NorthWest Mini Moto 24-Hour — TCKC

Spiva Racing #711 on the 2018 Honda CRF150R, 11:00 Saturday to 11:00 Sunday, 22 teams on track. E4 Racing #28 won Open Mini on 1,532 laps, The Expendables #555X were second on 1,531, and Team Subversive #15, who beat us by 16.6 seconds at the 12-hour in May, finished fourth, 28 laps behind us.

The team

Seven riders: Loki Ikaika, Alex Taylor, Hannah Johnson, Sean O'Banion, Ben Freiberger, Jacob Marshall, and me. Ben, Alex and Hannah are repeat teammates, from last year's 24-hour and this year's Isle of Van 9 Hour.

My state coming in

I came into the weekend 27 days after my crash at Cascadia Supermoto, at this same track. A rider went down in front of me on a short straight, I hit his bike, and I was thrown off to the left: four broken ribs, both lungs partially collapsed, and a hospital stay. The weekend before the 24-hour I got back on, racing Oregon Lightweight Moto on the Desmo450 and running 1:52s at The Ridge on the Panigale, ribs still healing, and that felt like the hard part was behind me...

The start

Le Mans start, Loki on the bike. The CRF150R is kick-start only, and it did not want to fire. We gave up somewhere around 35 to 40 seconds on lap 1 against the teams around us, which over 24 hours is nothing, but it is the one place in an endurance race you lose time for no reason. Loki settled into the 58s and handed over to me on time at noon.

My first stint

The suspension felt wrong before the race started. Something had changed between the last time I rode the bike and race morning, and we were still chasing it when the race began. About half an hour into my stint it found me. Early on the entry to a left-hander I hit some bumps, the front didn't absorb them, and it tucked. I went down on my left side, the same side I broke at Cascadia four weeks earlier, and took a hard hit to my right knee too. My Dainese D-air deployed, the first time that suit has ever gone off. It did its job.

The race rule is that any crash means a trip to the medic before you ride again, so a crash is a rider swap. Our team's way of handling it: you come in and give the bike to the team. You worry about yourself, we'll worry about getting the bike back out. Alex was my backup for that slot and was on the bike within a couple of minutes. The bike was fine, back on 58s and 59s within two laps. I was banged up but cleared to ride.

The afternoon

The first red flag came out at about 14:16 during Hannah's stint and stopped everyone for about 20 minutes. Sean took the restart, and Hannah reworked the afternoon schedule to get us back near the top of the hour.

Ben rode one stint, from about 15:45, at full pace (59.5 median, level with Loki's the stint after), and then had to step away from the race. We drafted Jacob from one of our partner teams to take Ben's slots for the rest of it.

My evening stints

I rode two more stints that evening, 17:50 and 20:00, and they were the slowest on the team, two to four seconds a lap off Alex and Loki. It wasn't a choice. It was all I had. I was worried about crashing again and hurting myself, and I didn't trust the bike. It had already put me on the ground once, and nobody else on the team was feeling good on it either. Two crashes in four weeks at the same track, the second one on the side that was still healing from the first. I just had to survive the stints. In every other race I've been able to get into the zone for the middle 30 or 40 minutes of a stint. This time I couldn't get my mind to do it. I was nervous the whole time. A bike nobody trusted plus my own struggles was never going to add up to a good performance. It sucked.

The 21:00 stop

When I came in at 21:00 we found the left Öhlins fork cartridge completely unscrewed and loose. We checked the right side: not tight either. We re-tightened the cartridge and adjusted the chain for stretch in the same stop.

We'd been looking at the fork tops often since before the start, so it's very unlikely it was loose all day. It most likely backed off during my stint or the one before it. It wasn't the cause of my crash, and we never did pin down what was wrong with the suspension before the start, but it added to a bike that just never felt right. Alex went straight out on it and ran our quickest stint before the track change, 57.5 median with a 55.835 best.

The track change

A second red flag at 22:00, about 18 minutes. Loki used it to top up the oil, the only top-up of the race. Then the scheduled track change at about 22:47, 37 minutes under red, from 1.G to 3.B-ShortT1 in full dark.

Alex took the restart and set our fastest lap of the race on his first stint in the second configuration, 44.679.

Overnight

I went to bed. The rest of the team ran what turned out to be our best stretch of the race against the class: from the track change to 05:00 we gained 8 laps on The Expendables. Weather was great all race and it barely got cold. The bugs at sunset were the worst of the conditions.

The wired rain light on the bike failed during the night, and the battery-powered backups on the tail failed a few times after that. The team kept swapping lights to keep the bike legal and did it without costing time: every rider change from midnight to 05:00 took about the same 1:35, with one about 50 seconds longer. The steering head started giving us trouble in the second half too.

The morning

Jacob went down at about 05:08. Same drill: medic for Jacob, bike to the team, and Loki went out early. Jacob was fine and rode again at 09:00.

I took my last stint at 06:11, rode about 15 laps slowly, didn't feel well, and handed it to Alex. Alex rode half an hour and then handed to Hannah.

Hannah was running her quickest laps of the race when she crashed at about 07:57, 57 minutes into her stint. That was the one crash that needed work on the bike, and it sat in the pits a while. Hannah was fine. The order moved up one: Sean, then Jacob, and Alex rode the last hour to the flag at a 46.8 median.

P3 Open Mini, 1,485 laps.

Where the laps went

E4 won by one lap over The Expendables, and we finished 46 laps behind The Expendables. About half of that was pace and about half was time in the pits: three crashes, the fork repair, and a handful of other issues. The Expendables and E4 both ran incredible races.

Our main competition for this race was a rematch from the 12-hour: Team Subversive. They were quicker than us in both configurations, but lost about 80 minutes in the pits, including a 40-minute stop on Sunday morning. They were 39 laps ahead of us at the track change and 28 behind at the flag. A 24-hour rewards keeping the bike on track over everything else, and this time the tides swung our way.

What's next for the bike

The 150R is retiring from regular practice and sprint racing. This winter it comes apart for a frame-up rebuild: engine rebuild, frame powder coat, new bearings throughout, and everything in between. The suspension, the fork cartridges, the steering head and the rain light all get sorted as part of it. It comes back as a dedicated endurance bike, with one goal: taking P1 at next year's 12-hour and 24-hour.

Thanks

To my team, for carrying me, my bike and each other till the end of this wild ride. I learn things from you all each time we race together. Thank you for riding on Spiva Racing, and letting this guy chase a dream.

To the medics, who checked three of us over and cleared us to ride. Sorry we kept you busy.

To every team that brought a bike out, 22 across the classes. Congratulations to E4 and The Expendables, and to Subversive for the 12-hour win that set this one up.

To our partner teams, Mystery Grom #701, OLM Dirtbags #101 and Gas'n'Grit #281, for working together and sharing resources all weekend.

To Rick Engstrom, who ran and rode for E4 #28, for being a great pit mate and competitor. Your love for this sport is infectious, and now I am even more afflicted.

To David and the team of volunteers at NorthWest Mini Moto for running 24 hours of racing, and to the TCKC crew for hosting it.