Mammoth
Mammoth, CA
My second race, was my first EDI race in Mammoth, California. A few hours south of Reno in the Sierra Nevadas. The town of Mammoth is mostly a ski resort town with some of the tallest peaks in the lower 48. The course was on a scenic loop on forest service land. It was a fairly easy course with a huge sweeper at the top, and two chicanes further down. The last chicane was fairly easy, if you went through alone. But could be a little tough two or three wide.
This was going to be my first real race. My first race, Black Dome was a low key, east coast affair. Forsythe and I were the only people there from west of the Mississippi. But here at Mammoth pretty much the entire California contingent was there. Many of whom had raced in the XGames. This was also the first time I saw standup riders.
The XGames used to have three races, dual, mass, and super mass. The Gravity Games had dual and mass. EDI was qualifying people for the Gravity Games, and this event had two races. Mass on the first day and super on the second day. EDI also had two divisions, amatuer and pro. There were quite a few pros, but only four of us in the amatuer ranks.
We ended up racing four man both days, using a point system to give us several runs.
I got a chance to ride with a lot of the pros, and because the course wasn't very technical I was able to hang with them. Towards the end of practice on the first day I was gaining on a group as we entered the last chicane. I tried to over take them on the outside. We were pretty much at top speed at this point, and I went wide, as I knew I would be cut off on the other side. I went too wide and brushed the hay on the outside. I ended up wrecking. It wasn't that big of a deal, but I was wearing welding gloves. The glove must have snagged on the hay or something, as it game off. In the process I broke the very tip of my finger. I knew it was broken, but was afraid if I went to the paramedics they wouldn't let me race! So I duct tapped two of my fingers together and raced. I barely had a push, but with a broken finger I had zero push and came in last in my heats for the first day. As soon as racing was over I went to the local hospital. They gave me a proper splint, and confirmed it was broken.
I made it back to the course in time to catch everyone cleaning up, I had missed the awards celebration. A few of us went to the local Octoberfest celebration. We had sausages for dinner, and I learned the chicken dance!
My hand was much better the next day. I think I did take a little easier, and didn't try to pass anyone in the chicane! My push was a little better and I managed to finish second!
