Drag race to the first corner- note Wayne Gray in 2nd place, followed by Donnie Wilson in red & yellow, and Pete Biddy (89W)
41 is Steve Sweet, 94W is Christian Otero.... • I finished 3rd in this pack.

In the +40 Vintage Main again, not shifting to 3rd before the first corner I got a good start, and really was in a groove. I battled with someone, very likely my friend Wayne Gray! (Wayne you remember owns and hosts the classic we know as the Farm, in Chehalis Washington) And I didn’t even know it was him! He & I passing and repassing each other- Very cool.

Open Sportsman Main • Last race: I am on a charge, and again I have a battle with someone, or several. One rider overshot the first steep uphill, going off the side of the jump, and had to get back up on the course, and I was happy to nip through. Wes Willis was behind me at some point (proof in a photo) but he passed me, I can’t remember where, and I was on his tail for the last two laps- ie last half of the race, and I whooped at him, yelled at him to GO, but I couldn’t phase the man, and he finished 2nd and I 3rd.

Open Sportsman Main Heat finishing order. :
1 Ty Wilson 32Z Maico 1 1
2 Wes Willis 28Y Husq 2 2
7 Siege 306 CZ 10 3
4 Oliver Mork 72W CZ 6 4
5 Mark Williams 37Q Yamaha 7 5
3 Donnie Wilson 10U CZ 3 6
8 JT Southern 18K Maico 8 7
6 Matt Kile 44M Husq 4 8
9 Paul Fonseca 31X Honda 9 9
10 Tom MCDaniel 40M Maico 13 10
11 Steve McLean 13S Husq 12 11

•••••••••••••••• And then it was over....

I realized all of a sudden that I was starving and got a hamburger from the Food Truck. This outfit- (Con Todo catering from San Jose run by Ky & Lawrence Rangel) made me a hamburger. Now obviously when you’ve not eaten anything all day except for a celery stick or two and water and Gatorade you’re hungry and everything is good. But I swear on a stack of lightning bolts it was the BEST hamburger I EVER tasted in my life; I’m not kidding-

Behind me a few stragglers wandering by, heading up to the trophy presentation at the top of the hill.

I stood by myself at end of the long metal counter on the side of the truck, clutching my hamburger as though it were a life preserver, like a lone Wild Pig, with wild pig tears almost streaming down my Face. It was SO good. Yay.

And yet in a weird way as I stood there it was really more than that... it was one of those rare moments when one is with one’s self. Even though it was just me; a sweaty worn out guy eating a hamburger alone on a dusty gravel road somewhere in California, I was taking it all in at once- the taste of the whole thing- and it was replaying in technicolor through my dim & cloudy mind...

the way the bike pulled, with the back wheel drifting sideways up that scalloped surface up to the hairpin before the elevator shaft...

leaning back, and gripping the bars, and holding the throttle wide open– wow–

and the way the CZ moved underneath the rider... a sort of snap, as it left the ground over the tabletops–

the way it hooked up as I landed– it makes your mouth water. You don’t get those experiences many times in life.

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many people deserve a great thanks, especially the Santa Clara Riders Unlimited (SCRU) which put on this event,
Dave Boydston, our National Director, and of course many who we never hear about.
you all rock//SIEGE

©2003 SIEGE