With a live start scheduled for our "Hamtown" race, I was excited for a promising start without the fear of being left behind by my class, should my Yamaha choose to be reluctant to kickstart.
As expected, my class of ten riders entered the woods at roughly the same time. I began to look for passing opportunities but unfortunately stalled the bike while slowing for a stopped rider. Although my bike has the Rekluse clutch, it usually takes a moment to warm up the engine before it's reliably "stallproof."
While I attempted to restart, those I'd passed quickly got around me. Eventually I was up and running again, but now with no one in my class within sight. I settled in with Lory & Mike from the next class. Passing opportunities were scarce and with Lory & Mike battling for first place within their class, I knew they wouldn't be willing to pull wide to let me by.
After a couple laps, though, I did manage to get by them and set my sights toward catching those in my class. A few had gone down while I was with Lory & Mike, so I knew I wasn't too far from the front. On one of the trips through the start/finish I saw that I was actually in 2nd place! I doubted I'd see Brent Lilly, but to my surprise I did actually catch him on the last lap!
When we reached a stuck rider I took an alternate line, smashing through a couple saplings and eventually emerging from the woods ahead of Brent. For the first time in the race, I let myself go full throttle to ensure that I could keep the position. It worked out - no falls and no sign of Brent nipping at my heels for the remainder of the lap.
I dismounted after passing the finish line to see how the battle between Lory & Mike would end. I saw Mike appear from the trees with Lory right behind him. They both gassed it through the short field before the finish line and Mike was able to hold off Lory by barely a wheel!
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