2007 NMA White Knuckle Grand Prix

Race Report by Travis Redfield
October 20Th, Odessa WA

a tire obstacle in endurocross


awesome downhills like this


the tire jump


these logs were much tougher then they appear

The White Knuckle Grand Prix turned out to be an amazing race! I had a near flawless performance with luck finally on my side and the course was one of the best in the NMA series this year. I have had many top five finishes this year, but having my first win of the season was a great feeling. Better yet, I feel I have finally regained my conditioning that I had prior to my collarbone and knee injury.

The Stumpjumpers MC hosted the White Knuckle in the small farming community of Odessa WA. With support from several local farmers and the town lending equipment and facilities, the Stumpjumpers created the most interesting and entertaining course I have seen racing the NMA series. The course was roughly 13 miles in length and featured an endurocross section, dirt flat track, technical ravines and hills, fast sweeping turns, and your typical desert silt for extra challenges. After the race, the town provided a spaghetti feed for the racers, fabulous!

The start was in a large field parallel to the pits. There were at least 30 bikes on my start wave and possibly many more and another wave in front of us with at least as many bikes. I worried that my 250F would not have a good pull in the cultivated dirt, as it was very loose, however, as my wave left the bike pulled fairly well and I entered the first corners in the top third of the wave.

After the start, the course made a few sweeping turns and then dove into a rocky downhill. Here I made ground on several riders and I could see we were already catching the wave in front of us. We approached the first uphill and dust and bikes were scattered everywhere. I lucked out, found a great line, and passed numerous bikes before a rider in front of me crashed and caused me to go down briefly. I quickly got up; fortunately, most riders behind me were struggling up the hill so I did not lose many positions and quickly regained my charge.

We then entered into the endurocross section. It began with logs laid across in a slight corner, with some of them spaced only a bike length apart (or less). Riders bottlenecked and flailed around to get over the logs. Many were waiting for the easiest line but I chose to take the available line through the tighter area of the logs and although it might have not looked pretty I made it work and passed several riders. The remainder of the endurocross consisted of tire and log obstacles that were pure fun to ride.

Through the rest of the first lap, I continued picking off riders. My arms stiffened some as I was really pushing hard and battling through the endurocross section sucked some of my energy. In the latter half of the lap, I found myself having difficulty keeping the pace I was earlier and lost some positions. I kept pushing hard though, but within my limits.

The second lap I was beginning to warm up. I began to regain positions I lost earlier and found myself battling with the riders from the wave in front of mine. This lap I mostly shuffled back and forth with these riders, keeping pace with them, but still learning the course and finding better lines.

The third lap I was feeling great. I really began to move and push the bike faster through the corners. I rode smart, picking good lines through the deep silt and avoiding the tank deep ruts that trapped other riders. I now knew the course and where I could really ride fast and hard without risk.

My fourth lap continued like my third lap. I kept my pace and continued to pick off riders. I had planned to gas at the end of my fourth lap giving me 52 miles, which I have easily gone 55-60 before without hitting reserve. However, around the ½ point of the lap the bike began to starve for fuel, I reached down and switched the tank to reserve. I began to worry some, as I knew I still had a ways to before reaching the pits. I decided to conserve fuel and slowed my pace. I did not lose any positions but while pitting several riders I had passed earlier passed by.

Out on my fifth lap I pushed to catch the positions I lost pitting. When I reached the endurocross section, the riders who passed me earlier were having difficulty in the logs. I managed to clean the entire endurocross section and pass them. I was feeling great and pushed even harder.

By my sixth lap, I was not seeing any other riders and riding on my own for the most part. It was a great feeling. I knew this would be my last lap and made sure I rode safe. I may have ridden too safe though as one of the riders I had overcome in the endurocross section passed me. I was not content with this and picked my pace back up. With only a few miles to go, we battled back and forth passing each other several times. He went down shortly before the finish and I knew I had it and charged the straight to the finish. It ended up being a lot of fun having someone to battle with to the finish.

I have not yet seen the overall scoring but hoping my first in Vet A placed me in top ten overall for the race. No matter where I placed I had a great race and felt I rode better than I have all year long, which I take as a great accomplishment.

