VOLUME 58 ISSUE 19 MAY 11, 2021 P73
RENNIE'S RACE–
A RACE OF PURE STUPIDITY
Back in January, I rode a Honda
CRF250RX in one of the SRA GP
events at Glen Helen. I loved it.
Finished fourth in class in my first
dirt bike race in over a decade
and couldn't wait for more.
When the idea came to ride
the 450 in the Glen Helen Six
Hour, it seemed like the logical
step. There's not that big a differ-
ence between a 45-minute moto
on a 250 and a six hour race on a
450, right?
Err…
I'll say right now, I am not
good enough to ride this thing. I
realized this halfway around my
first lap, right at the point when
the talent/ambition equation got
irreversibly skewed. When Jesse
says this thing is an animal, he
isn't kidding. I own a 450 myself
(my Husqvarna FS 450 super-
moto), but the rigors of riding a
proper off-road 450 at my max
pace around GH was way more
intense than I gave it credit for.
I gave it my best shot. The first
stint was three laps, and by lap
three I was finally feeling a bit more
in control of the bike, rather than
it being in control of me. It helped
I had my good mate Nathon Ver-
dugo to play with. We passed each
other at least 15 times and came
back into the pits laughing like little
girls. It was a rad 20 minutes. And
the lap time was good, about 45
seconds off Jesse's.
The Honda must have won-
dered who the monkey was
sitting on its seat. Jesse is far
more proficient at off-road rac-
ing than I am, but I felt I hadn't
embarrassed myself too much by
the end of the stint. That would
change for stint two.
With a break of about an hour
and a half, all the adrenalin had
plummeted, and soreness set in.
The reaction times were mea-
sured with a calendar, and I was
a rolling roadblock. The Honda's
suspension absolutely beat the
crap out of me. I could only get
two laps in before I threw in the
towel and gave the bike to Adam,
lap times some three minutes
slower than stint one.
It was a humbling experience
and I finally get now why 450's
have the reputation they do. The
Honda is a brilliant bike—far, far
better than I am a rider. I think a
250 might be on the cards for the
next attempt at this event.
