This was a Texas race held in Oklahoma, so I had to go try it out. Fortunately, There were several women that I knew there since they raced the TORO series with me the previous season. The interesting thing about TCCRA is that they have live engine starts, something I am not accustomed to. My start was not any better with a live engine than they would have been if it was a dead engine start. Immediately after the start there was two choices. You could go around a water jump or go across it. Me and another racer chose to go over the water jump immediately taking me from last to second. Shortly after that we were on a grass track where I was trying to make a pass for the lead. However, the grass was wet from the rain and when I noticed that a corner was fast approaching and a T post was right in my path I froze, locked up the brakes and slid right into the T post!! Luckily, I was not hurt but it took my efforts as well as a few others to get my bike wheel dislodged from the post while the entire class passed me. Ugh!! I got going again and caught up to the top 3 positions in the class and was able to pass all but the first place position. The dirt was wet and slick and I slid out several times. Huge, deep ruts were starting to form all over the race course and in the T post incident I had managed to get my front end tweaked. Here is where I have a problem A) not wanting to stop to straightened it out the front end and B) unable to negotiate the ruts with a tweaked front end. I managed to stay in second to the finish. The first place rider was not making any mistakes and I was unable to catch her. She was haulin'. It was still a fun race. The track had a lot of ups and dow

ns with a lot of good flowing tree sections. Good times.

North Wellston was a new track for this year and new tracks can be a good thing or a bad thing. The bad thing about OCCRA and new tracks is that with the quads racing on Saturday there is NO single track for the bikes on Sunday. As we arrived to the track Saturday afternoon parking was very limited with just a narrow strip on each side of the road. Luckily, we had friends saving us a spot. The dirt was looking really good during the quad race and I was hoping that the conditions would stay. Of course, we had had nice 60 degree days earlier in the week, but Saturday and Sunday were in the 90's. As we got out on the track for practice after the quads I was excited that the dirt was still good and I knew that with the bikes practicing the quad ruts would become less of a problem. The track was actually set up really well and the bikes had a nice little rock section with an "easy" route or "hard" route. It turned out that the "hard" route was easier and quicker. There were several lines developing in this difficult area as well as the rest of the track. The dirt was great!! If it had been in the middle of summer and really hot the sandy sections would have been very deep and more difficult, but the sand had a perfect amount of moisture making for excellent traction. The woods sections had a nice flowing rhythm and I was getting super pumped for the race. I felt honored that the track designer laid out a second rocky slow section and posted a sign at the entrance naming it "Kerrie's woods". Sunday rolled around and I was unable to race the Women's race and A intermediate due to money so I chose the A race. The A race was the last race to go starting us around 1 PM and, of course, in the hottest part of the day. There were around 14 bikes on the starting line of the A Intermediate class. At first I chose a line close to the inside but with the start sweeping to the inside then making an immediate turn to the right I rethought my decision and moved to the outside so I would be set up better for the second turn. I hate cross country starts and unfortunately I was about last of the line. I knew that it was hot and the other guys would go strong in the beginning and fade towards the end. I was keeping my riding in check and trying to stay relaxed at the back of the pack. Not more than a mile into the race a tree limb snagged my throttle cable pulling the barrel adjuster apart and the bike started screaming. It looped out from under me and was laying on its side screaming. I was able to kill it and get it back up. I messed with the cable restarted the bike and it was doing okay. About this time the next class was catching up and I was a little frustrated. I knew I had a good ride in me. I was feeling good and I was so comfortable the day before practicing. I was not going to quit. I decided that if the throttle cable came undone again I would stop, otherwise I was going to keep going. When I came through on the first lap I had made it up to 6th place and I was riding really well. I stayed in 5th place for the next few laps, but on the second to last lap I caught a group of 4 riders in my class. I got excited and was starting to plan my passes. I was able to get around 2 of them and the next guy I was riding right behind and pushing him. He started getting a little crazy so I backed off a little knowing it wouldn't be long before he made a mistake I could capitalize on. Sure enough, he fell over and I passed right by. I had made it up to third place and got a pass making 2nd place. However, the guy I had just passed made a great pass on me in a corner and we raced into the checkered flag tire to tire. I took third place right behind second. I felt really good about my ride considering i was last off the line and had had my throttle cable pulled out and fixed. What a great race and a track. It was a blast!!