Barret Junction
Barret Junction, CA
Barret Junction has got to be the smallest town we've held a race in so far. There are maybe five houses and a restaurant/store. The town is located about 45 minutes east of San Diego, and 2 miles from Tecate, Mexico. Unfortunately, unless you stay at Casa Frank's the nearest American Hotel is in San Diego.
The course was about 2 miles long, with two tight 180 hairpins at the top of the course, and a meandering, fairly straight course, in the bottom half. Unfortunately, about half way down the course, someone drove down the course in a tractor. It left a lot of small two inch long bumps. Riding over this feels very strange, your whole body vibrates. The course was fairly slow upper 40's lower 50's.
Saturday, Oct 7
There was no set schedule, so I planned on arriving around 8. I didn't wake up until 8, which was a good thing, because things didn't get started until after noon. We started a tech line
but we ended up not doing a formal tech. While we were waiting to get set up a couple of locals brought their rides by.
These boards are ridden head first.
Cameron demonstrates his head first riding style.
I was unable to get a picture of the RevoLUGEn. The front trucks were steered by hand, while there were two sets of back trucks. The back trucks were set in a line, across the board, so that it was essentially a two foot wide axle.
Someone had an unusual mascot.
We finally got a couple of rounds of practice in, and then broke for lunch. A couple of the riders set up a slalom course and put on a show. John started off the wilder antics.
Kluddy gets involved. He misses, and catches a cone in the forhead, cutting himself above the eye.
Shortly after this shot he crashes into the ground and bangs up his elbow. Chris Chaput has to get the last stunt in.
Old School Style. During the break, Waldo whips out is instruments of trade.
While the rest of us were eating lunch and goofing off Marcus was trying to get the timing system working. They finally gave up, the theory was the miles of wiring was to long to send the signal through. We ended up doing a hand start, with the timing gate at the finish line being the trigger.
Standup starts the qualifying first.
The luges followed.
The bikers were next, followed by inliners. The sun set, and the classic luges still hadn't qualified. We finally got going with almost no light left, although it was a lot more light than the classic lugers had in St. George. The course sure looks different without light. I had a pretty good idea where most of the turns were, so I knew I was approaching a turn, but I couldn't remember what the turn was like. So every turn I would have to sit up, and get a real good look around. What a blast.
This was my first time down on a classic board! I had been wanting to try one for a while, so I talked to Darren, mentioned I was thinking of coming down to LA College to try it. He said he had an extra board I could run today! So here I was on my first run. I crossed the finish line, and was pretty stoked. I sat up and started to brake. I had a hold of the board under my butt. I figured if I grabbed the front of the board I could stop faster. I was right, just not in the way I figured. I was smart, I thought I would look where I put my hands, so I wouldn't grab the wheels or something. So I let go of the board, at this point the only thing touching the board is my butt, Bad Idea. I lean forward to see the front of the board, see what I'm about to grab. As I lean forward I start to reach for the front of the board. Next thing I know the road is rushing up to meet my head, as my helmet smashes into the road, meanwhile my knees are sitll in the air. I was told later that guys aren't supposed to bend like that! Well I stopped pretty quickly, although I did bang up my left hand. I figure what happened was, as I leaned forward to look at the board I put more pressure on my feet and my feet stopped, but my upper body didn't.
A few more riders later we were done for the day. We all headed to Franks for a BBQ. About a dozen of us arrive at Franks, a whole quarter mile from the course, when we decided to go to Mexico to eat. We all piled into the back of the UHaul and drove to Mexico. I left my camera in my car.
We had a splendid Mexican meal at a taco stand. A parrot sat on my shoulder for most of the meal, and none of us remembered to bring a camera! We walked down to a cool bakery, where you serve yourself. I bought breakfast for like fifty cents. Actually I don't know how much it was, I gave them a dollar, she gave me a mix of American and Mexican coins back. Later we walked back across the border, something that the guards weren't expecting. Amazingly they didn't give us many problems at all.
Sunday, Oct 8
We practiced in the morning, and broke for lunch. There were quite a few kids in the pit area, that were having a blast on skateboards and scooters. Some of them practiced during lunch.
Dual luge went first. Some of the racing was very close.
Even this shot is pretty close considering it takes just under 2.5 minutes to run the course.
Darren Lott crosses the finish line with his outrageous pegless luge.
This isn't my best picture, but here are the Rogers Bros, neck n neck.
Mass Luge was won going away by Dave Rogers, with Ozman taking second.
But there was a race for third, with John just edging Darren out.
The luge finalist are pretty happy!
Standup, Inliners and Gravity Bikes went next.
The Classic Lugers finished up the racing. Darren has usually in the lead
followed closely by one of the Rogers.
Chris Chaput is done for the day, and joined by two good friends.
It was finally podium time, but the sun has long since gone down. We pull up a couple of cars, turn the headlights on and have a ceremony. The first was for the juniors. They had a short race, anything on wheels.
Standup
Gravity Bikes
Mass Luge
Dual Luge
Classic Luge
Inliners
Frank and his wife are put up on the podium and thanked for putting the race on.
And if you think all of these shots are spontaneous. Well someone decided they didn't get a good digital shot of the Classic Lugers. So back to the podium.
Another fabulous weekend of racers, with no serious injuries. Time to pack up and go home.
I drove back to San Diego, about half way back is a border patrol station. I pull up, tell the guy where I was going, where I had been. He sends me on the way. But as I start to pull out, I look to my right and see three agents sitting on the wall. They appear to be waving at me. I think they see my board and are curious. They don't seem to be telling me to stop. But I decided to roll down the window and see what they want. I was all prepared to tell them about my luge. Turns out they want to know where I've been off roading. I've got these huge weeds stuck in the door! We parked in a open spot at the bottom of the course. About the only thing there were these dried out weeds. Some got stuck in the door. It must have been a site.
