Colridge, North Carolina
 
Well, talk about a weekend of up's and down's. Poochie Cox, who is a good friend of the family and owns a Harley shop down in Asheboro, North Carolina was putting on a big race near his shop last saturday. He put up a crazy 11k purse which attracted almost every single top rider across the country. I made the trip down with good buddies Kevin Varnes and Raun Wood, along with Dolly and Jim Varnes, and my good buddy "weasel" who helps us out alot at the track. On friday night, they had qualifying and practice and then on saturday was when the heat races and final were scheduled.
 
Well things didn't start off good at all. I went to start up my C&J Honda and it wouldn't turn over. Bad news, as something tightened up in the motor. I was extremely bummed out, since the bike has been on rails all year. I quick hopped on my DTX 450 and took it out for practice. I felt good on it, but the track defintely favored the race frame motorcycles. Clayton from the Memphis Shades/Factory Yamaha team came over and offered me to ride Kevin's back-up C&J Yamaha. Wow, what an opportunity. Being able to ride for Babe Demay and being teammates with one of my hero's I looked up to growing up was going to great! I took the bike out once and felt pretty good on it. We made some changes to it to fit me a little better and I was out for qualifying. I went out into the first corner and we made a small mistake with some brake adjustments and my brakes locked up from the start of qualifying. I muscled it around for 3 laps of qualifying before it locked up completely on the back stretch. Needless to say I qualified almost in last place around 33rd or so. For only taking 12 riders to the final the next day, I had some work to do!
 
The next day started out better, but still struggling to get use to the motorcycle. Clayton worked his tail off for me and I felt very privelaged to have him there helping with whatever set-up I wanted done. I went out for the heat race and we made a poor tire choice and I finished in 8th place or so. Now for the semi, I had to win to make the final. I had a pretty good semi with Henry Wiles, Mike Rush, and some other fast guys in it. I nailed the holeshot and put everyone else in the truck to make the main event. The bike was starting to work awesome! One more small adjustment and we lined up for the final. After the parade lap, I lined up on the outside back row. When the light went green, I got a killer start and was up around 5th or so. However, because I was up high, I got freight-trained trying to find a spot to sneak in on the bottom of the track. I started lap 3 or so back in 12th. I worked on some guys and the bike started to really click. I moved into 8th with two laps to go and reeled in the lead pack ahead of me. I closed right up on Coolbeth and Mees's rear tire with a lap to go, but couldn't find any real estate and finished in 8th place. The crazy thing was, the winner Bryan Smith was finishing and I was coming off turn four on this little short track. The bike worked amazing. Clayton and Babe really had it dialed in for me and I only wish we could have been on the front row, because I know the result would of been alot better. The finish doesn't really describe how well I felt on the bike, which is disappointing, but to even make the 12 rider final, coming from where we did all weekend as satisfactory in itself. I had alot of fun working with the Memphis Shades team and hopefully I get the opportunity to put the bike up front soon!