Thank you to my sponsors Adventure Motorsports, MSR, FMF, Scott USA, Motorex, Kenda, Pivot Works, EVS and Pro Taper.

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2007 NMA Rimrock Grand Prix

Race Report by Travis Redfield
October 7Th, Rimrock Lake WA

Rimrock Lake


View of the Lake empty


Start in the mud


Me going into the rutted single track section

The Rimrock Grand Prix, hosted by the Yakima Dust Dodgers, has to be one of the most scenic hare scrambles in Washington State. It takes place at Rimrock Lake located on the east slopes of the Cascades with surrounding views of the mountains and forests. The lake is drained yearly in the fall leaving a mostly dry lake bed. The course has a great variety with everything from 1^st gear technical rock sections, to 6^th gear pinned straights, mud, sand, creek crossings, whoops, and much more. Overall, a very fast course that keeps you on your toes. The course length was 8 miles and took roughly 15 minutes to complete a lap.

The Dust Dodgers started all the A and AA riders in a single wave on the dry lake bed in the slick mud. It was a live engine start with approximately a 1/8^th mile straight to a hard left turn. With most the other riders being on 450s or 250 2-strokes, I was at a large disadvantage for a good start. Sure enough, I was out-pulled unlike I have ever been before and watched the majority of riders pass in front of me. Fortunately, coming into the 1^st corner I was able to come from the outside and cut through the inside with more speed than many riders and passed quite a few of them making up for my lousy start.

The first ½ of the course was mostly fast straights and corners in the mud. I found my bike just could not get the pull out of the muddy corners and through the mudded straights the 450s had and several riders passed me before reaching the more technical section of the course. I made up ground in the technical section and gained back several positions by the end of the first lap.

At the start of my second lap and back onto the high-speed sections, I realized what I needed to do. I needed to out-corner the other riders because I could not count on having the power to make passes in the straights and power out of the corners as I would have liked. The mud was thick and would pull your motor down, but also tacky and allow you to carry speed against it through the corners if you were willing to commit. Therefore, I focused on maintaining as much speed through the corners as possible and keeping the power on throughout the corner so that leaving the corner I was faster than other riders and could gain on them. Slowly but surely it worked and by the end of the third lap I gained back the positions I lost earlier.

However, back into the fast corners on my fourth lap the rear of the bike felt completely loose and I could not maintain the speed from earlier. On one corner, the back end came around and I went down. I thought that maybe conditions were changing or my tire just was not maintaining as good of traction as it had earlier from wear of the sharp rocks in the technical section. Unfortunately, it was far worse. As I came in at the start of my fifth lap to take gas and goggles I was informed my rear tire was flat. The pit crew for another racer offered up a wheel from a spare bike they had (very generous of them), we quickly pulled the wheel off and began pulling mine. Then we realized the sprocket sizes were drastically different (48 tooth to 52) and I did not have enough adjustment in my axle blocks (looking back I might have been able to reverse the chain blocks but completely forgot about that trick).

I rushed back to my truck to install a tube. Pulled the wheel, removed the old tube, and installed the new tube only then to realize that the duct tape covering the inner spoke nipples had worn off from riding on a flat for so long. Thus, I had to completely remove the tire, secure new duct tape over the spoke nipples, and reinstall the tire and new tube.

At this point enough time had expired I knew I could not regain any positions in my class and debated whether I should go back out onto the course. I had already done significant damage to my rim and the tire had several cuts on it from being ridden flat in the sharp rocks and was not sure it could hold up to much more. I decided I would go back out and if I felt my tire was going down would check it and limp back to the pits if it did. I was able to complete two more laps before the course closed and ended up having a lot of fun on my last two laps.

In the end, I felt I had given the race my best effort and was happy with my charge prior to having a flat. I believe I was in contention to place top three of my class if the flat had not occurred. I still managed to have a great time though; the course at Rimrock was so good that even in mounting frustration getting back into the race after my flat repair put a smile on my face. I also feel I improved on my cornering, and even had one of my fellow racers comment on how when I passed him in a corner he was impressed with the speed I had over him.

Thank you to my sponsors Adventure Motorsports, MSR, FMF, Scotts Goggles, Cycra, Motorex, Kenda, Pivot Works, EVS and Pro Taper.