Are there any endurance racing fans out there?  I hope so, because I’m one of the biggest ones on the planet.  If you guys make it to Iowa to watch or race the Heartland Challenge, make sure you come say hi!

I’ll be racing the 3 hour UTV race on Friday night in Redline’s new Riot UTV and the 10 hour event aboard our Rockstar King Quad we featured in the October issue.  

On a side note, if anyone will be available on Sunday morning to spoon feed me some soup and wheel me into my plane for my ride home, I’ll take you up on it!

When I showed up with my Leatt neck brace, Chris was curious to see what it was like to wear.  It’s surprising to me to see how many MX racers wear the brace, and how many GNCC guys don’t.  I love mine…..but it takes a little getting used to at first.  Now that I’m used to it, I won’t ride without it.

Since I gave Chris my Leatt, it only seemed fitting that he let me ride his LTR450 Quadracer.  For the heck of it, I had Chris try his hand at shooting some photos with my Nikon.  As you can see from the pictures, it’s a good thing that his paycheck from Suzuki isn’t dependent upon him shooting photos.   

Chris…..the idea is to shoot the rider, not “Flash Monkey Steve”. 

Chris may be known as one of the Killer Bees, but these guys living in the blocks of his race shop don’t seem very scared.  The knuckleheads at his shop keep telling me they are only honey bees and therefore, are no big deal.  So…I came home and Googled Honey Bees.  Guess what, they still sting!  There’s a little science lesson for you!

It’s an exciting time to be an American.  I, like many other Americans, am really excited for a presidential change in 2008.  I can honestly say this is the first time in my life that I actually watched both the Democratic and Republican convention speeches.  I don’t claim to know much about politics, but it’s no secret how important it is for all of us to vote.  Whether you are an Obama fan or a McCain supporter, do us all a favor in November and exercise your right to vote.  While you’re out and about…..maybe grab an extra issue of QUAD from your local newsstand. 

www.barackobama.com

www.johnmccain.com

I thought we had alot of lifted vehicles in redneck Pennsylvania.  That was until I hit Southern California.  There were some huge trucks with high dollar suspension systems rolling up and down the highway.  I was completely surprised that even the lifeguards in Laguna Beach had lifted Chevy Tahoes!!!!   I also saw a ton of vintage 70’s muscle cars, beach bugs, and just some genuinely cool rides!

I was hoping to grab some lunch with “LC” and her pals, but they had an evening full of drama planned instead.  Maybe next time!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to get out and put some test miles on our long-term Honda 700XX in the tight northeast woods.  With it, I brought a Can Am DS450 and our QUAD long-travel Polaris RZR.  I don’t have nearly as much free time to just trail ride anymore.  Usually, when I ride, we’re either shooting photos or I’m racing.  So, when I found out a couple of my friends we’re heading back to my old hometown to ride, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet up with them and get out to do some wheeling.

I showed up with my trusty Toyota T100 pulling my 16ft aluminum trailer.  The T100, or “T-Bagger” as my buddies affectionately call it leads a tough life.  At 175,000 miles on the odometer, it could easily be in the boneyard.  But…..not mine.  That poor thing doesn’t leave my driveway unless I have a quad in it or I’m pulling a trailer full of them.  In fact, I just got back from a 500 mile round trip to QUAD editor Doogie’s place down in south Jersey.  I yanked that big trailer full of QUADS down and back.  I was pretty impressed because on the way down, I actually got almost 15 mpg, even towing that big trailer.  I’d like to see a new $50,000 Ford or Chevy gasser manage that!

On the way back home on the Pennsylvania Turnpike…..I saw an Audi pulling a trailer with a dirt bike in the back.  At first sight, I thought maybe that guy bit off a little more than he could chew trying to tow a trailer with that German sports sedan.  I actually ran into the same guy parked at our ride site Saturday morning, which was nuts.  

It wasn’t until my buddy Jim Stack showed up with his new tow rig that I felt I had to break out the camera.  Stack isn’t much of a tree hugger, but apparently he felt it would be more “green” to leave the diesel box van at home and break out his grandma’s old Ford Aspire to tow “Honzilla” out to our riding area.  Next time you see Stack at the GNCC races, make sure you thank him for reducing his carbon footprint!  Even more hysterical to me is the fact that Honzilla is supposed to be racing the Baja 1000 this fall.  I just hope Stack has something better than the Aspire in mind as a chase rig!

You never know who you’re gonna run into out on the trails.  We ran into a couple QUAD fans out riding who were stoked to actually see us out doing some testing.  That part never gets old to me.  At one point, we punctured one of the front tires on the Can-Am and this group of total strangers hooked us up with a tire plug and a pump.  So….thanks to those guys again for lending a helping hand!  Hopefully your weekend was as good as mine!

For now, I’m still rockin’ my trusty Nikon D200.

To be honest, it takes much better pictures than my old camera.

Being around this crew of talented photographers certainly gives a person the motivation to try and get better. I pretty much shoot photos of anything I can because the only way to really improve is to practice. So, the other day, we were hanging out at home and down the stairs came this………

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to snap a few photos of my three year old son who, as you can see, has one hell of an eye for fashion. I figured these would eventually become great pictures to show Mr. Spidey Crabcake’s first girlfriend, to post in his yearbook when he’s a senior, or to possibly use as leverage to keep me out of the nursing home someday!

This past weekend, I raced for the first time in over a year.  Actually, I raced two different events on Saturday.  So, because I was a bit out of shape, I’m now so sore that I’m holding my arms in the striking position you always see a T-Rex in just when they’re about to eat someone!

