The Dred Report: Sandia Classic! The last race of my season was in Albequerque, NM. I came back from a school, packed up my bike and the family, and started driving. The Sandia Classic was going down and with a good sized purse I figured there would be some good racers, which means good racing. It turned into one of the longest nights racing I can remember. A hole in the track along with some other issues caused long delays, but we raced, eventually. They had a mad dog class for 150cc bikes which should be my forte'. I didn't, however, expect some serious racebikes to line up. And, with a "not so fresh" CRF150 motobike did my best for a fifth place. I held her wide open all the way around the track, but the hot rod bikes just had too much for me. Oh well, it was fun, and that is what it is all about. The open pro was serious though. Jimmy and Alex Wood were there as well as the Sammy Sweet and all of the Scherb boys. Not to mention a slew of other good riders. I have to admit, after not leaving the line like I needed to I started to get a little nervous about my prospects in the semi. It went well enough though, and it was time to focus on moving forward in the main. The race was a blurr! I got a good start and one lap in... chaos. But, I faired well moving up a couple of positions. However, a couple of laps later... more chaos. This time however, I had to take some serious evassive action and it cost me some positions. But, at least I made it through! I was able to move past the next person up and ran out of laps. I had no idea through all craziness where I ended up until payout! 8th it would be for the night, should have been better, could have been worse. Gas money in hand it was off to Santa Fe to take Anna and Evelyn shopping for pink cowboy boots.

The Dred Report: Well I haven't kept up with race reports like I should have. But, I have gotten some racing in. So far this year locally we have been able to get in three races between schools. The grand total between all the classes is three top spots and four runner-ups. In fact, we have had some great races with good turn-out even if I'm not exactly happy to be missing the four extra wins that were filled with the 2nd place finishes. But, one of those came in a Sportsman class race (a mix of pros and ams) where the field is inverted for the main. I had first place, first heat race which gave me last pick for the main! I got through evebody but one, so I wasn't too upset on that one. That was all fine and dandy, but nationals are the real measuring stick. And, in Springfield I didn't meaasure up. I was less than a tenth of a second out of program. That's right, on a TT I didn't make the program. Needless to say I am pretty dissapointed. But, in the motivated kind of way. I know I could have gotten that tenth out of myself, but I felt fast enough and feared a big mistake. There were only two, four lap practices to qualify, and I didn't want to throw it away riding over my head for a only slightly better qualifying time. In hind sight, I should have. It didn't help that with only the two proactice sessions by the time I figured out what I needed to do to the bike to get more time out of it - I was done. Lessons learned: 1. It's a NATIONAL, every 1000th of a second counts. 2. Every part of bike setup that can possibly be more closely preset - must be. Find a track, or corner, or jump that will be similar for testing. 3. Packing up early sucks! Stay tuned, two weeks and I should have some pretty exciting news. Of the good or bad it should be exciting! 6/10/7