TMBRA Race #3- Solvaca Cat Claw Challenge- 03/20/11: Dan and Lance keepin it real !

Who is Hardcore? Is that just an in your face right now thing or is it an I’ll be here all day thing? Maybe its a little bit of both. In this case its all the above and then some. That’s because Dan and Lance are gonna be there. We are gonna be there early. We will stay late. We will out do you on all fronts. Did I mention we will be there next weekend too?! We’re gonna do all that and more. Its just what people come to expect, besides its a lot of fun! We like to do it up right and take some names and leave some bodies on the floor, or the trail that is!

When no one else can make it happen, you can count on Dan and Lance to represent in loud and proud OMW Racing fashion n we’re gonna look good dooozin it! Hell, we’ve been racing our bikes all over the great state of Texas for a while now. They see us coming. We re headed up north this weekend to Glen Rose, Texas to the Solavaca Ranch. A beautiful little chunk of heaven just south of Fort Worth for the Cat Claw Challenge. We ve been here before and know what to expect. This place has about all you want. Tough climbs, rocks, roots, flats, and some cool air ops! I’ll take some of that cuz im thinking “what would Tom do?”. Ok, when Im racing I thought it would be helpful to occasionally ask myself that question to spur me on. It works well on the jumps and air ops cuz Tom is soooo smooth. But theres only one answer to the question when youre out on the trail suffering. The answer is Tom would CRUSH IT!! It sounds good pre race but its just hard to crush it Tom style when your bonking! I still try it and I still try and make Tom proud. Where is that mother scratcher? Cant we get a mid season sighting or something??

I digress… Lance and I roll in to Glen Rose Saturday afternoon just in time to pick up our packets and for a preride. Tall doggs have been falling and its been made official, its race weekend!! Is that any good? Hells yes! We grab some prime real estate and set up camp with the Canopy as our living room and the tent as crash central. Dont know how we got the preride done but we do, as usual, and proceed to represent back at home base afterwards. After a dinner of chicken fried steak as big as your face and 2 sides we are lucky to find the ranch for slow down but we do. Its dark out there!!

Thank goodness for late starts. we dont have to go off till like 11 am. We got good rest last night as we were cooked by 10 pm. I could tell you how many tall doggs we killed today but then I’d have to kill you and Lance would have to bury you. BTW- it was a beautiful night out. It was a “super moon”. For you regular folk that is when the moon is very close to the earth and is full. This was the closest the moon has been to the earth in 18 yrs, while your bullshittin!! HA! ok, nough of the Astronomy lesson, get with me later for any questions. Lance takes off first and Im off about 6 minutes later. 2 laps about 9 miles each. Its time to rock. Lots of people out to watch. The top guys in my group dont hang around long, leaving me to fend for myself and keep the predators at bay, besides you know Im gonna start to smell the blood on lap #2. Im rollin about 10th or so with half a lap to go. I know I got a few guys ahead I can see and now theyre my rabbits! Oh I like a rabbit to chase. I bring a couple back, catch another but he gets away again but not by far. About a half mile to go Im coming up on him and dont think I can get him before the finish but before you know it I get his wheel with less than 1/8 mile to go, we roll into the finish straight but he has the only smooth line!. I force it out wide in the grass and sprint to the line, locked out, and he gets me by a half wheel!! 8th place. He gets 7th and little did I know that 6th place was just 10 seconds in front of us!! oh so close.  Lance does well and brings home 8th place as well. 2 top tens for the weekend, not too shabby. That will give us good points for the overall and solidify us in the Top Ten Overall. In fact that drops me nicely into 8th overall in the series and Lance down to 6th overall.

Once again we came, we rode, we kicked some trail butt and kept it real!! OMW Racing Real! Come get some of this. We will be heading to Coldspring in a couple weeks for the GHORBA Big Ring Challenge in the beautiful Sam Houston National Forest. We cant stay at Waynes A-frame cottages on Lake Livingston as theyre being remodeled. Maybe next year. Those GHORBA folks better have our ribbons for last year that they promised us and blew smoke up our butts about. And they better have ribbons for everyone this year. Im probably gonna bring it up when I pick up my race packet.

Stay tuned…