   In any case, since the GNCC event was only a few hours from my house, I figured it would be a good test bed to take out two of our Mod Quad projects evaluate.  In the morning, I raced our upcoming Mod Quad project Suzuki King Quad 750 in the ultra-competitive 4×4 Open class in the morning.  I got a decent start and heading into the 6^th and final lap, I was swapping positions back and forth with 3^rd place racer Greg Condon.  As we headed into a tight, slippery, swampy section about a quarter of the way through the last lap, I slid sideways, tagged a tree, and went over the bars.  I landed on top of my head on the softest ground found anywhere on the course.  I was very thankful to land there rather than on the rocks typical of the area.  That’s pretty much the end of the good news though.  The sweet looking Genuine Suzuki front bumper that used to proudly hang on the front of our machine was now reduced to a crumpled version of it’s former self.  I guess I didn’t realize how bad it was bent until after I crawled back on the machine and tried to chase Condon down again.  The quad worked awesome until I tried to make a right turn.  At that point, the left tire would completely rub on the bumper, which made turning my ride a real pain in the arse.

   I figured I’d be able to limp the machine in to the checkered flag and deal with a respectable 4^th place finish.  But….like most things in my life….things didn’t go as planned.  About a mile from the finish, riding as hard as I could on a crippled machine, my bright yellow King Quad decided to turn right, on it’s own, and drive itself off of the trail.  I had the bars pointed straight, so I had no idea why.  It wasn’t until I looked down that I realized what happened.   The right upper A-arm bolt had somehow worked itself loose…which cause the A-arm to pop out of the frame mount and pull the right front axle out of the differential with it.  With every bit of strength in me, I tried to get that darn quad to the finish line.  But, with no tools to put my bright yellow humpty dumpty back together again, I was forced to get towed back to the pits and accept an 8^th place finish.  It was a complete bummer.  But, I’m thankful the A-arm bolt fell out where it did rather than on the high speed straightaway that was about a mile previous. 

   Because I had to get towed back to the puts, I completely missed the start to the pro race.  I was bummed because by the time I got changed and gathered up my camera equipment, the race was nearly over.  Chris Borich took the checkered flag in his home state and shared the podium with Brandon Sommers and Matt Smiley.  You can’t even imagine the pace that the GNCC pros are running at this year.  It’s unbelievable to imagine they can get through the trees that quickly.  Yet, somehow, they seem to get faster and faster each year!

   Later on in the day, I got a chance to run our Mod Quad Dragonfire Racing Polaris RZR in the Modified UTV class.  I chose the craziest copilot I could find, which just so happened to be my buddy Jim Stack.  I had never raced a UTV in my life, so neither of us knew what to expect.  Stack lectured me for hours before the race about how I should do everything, even though he’s never raced a UTV either.  Needless to say, when the flag dropped, I think Mr. Stack was second-guessing why he agreed to get in the car with me.  We were rolling through the course at a blistering speed.  It wasn’t long until I figured out how to set the car up to drift into the corners.  The long-travel Dragonfire suspension allowed me to fly through sections that were beating up the competition.  On the contrary though, without any sway bars hooked up, we looked like a leaning trophy truck going around the corners.  We managed to stay out of trouble, keep the RZR off its lid, and keep all of the important parts together.  In the end, we finished a respectable 4^th place.  Now I’m hooked.  There is no greater feeling than having someone next to you screaming at the top of their lungs out of sheer enjoyment or complete fear.  I think there may have been a little of both that day! 

   William Yokely was the eventual winner of the UTV race.  That dude hauls the mail!  I think I can definitely improve on my finish if we race again.  But, I’m not sure if I can drive at his pace!   The greatest lesson I learned all weekend is that racing a UTV is so much fun it ought to be illegal!  If you’re looking for some great family oriented fun, make sure you check out the GNCC series.

I’m the proverbial new guy at QUAD, but I’m not necessarily a new guy to the sport. I’ve ridden, wrenched, and raced quads for years and have been fortunate enough to have an opportunity to participate in many local and national cross country and hare scramble events over the years. Those grass roots experiences are what eventually broke me into the business. Those experiences have also cost me surgeries on both knees and one lucky shoulder. So these days, I do more product evaluations, test riding, and project builds than racing. But, I still like to get out there and mix it up a few times a year!

             What most of our readers probably don’t know is that I’m also a math and science teacher at a middle school in central Pennsylvania. Additionally, I teach graduate courses in technology for Wilkes University, which is also in PA.

             With a background in teaching and technology, I’m asked all the time how in the world I ever got into the ATV business. Back in 2005 I raced the 12 Hours of ATV America, which was held at Rausch Creek Motorsports Park in PA. I came up with a crazy idea to try and live webcast the race…and after a call to ATVScene.com owner John Pellan, we pulled it off…sort of. But that’s a whole other story! In any case, after attending some product intros and writing for ATVScene, I got to know some people in the print mag business. After ATVScene and a short stint at another magazine, I got the opportunity last August to start working for Quad Magazine. My first story was written about the KTM 450 and 525XC intro in Rhode Island. From that day on, I’ve never looked back! With Doogie and I both on the east coast, we are able to produce some great 4×4 evaluations and shootouts as well as shoot some killer photos in the terrain these machines were designed to operate in.

             I have to admit, it’s not a bad deal to hang up the pocket protector, take off the nerd glasses, bolt on a helmet, and sling a leg over a quad to go do some “work” after a long school day. Just wait until you guys see the project some of my students got to participate in!

             In any case, keep an eye on my blog and I’ll do my best to clue you in on some of our happenings, horrors, and inevitable debacles along the way.