Back on the GAS!

On September 23, my teammate Ryan Eisele and I dusted off our mtorbikes and headed to the Dick Jagow Memorial Grand Prix. The race is held at Washougal Motocross Park. I purchased a new Yamaha YZ450F in mid-August, so I started practicing 45 minute motos again on my mx track. The last mx race I had done was in 2008 and I knew I would be rusty even with a month of preparation. The Dick Jagow race used the whole Washougal mx track and surrounding fields and single track. It was similar to the 6hr mountain bike race that was held there in June–minus the mud!

I decided to race in the 30 amateur class. After a recent tailbone injury and not as much time on the moto, Ryan rode in the Sportsman category. The Sportsman class rides with the Women’s class so he offered to lend my wife a hand if she needed it as she was racing too. The grand prix began with a dead engine start and lasted hour and 45 minutes with the course being about 5 miles per lap. I got off to a slow start and most of the single track trails were extremely dusty which made trying to close any kind of gap on a rider ahead almost impossible.

The grass track sections were also slick the first two laps but the mx track was perfect condition. On the third lap, I began passing quite a few riders especially on the mx portion and grass track sections. With the pace I was riding and my fitness level from XC MTB racing, I felt like I could have gone all day! In the hour and 45 minutes I completed 7 laps and finished 14th out of 26 riders. I was pleased with my result after basically only riding a handful of times in the last four years! Overall this was one of my favorite races at a great venue on a super fun course!

Jeremy Warnicke