It seems like the odd winter is almost done by the weather outside.  Some of the local gang have been moving about the country hitting up the big races and I couldn’t be prouder of their performances.  This year at the local races it’ll have a different feel as some different names start filling out the top five, but that’s a good change and it means good things for a new set of folks.

The Forward Motion and Missouri race seasons start around here and I’m busy preparing for it.  Speaking of springin’, back when I was a mechanic, I learned after a bit that no matter how many times you poo poo a Snap On™ wrench, sooner or later you’ll end up loving the feel of one and what it will do.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t get things done with some whoflung-you off brand, but having a tool that won’t slip off of a bolt head and leave you cursing a bleeding just makes sense and can make you money when you’re busy paying rent with your hands and tools.  Last year, I sprang for a new tool early in the season and it worked well.  There’s nothing like working off a (rather costly) dead horse to keep you hard at the grindstone, so this year I tried it again.  This hawg will be out and about in my bag this year and I hope that it helps me catch some of the shots that I have seen in my head, but often missed because my old tools just left me hangin’.

It seems that there’s been quite a bit of water under the bridge since I’ve posted any new photos here.  Well, I can honestly say that I’ve been busy.  I have a lot more time during the week now with my little one in kindergarten, but I’ve taken on a lot more work in addition to catching up on all of the things that I had to put off until time permitted.  There was a good event out at Big Springs.  It was a two-day gig with the Best of Kansas race on one day and the Forward Motion Team Hare Scramble the next.  That was Labor Day weekend and it rang the summer out on a good note for most folks.  Here, Tim Wolfe, from MotorCare in Lawrence does his best to cut inside a blast of TT track roost.

After that, the BlackJack Enduro Circuit’s Wolf’s Den Enduro took off down in Kellyville, OK.  The promoters took great care of me and I really enjoyed attending my first BJEC event.  I can only hope that there will be many more like it.  They had a PeeWee race and a family enduro on Saturday afternoon and the weather was great for it.  Sunday’s main event was dusty, but the crowd still loved every bit of it.  There were a couple of guys who left on the backboards though, and I hope that they’re recovering well.  Zach Ingram is just starting his day in the photo below.  He finished the day with an overall win.

This past weekend, I decided that I’d take a shot and check out something new.  Trials.  The Quarry Cup was happening up in Trenton, MO and I headed that way in the sprinkling rain to see what I could catch.  It turned out to be a great Saturday.  I had hoped to return for Sunday’s sections, but it looked like a good bit of rain was headed that way, so I took advantage of a day home with my daughter; two great things in one weekend.  It took a bit of time and some hints from some Masters and Experts, but I figured out how things worked and was able to be in the right place at the right time…..a few times.  I left the event wanting to try it myself….but then there’s that whole balance vs gravity thing that I have problems with…repeatedly.  The folks out on the course made it all look easy, but I know better.

This weekend, I’ll be headed for Quenemo for the Forward Motion Hare Scramble there.  Should be good fun.

This weekend is the Bristle Ridge round of the Midwest Off Road Events (MORE) series that the Leivan family promotes.  It should be a good time.

Hit the link for more info about the series.  Photos from the race will be posted at yellowwood.us and some will show up on Facebook.

This past Sunday was the 7th round of the Missouri Hare Scrambles Championship series. The race was held on a nice piece of property near the village of Americus, MO. The crew from KTM St. Louis had a nice setup at the race and there was even an actual podium for the top three overall finishers. I arrived about an hour before the start to meet up with some folks and start checking things out. I found out then that the KTM crew had asked the folks at RTS Photography and Design to come out to the race, so I went over to meet them. Lazarus Nunley and his crew were great and we got things worked out quickly. They were going to cover the start, some woods stuff, pits, peewee race, and the podium. This left me to do do that voodoo that I do – woods. Within 20 minutes of leaving the parking lot I had scouted a decent spot and had my equipment out of the bag and ready. I realized after I got set up that it was 11:45, I was drenched in sweat, and I hadn’t had breakfast or lunch. Clif bars to the rescue! It turned out to be a blazin’ hot day and I don’t know that I would have ridden in that heat, much less raced, but there are some tough people out there dukin’ it out for points. My pics can be found here –> http://www.yellowwood.us Just hit the Purchase Photos button up top.

Dunno what’s on tap for this weekend, but it’s looking like a lot of good stuff and maybe some overnight travel coming up. Heck, there’s even a county fair in town next week!

Photos from the Drexel Race in the Park on July 4th are up and ready for sale. It was a tough day for my 2nd shooter and I with the washed out sky and the heat, but we managed to get a few keepers. The temps were on up there and I felt bad for anyone who had to race after the peewee racers were done. Casey, Scott Harper, and the rest of the crew put on a good gig. It was nice being able to walk up the hill and actually sit in an air conditioned space to eat – for me, that’s quite a luxury.

There was a lot going on this weekend at the MORE race. Flat tires, a femur break, tons of ticks, and some fast kid in pink socks. It was fun and I was able to come home with a load of fun photos. Below is Ryan O’neal goofing off during the sportsman race on Saturday. It’s good to see folks getting to enjoy riding and not taking themselves too seriously.

The lovely wife picked up a Samsung Epic4G for me as a father’s day gift to replace my trusty old beater, the Palm Treo 755. Well, it doesn’t seem to want to connect to my computer. I downloaded the driver (then uninstalled it), read all sorts of posts about docking, USB debugging, hold your mouth just right, this that and the other, etc. After an hour or so, I did find one interesting bit of info on one of the forums that worked though – only use the Samsung USB cable that came with the phone for charging. With the stock Samsung cable the phone would come up and I’d select “Mass Storage” only to get nothing, save for the device not recognized error from Windows. I then scrounged up my wife’s HTC cord and plugged it right into the USB ports on the front of the PC – presto fix-o. It came right up with no drivers and worked like a champ. Using the HTC cable was the fix. I assume that other cables would work too.

