March 6-11, 2014 - Bike Week, without the Crowds

On Thursday we began to break camp while the skies opened up and poured on us.  At one point we gave up, grabbed our books and read for half an hour while we waited for the rains to quit. Eventually we were able to go outside and continue with our chores. After all we had to be out of our campsite by 1 PM.

We arrived at the Mud Muckers ATV Park, which they advertise as the World’s Largest Off-Road Family Mud Park. At 11,000 acres it is made up of pine forest, cow pastures and mud bogs. We were early, the gates didn’t open until 3, but we waited in line with a bunch of other early birds. Once the gates opened, we all headed into the cow fields to find a place to park.

 Because we were early, there was plenty of room to maneuver the Beast around, although we still got it stuck in the mud.

 My boys are very tired.  The flash woke them both

Not much room left by race day

The GNCC (Grand National Cross County) series is for both quads and bikes. Practice began on Friday.  It was still cloudy and cool so I stayed in to catch up on the blog and get our taxes done.  Thank God for Turbo Tax!!  Wayne rode his bicycle around and checked out places to watch the action. On Saturday the sun was out and race day had arrived!  I love the energy of this type of event.  Just wandering around camp and the pits is really electric!  I hadn't realized how much I miss it.  I guess Wayne needs to start racing again, or we need to find a series to follow around the country.

We watched racing all day, and because it was quads I left my camera behind.  It’s too bad, because in hindsight the photos would have been great.

 Sunday was all bikes!

 And they’re off!!

Out across the cow fields

 In the woods they found a bit of mud

 Hard to tell who is who!

 Hey, don’t roost the photographer

When the morning session was over, our favorite rider for that session, Kacy Martinez of the WXC class (Women’s Pro Class) was second over-all!! Usually we would have rooted for Maria Forsberg, who we have known since she was part of the 12 & under Brat Pack riding around the local enduro pits in Washington.  Too bad for us that she retired last year!  Maria, the most-winningest off-road female racer, has had a remarkable career. Over the past 10 years racing for KTM, she has collected 9 National Championships (GNCC, WORCS & Endurocross) and 3 X-Games Gold Medals.  

Kacy won the WXC class; which was huge, with twenty two women on the starting line!  I think the only the Sportsman A & B had larger classes.  It’s nice to see so many women come out and race!

In the afternoon the Pros and Pro2 lite’s were on the starting line.  Changes were made to the course due to too much….mud.  It was routed out farther than we could get to, and and the course was cut down to 8 mile/lap.  The Ladies did 11 mile laps.  Hmmmmm

Charlie Mullins on his KTM won the Pro class.  Our PNW connection Ricky Russell of Duvall Washington was second in the Pro2 Lites.

After the racing was done, Wayne made an executive decision to skip the Alligator Enduro because he was worried that we’d get the ‘Beast’ stuck in that field they were camping in.  We continued southwest, heading for the Ocala National Forest where we knew we could camp for the night. Along SR 40 we passed the Volusia Speedway where many motorcycles were parked.  Once we got camp set up and the internet running I looked them up.  Sure enough that was day 1 of three days of racing for Vintage bikes and Amateurs. We had a day to spare before my friend Linda arrived, so I guess now we had a plan.

 We got there during practice and immediately went into the pits.

 We saw some really cool bikes

 Flat trackin’ a 525

 See the left-side hand shifter???

ZZZZZZ-Zooming!

 Color matched wheels…

 The pits

We watched 1 practice session, 42 heat races and 30 finals.  The youngest rider was 5 years old on his stock 50 cc Yamaha and the oldest was 78 riding his vintage bike.  Can you imagine taking your 5 year old aside and telling him "Go fast, turn left".  ;-)  They had lots of different classes.  My favorites were the 5-11 year old 65 cc modifieds, the 7-11 y/o 85 cc modifieds and all the brake-less classes.  Yes, it is not enough to take off the front brake (which they all do) this class had no rear brakes either!  Yikes!!!!

 Camp was a paved ORV parking lot in the National Forest, nothing fancy but it worked and the cats could be outside.  They LOVED it!

 We stayed there 2 nights. Then we spent a day trying to find all the stores we needed in Orlando.  Wayne and I don’t really enjoy the crowds at the theme parks, so we didn’t bother with any of them.  We spent the night in a rest area, preparing to pick up Linda at 9 am the next morning.  She’ll stay with us for 15 days, it should be a ball!!