| Hot Notes from Rodman Plantation Races November 3-4 and 17-18, 2001 By Jenn Sheppard |
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The FTR spent 2 HOT weekends at the Rodman Plantation during which brought
many exciting happenings. The HUGE house was any racers dream and the track
was spectacular both weekends. Straight-aways, palmettos, whoops, mudd...you
name it, it was there. The spectator area was one of the better ones with a
good jump right in front. A few people took advantage of this (not mentioning
any names) and geeked it right in front of everyone. Next time I'll just roll
it...
Saturday night, if you didn't eat that BBQ dinner you missed out. Later on,
there was a band and a 12 year old future country star that blew everyone out
of the water. (She sure knew how to work it.) It was quite a laugh to watch
all the big names in FTR out there on the dance floor keeping a beat (or
trying to). And for all you guys that didn't want to try, you probably stayed
by the bonfire and watched.
Almost everyone will agree it was a great idea to have a place where the FTR
could eat, relax, and chat with other riders that they probably had never
talked to before or had just seen around. Everyone usually goes back to their
separate camps to do the same ol' thing and this brought everyone together as
one group.
My boy Travis Hullfish #113 in Mini B was running hot at the first
harescrambles and left everyone for dead finishing all of the 5 laps in the 2
hour time slot, high pointing the event.
Super Vintage A rider Jonny Simpkins #41 smoked 'em both weekends with two
killer rides that left him two 1st place trophies. I heard those old bikes
are sometimes as fun as the new ones.
Finishing 4th overall the first weekend was Pierre Debus 1st place in A250.
Obviously he has been eating his wheaties and kept 2nd place rider Johnnie
Grigsby Jr. about 30 seconds away.
The CFTR boys were haulin' at the Benefit run. Seth Lang #22 and Robert
Cuevas #69 in B-Open were battling until the end with Seth holding Robert off
by a little less than 10 seconds. Because the track was mostly wide open
fields towards the end, it was hard to catch up last minute (unless you run
high gearing of course.) LiL' Maynard Patterson #9 in A250 finished 1st in
his class and ended up 7th overall. Blake Hodge #5 riding the Katoom in
C-4Stroke won his class by a minute to Tim Willis # 92.
Eric Gilbert #711 was leading his class, B4-Stroke, you know feeling good,
when he comes across a rider down on the ground. Many of you might have
pulled the, "You all right bro?" move, but Eric stayed with the guy until
medical attention arrived. He COULD have, seeing that the guy was hurt, kept
going and told a course marshall maybe 3 - 4, 6 miles later. Eric stayed
right by the guys side talking to him, doing everything he could. That's what
FTR is about.
What's Not
Well, as the sun was coming down the races were still on, as the Quad riders
came in around 5-6 o'clock. I heard it was getting pretty dark back in those
woods. You were the lucky one if you had a headlight. You also were one of
the lucky ones if you happened to get caught behind that pack of 13 or 14
Quad Women riders!
Picture this, you come around on your second to last lap and your pit crew,
whoever they are, tells you the 1st place rider is "RIGHT THERE." So being
the competitive rider you are, you get ON IT! You ride as hard as you can on
your last lap, pass the rider like he (or she) is standing still, and hear
"the chicane's closed," when you get to the finish. You've houred out and all
that hard work was for nothing because you're still 2nd.
Some of you may or may not know this but we are NOT racing for a million
dollars, a new bike, or anything along those lines. This is a FUN sport and
we do it because it is FUN. If you see someone on the side of the trail not
moving, crying with their leg wrapped around their neck, stop and see if they
are okay. And don't just shout "Are you O.K.?" while psyching up for the next
turn. Make sure they give you the thumbs up sign before you move on. You'd
be glad if it was you on the ground.