Note: If your return or search buttons start working on their own, take your phone back. Of course, the person at the counter will try to tell you that it’s not at all common – tell them about this really cool new thing called -google-. Took mine back and switched to regular EVO. Don’t let them charge you a restocking fee for a defective phone either, because they’ll damn sure try.

Sunday was a day off from woods racing for me, so I hopped in the car and headed to Carthage for a day of old-school, big-finned, and sans-powervalve pingdadingdingers. The course was nice and the Playground MX facility was nice and the track was tilled/watered. It seemed as though not having to chase bikes through the woods was going to be like fishing in a barrel, but the daylight and the dust worked against me the entire time. I came home with some good shots and a gear bag full of dirt, but it was good fun and a great way to spend fathers’ day.

Memorial Day weekend found a lot of kids and really old kids on minibikes in a field in Big Springs, KS. The Best of Kansas race was rained out, but the mini bike races and the hare scramble race on Monday ran on schedule. As usual, race promoter Perry Keegan put on a good event for racers and their various-sized entourages as well.

The field was humming with the sounds of 50cc minibikes on Saturday and Sunday nights. These guys were on the gas and three wide through the corner.

Even the intrepid promoter got involved in the fun and games at one point. He endured a power to weight disadvantage and made it through on his advanced skill……and the fact that most of the racers in most of the classes crashed at some point.

We’ll have to wait and see whose name ends up on the Best of Kansas traveling trophy for this year.

I took a little road trip to Arkansas this weekend to give my daughter a little bit of time with the grandparents, and to accompany my brother Jason to the NEPG National Enduro. We rolled in Saturday to get signed up and to catch up with that Shan Moore guy from Trials & Enduro News.

It was a bit soggy in the pits, but the ground seemed to be holding up pretty well. At signup, we got in line behind Alex McRee and his parents. Go to your latest issue of dirt rider and open up the back cover and you’ll see him. The gang from Seattime.co were in the pits and had an awesomeness competition going. Mr. McRee decided to hop on the rowing machine and within a few seconds, had beaten the nearest time by a full 2 seconds. It was a pint full of awesome, but I was afraid that he was going to dislodge the chain in that poor thing. The folks running signup had us through the line with a working transponder and on our way to the t-shirt sales and Muscle Milk pickup spot in short order. Everyone was really nice, but my first inkling that things weren’t going to go so well for me was the map to the spectator spots handing under the signup tent. It appeared to have been written on the back of a paper plate or something that happened to be lying around at the last minute and it had no road names on it. If you’ve ever been to this part of Arkansas, you’ll understand why that’s a bit of an issue.

After a bit of wandering in the pits, we ended up at the Leo Vince tent for a complimentary sound test. Ted Campbell, the company’s US race manager was there with the dB meter and had the bike tested in no time at all. The WR450 was a bit on the high side of the noise scale, so he shot my brother an offer on a new 94dB can that he just couldn’t pass up. There’s nothing like going to the race and scoring a good deal on some shiny quiet parts! Ted’s a good guy, so look him up if you’re near one of the remaining enduro races.

Sunday found my brother and I driving down I-40 in the rain, then onto I-30 in the rain, and then the rest of the way to the Social Hill exit…you guessed it, in the rain. We pulled into the gate and the sticker from the previous day’s check-in had washed off of the windshield. The chap at the gate put a pink one on the truck…said it was the same color as my brother’s underwear…..how he figured that out, I really don’t want to know. I had planned on puttering about with a pro photographer that works for Dirt Rider, but he had been told that the water was rising and that he would probably need some extra time to get out to the course to shoot. My bro had found another person from his row to hang out with, so he was able to dump out his bike and gear and let me have the truck to go runnin’ in. With a 5 mile ride just to the first special test, there was no way that I was going to be able to walk the course like I usually do. I went looking for the first spectator spot and couldn’t find any sign of it aside from the arrows directing me off of the main road. I ran until I hit a T in the road and knew that I wasn’t going to find the spot. I did see a yellow fence as described in the cave painting on the ‘map’, but it looked like some good’ol boy’s driveway and I had no desire to smell buckshot, so I passed.

The second spot was easily found, as it was marked by a parking lot full of AR Dirt Riders crew and their rides. I spoke with Tom Steel, who was a really nice fellow, and I was pointed in the right direction. There were a few folks coming down the trail when I showed up and one of them was Dale from MXPhotography.com. He’s a great guy who travels around to a lot of the bigger races with his wife and they have a mobile print lab setup in his trailer. We discussed how dark the trail was, the ins and outs of photographing dirt bikes and then we started hearing them. I got my lights set up and began waiting…and waiting. The trail was routed within hearing distance of where I was, but it took a while before anyone made it to where I was. Of course, it didn’t take the rain very long to get to where I was. Thankfully I had taken the poncho that my dad offered because it got a good workout. This was the deluge that hit about an hour after the first riders were off the line. It passed just in time for the first riders to begin coming in and in no time the hotshots from the 20s rows were roosting by. It was really something to see those guys going that fast, in what essentially was, the dark.

I shot until I didn’t hear bikes any longer and after four hours, headed back to the pits. I found my brother over by the scoring trailer and a big bluish mudpile that resembled his bike. It turns out that he had come to his senses and stopped one test short of the spot where I was set up to make photographs. Even so, he was able to finish 4th in his class and come out with no injuries. That’s a good day.