OakHill, Texas

We arrived Monday afternoon at a motocross park called OakHill, just outside of Decatur, Texas. Like the race at Lake Whitney the week before, this race is also one of the big six amateur motocross races in the USA. The website for this motocross park is http://www.oakhillmx.com/.

The weather was fine and sunny when we arrived at OakHill. We got parked up although the ground was not level. So for the first couple of nights we were ending up down the end of the bed (or the side of the bed). Chris finally reset the level of the RV a few days later with some blocks of wood from a neighbour from Washington state.

The track at OakHill is, in my opinion, far better and safer than Lake Whitney. We heard there are 2,300 competitors. The whoops have sand in them I think. The track is quite loamy. There are some huge jumps. Some ruts. Josiah has rated it a 10 out of 10 (but not as good as his home track in NZ!) and I tend to agree with him. The officials do a great job of maintaining the track (including at night!). If you want to see what the track was like on Thursday, go to this link: http://www.racerxfilms.com/20080321_oakhillthurs/20080321_oakhillthurs.html.

Practice was to be on Tuesday. However, it was cancelled due to the amount of rain on Monday night and all day Tuesday. The kids did a full day of schoolwork.

Practice was deferred until Wednesday morning. The sun was out so things would begin to dry but the track was still muddy in the morning for Josiah’s practice. Josiah went out anyway and there were problems with his bike. He couldn't even finish one lap (like the last race at Lake Whitney).

We got back to the trailer, cleaned the bike, stripped the carb completely and cleaned it, but no dirt was found (Chris thought this was the problem with the bike). It just so happened that after cleaning the bike Pat (a mechanic who we had met the day before) was walking by the RV so Chris asked for a second opinion. Chris told him what had happened. He said "let me start it up to listen". He went to kick it over and said straight away there was no compression. So, he took the bike back to his rig, took out the piston (he had a brand new one to put in) and said the ring had no tension for compression. He then looked at the barrel and chrome was coming away from inside the barrel (meaning reduced compression). So, we went up to KTM and got a new piston set and barrel. Pat also got some new jets (pilot and main). Once we did the warm up, Josiah said it ran better than his old bike in NZ!

We really appreciated Pat’s help. We later found out he builds modified bikes for a high performance mini motocross bike in the USA that dominates everything, and is also a mechanic for some kids that have loads of USA amateur titles. In short, he knew his stuff. We also had Pat, Drew (his mechanic is Pat) and Drew's mum over for dinner (tea) on Thursday night which was great to get to know them outside of motocross.

Wednesday was a demanding day - Chris was busy like a one armed taxi driver trying to sort out Josiah's bike (although Pat did the work and Chris ran around).

Josiah got to race in a division (65cc stock class 7-9 years) just after lunch. He got a poor start (didn't even get out well), was about 15th around the first corner, but clawed up to 7th. He could have done better but for his start and yellow flags. Anyway, first time on the track, he did pretty well. He is safe and the bike goes! On Thursday Josiah raced in a division for 65cc modified 7-9 years. Not a great start but he got 6th (was running 4th at one stage).

First thing Saturday morning Josiah had his first final race for the 65cc 7-9 stock class. At OakHill there is only one moto (winner takes all), an not two like Lake Whitney, to decide the winner. He didn’t get out fast out of his gate but was say seventh around the first corner and that is the way it stayed until the end. That was a great result considering the top talent at this event and Josiah didn‘t appear to be that far behind. In the afternoon Josiah raced in the 65cc 7-9 modified class (on his stock bike). He was second around the first corner but faded to 17th. That was the end of motocross racing.

So, after two weeks of motocross here are a few observations. First, 50s and 65s are much faster in the USA than in NZ. The kids race on the same track as the juniors and seniors. Second, the tracks are more technical in the USA than NZ. There are ruts (leading to corners, around corners, out of corners and up to jumps), whoops and bigger jumps. Third, there is a lot of qualifying to get to the main event (you have to go through two sets of qualifying to get to the USA nationals at Loretta Lynns). Fourth, the top riders train. We were told by some parents that the top three riders in the USA for the 65cc 7-9 year classes (stock and modified) were at OakHill, although you don’t necessarily believe everything you hear (we think we are going to find out there are a lot of fast kids in the USA, no matter where you are). These same parents (their son is in the same class as Josiah) said their kid does four hour motocross sessions four times a week, plus cardio/fitness work with a personal trainer in between. We would be lucky to get Josiah and Joel to raise a finger to do any of this. They struggle to do their schoolwork and cleaning up. Fifth, they have modified classes for all bikes in the USA. There is some serious money spent on these bikes. For example, a modified 65 may be new triple clamps, hubs, spokes, motor, pipe & suspension. My guess is that it would be easy to spend $5,000 to $10,000 on this stuff (excluding the purchase of the bike). Finally, the motocross people in the USA have been extremely generous and helpful. Special thanks here go to Mike and Pam from Arkansas, Kenny and Tracey from Iowa and Pat, Liz and Drew from Oregon. We wouldn't have been able to have a bike, let only get the thing going, without the help and technical expertise of these people.

After the race we left OakHill and headed to Plano, Dallas (about an hour away) to stay with Phillip and Pauline Bellingan. Steve and Beth Crowe, from our church in New Zealand, used to go to this church and referred us to Phillip and Pauline for a place to stay after OakHill.