dry conditions.  Only one vehicle and one trailer per group of racers were allowed inside the facility.  The rest had to stay at the fairgrounds.  Rider signup was also at the fairgrounds.  As soon as the ATV racers finished, they were asked to move out of the facility to make room for the dirtbikers on the next day.  This seemed to work well for everyone we talked to.

The Racer Productions people had spent several weeks hyping up the Wisp location on their website…  I have to say that, all in all, the accomidations lived up to the hype.  There was a Comfort Inn, 5 star restraunt, golf course, lake, jet ski rentals, and a lot more all within a mile of the racecourse.  We should have taken a few more vacation days and stayed the week.

After rolling out of bed at the Comfort Suites (which had rooms nicer than I can find in my house) we took the short drive to the track.  We arrived in time to check out the morning race and BS with some of the other racers.  The weather was awesome and we were having a blast checking out the morning class riders slip and slide on the damp ski slope grass.  All we could see from our vantage point were well-manicured ski slopes and trees.

We had no idea what we were in store for.

We started getting our first glimpse of what was to come by observing all of the riders coming in with flat tires.  Then the riders started coming by with busted skid plates and smashed brake rotors flopping around their rear axles.  It started to become obvious that the course was tougher than it seemed.  We were about to find out how tough it really was.

In the morning race, Stephanie Parton took the Women’s class win and finished second overall behind William Howell of the 4-stroke stock class.  Women’s class point leader Traci Cecco took second place behind Stephanie after suffering from a flat tire on lap one.  Complete results from the morning race can be found at www.gnccracing.com.

More photos from the morning race can be found here:  Wisp morning race photos.

Evening Race  -- TEN SECONDS!!!

Stephanie Parton

We lined up for the uphill ski slope start and were soon underway.  Buchanan in the Pro Production class and Myself in the 4-Stroke Mod class.  (Shepard sat this race out with a broken collarbone that he suffered while dialing in his suspension at Flat River.)  All of the top classes got under way without suffering any serious first-turn crashes.  It has become common to see someone from the top five classes go flipping at nearly every race.  Lucky for us, there was a lot of room for give and take going into turn one.

The course led us through a slightly dusty open section and then into the woods… or should I say, into the rocks.  I don’t remember seeing any dirt in the woods, although there had to be plenty.  All I remember about the woods was the abundance of big sharp rocks.  Many of the rock sections were similar to Rip Rap.  You know, the rocks that are piled up on the sides of river dams and lake levies.  This stuff was super tough on the bikes and riders alike.  It was one of the most challenging courses that I have ever raced. 

After going into the woods in fifth, I was feeling pretty good but knew that I had better move up quick to stay with 4-Stroke Tech rider Brad Macri, who had pulled the holeshot.  It is a lot easier to run with the lead pack than to play catch up all day.  I needed to get up there quick!

The first two laps were a learning experience.  It was hard to judge how fast to go.  Riders had to really balance the risk of tearing up their machines or crashing with the risk of falling behind.  For myself, I would move up and get a good rythem going, only to get caught up in a bottleneck or tough spot on the course.  There were two times that I made a mistake and found myself pulling my quad off of piles of trees and rocks.  However, to my surprise, I was able to catch up to the lead riders after each hangup.  They must have been having the same problems battling the course.  The top four Mod riders through the first two laps were Macri, Stewart, Lane, and Myself.  We traded hangups and battled through the 20-bike bottlenecks until a wire came loose from Stewart’s machine, forcing him to pull to the side and diagnose the problem.  Then Lane caught a flat and had to pit. 

Up in the Pro Production class, Duvall and Trew were battling with each other for the class and overall lead.  Buchanan had engine troubles that put him out of the race.  Check out www.gnccracing.com for their report on the Wisp.  There was an amazing battle for the overall win.

Back in the Mod class, I chased Macri and got around him early in lap four only to promptly smack a tree and destroy a tie-rod.  This mistake ruined a perfectly good tie-rod and my chance to win at the Wisp.  I limped back to the pits and lost a lap fixing the tie rod.  This ended my Wisp experience 1 lap down in 14^th.  Macri went on to take the 4-Stroke Mod class win and 21^st overall.  Bill Ballance took the overall win. Congratulations to Macri and all of the other riders who were able to survive the Deep Creek GNCC.

Side note:  While several riders suffered problems at Wisp, Ryan Lane and Chris Borich suffered a little more than the rest.  During the course of the day, Ryan suffered from 2 flat tires.  Then, on the last lap, his rear axle broke in half…  Just from riding through the rough stuff.  He didn’t hit anything.  It just sheared off right at the axle lock nut.  After getting a ride back to the pits, he went back out to search for his quad.  When he arrived back at the spot he had left it, there was no quad.  Someone had taken it to tech inspection.  He finally found it but never did find the rest of his axle, wheel, hub and tire.

Chris Borich caught a wheel on a concrete curb near the pit section.  This caused him to crash at high-speed on the aspahlt.  The spectators claim that the crash was really ugly…  I believe them.  You could really get moving in the section that he crashed.  The latest news on Borich is that he suffered a broken wrist and plans to be back racing at Millfield.  Those young guys heal as fast as they ride.

See ya at the next race.

 www.2Fast2Crash.com