Oklahoma Endurocross Road Trip

With the 2nd round of the Maxxis Endurocross series rapidly approaching, the crew decided a trip down to WTF (Wessels Training Facility) was in order.  With that in mind, a detour to Alma, Nebraska was added to the previously scheduled Guthrie, OK road trip.  

   

Day 1

Just as the sun attempted to peer through the Wisconsin gloom, the gang arose and began loading up.  The goat van was packed full with three pitbikes, two unicycles, two skateboards, a motostik, and a trials bicycle.  Locating a trailer that could fit the rest of the bikes was the problem.  After some quick thinking, Pat snuck down to Uncle PDB Units and snagged his 5 bike trailer.  The three trials bikes and two KTM 200s were loaded to perfection and the GV pulled out around 8 A.M. to ensure an early arrival at WTF; or so we thought.  Just two miles down the road, and half a mile from the interstate, a little red rocket pulled up along side the van with a screaming driver slinging spit towards the crew.  The driver was PDBUnit himself, exclaiming his need for the trailer the upcoming weekend.  Back to Smagical Acres and back to square one.  After a few hours of dead end phone calls while the bikes sat vacant in the driveway, it was last resort time.  A rickety three bike trailer from 1970’s was the last chance to get to Alma without losing another day of testing.  Although the plywood was rotting through and the trailer box (now affectionately known as the “Fun Box”) was packed with wasps nests ; the crew tossed the bikes on and hit the highway.  Rex started the day as driver after a failed hand of rock-paper-scissors. 

 

After the first tank was drained the games began.  Having spent the better part of the year on the road stacking footage, the drivers seat is usually a dreaded place to spend time.  No one wants the chore of driving, and rock-paper-scissors wasn’t cutting it anymore.  Thats where the idea for the “Drivers Seat Stack-off”, (DSSO) originated.  Everyone gets three attempts to capture the best footage at each stop, be it rad, funny, painful, ect…with the previous driver being the judge.  Stop number 1 had Phil stomp a fakie frontside flip on the skateboard, Pat peg stalled on a dumpster pole on the Motostik, Binz chomped on someones discarded pretzel from the parking lot, and Rex brought up the tail end with two sketchy soybean field cartwheels. 

        With only a few hours left in the journey to WTF, the Goat Van needed gas, and the gang needed body fuel.  A quick stop at Walmart and another round of “DSSO” was in order.  Phil frog hopped his way over each of the entry-way pillars and safely into the passenger seat.  Pat carthwheeled his way up to the entrance doors, and nearly over an unexpecting shopper, and back to the couch.  It was Binz’s turn to take the hot seat, as his “pick a cigar up of the ground and smoke it” was deemed to similar to his first stunt.  With that, Binz cruised the GV steadily into the darkness, arriving at WTF just before midnight.

 

Phil shredding the EX track  

  Day 2

 The first day of activities began with a trip around the farm on the trials bikes to introduce Pat to what WTF had to offer.  After a good homecooked lunch by Mr. Wessels himself, it was time to put some laps in on the endurocross track.  Pat got used to riding  a bike with a seat, while Phil tried to work out some bogging issues. With the sun at its highest, and hottest point of the day, it was unanimous that a trip to the lake was the thing to do.  Not only could the group escape the heat for a bit, it would also be Pats first time riding a stand-up Jet Ski.  After a few (cough, 20+, cough) crashes, Pat got it dialed in and footage was stacked.  J-Weezy (Jesse Wessels) then took to the controls and showed everyone how a Jet Ski is supposed to be ridden, while Phil and Squid (Sydni Wessels) threw some flips off a neighboring house boat. 

 Day 3

The third day of the trip started with some morning motos on the Alma MX track.  Rain had been sparse in recent weeks, so the motos were short and dusty.  After another immaculately prepared lunch by J-Weezy, it was time to load up the Trials bikes and head to Spillmans quarry to stack some trials footage.  Pat was greeted with trials paradise.  Pat turned seemingly endless rock bluffs into a canvas of mind-blowing trials art.  Huge splatters, 10 foot rock gaps, and crazy rear wheel combos filled the evening with quality footage and entertained the numerous spectators for the remainder of the night.

 Day 4

Rex and Binz loaded the goat van and headed to pick up One Shot Circe from the airport in Oklahoma City.  Pat and Phil stayed to get the bikes as dialed as possible for the weekends race.  After a few laps to try and dial in the bikes, Phil, Pat, and Jweez loaded up the motorhome and headed south to Guthrie.  It was smooth sailing until Jesse noticed the 200 attempting to pass the motorhome while hanging off the side of the trailer.  It turns out the hitch’s ball completely sheered off, leaving the trailer dragging by only the chains.  After gathering up the bikes and getting them off the highway, the master Jdubs went to work on getting the trailer in working order to get to the track.  Out came the tools, work light, and camera, and in the blink of an eye it was back on the road.  The rig pulled into the Lazy E Arena just before 1 AM, and just in time for some sleep.

 Day 5

 Race day.  The morning was spent picking apart the track and sharing lines with JWeezy through his morning qualifiers.  The heats arrived quickly, with Pat riding heat 1 and Phil in heat 3.  Pat suffered from a poor start, which left him clawing his way to the front, only to miss it by a few positions.  Phil crashed out of his heat while running towards the front early on.  Both riders narrowly missed the transfer spot in the Semi.  This left the brothers side by side on the starting gate for the LCQ.  Pat got the early jump off the gate and held strong in the lead.  Destry Abbot and Josh Demuth were hot on his tail as Phil worked his way up into the top 5 after getting pinched off at the start.  Pat and Destry battled right down to the wire, with Abbot taking the win, and Pat grabbing the final transfer spot

 

 

  Pat was forced to line up in the second row, with his qualifying position.  This sat him right behind the eventual race winner, Taddy Blasuziak.  It was clear that Pat was completely exhausted after running three races in a row.  He battled his way into the top five and up onto the fender of Geoff Aaron.  The two trials champs went at it for a few laps before fatigue got the best of Pat.  He slowly faded back to 10th at the checkers.

 After driving through nearly the entire night, the crew was forced to pull into a rest stop and take a break.  One Shot Circe rolled out his Ogio gear bag for a nap in a nearby playground, Phil took the floor of the GV, Pat snagged the couch, Binz crossed the 2 front seats, while Rex camped out in the “Fun Box” on top of all the sweaty gear and gas.  After a few hours of rest, it was back on the road to Festus, MO.

 Day 6

 Round 7 of the OMA Nationals happen to fall on the day following round 2 of the AMA Endurocross series.  This made for a tired crew, and a lot of driving.  Pat and Rex took over pit and filming duties, while One Shot Circe tried to keep his points lead.  Phil and Binz set out to be the first riders to finish an OMA National on a 110 pitbike.  Circe started out strong with what looked to be a certain holeshot, only to miss his breaking point and overshoot the corner.  Two hours and twenty minutes after the start of the race, Phil carried his KLX 110 across the finish line, chain dangling behind.  He finished in the top half of his class and top 100 overall.  Not bad for a mini bike.  After 20 or so minutes of post race moto-talk, the group started to worry about Binz’s whereabouts.  A few moments later, and up pulled a 4 wheeler dragging an exhausted Binz and a clapped out 110 behind it.  Speechless, Binz dropped the bike and headed for the cooler. 

 After all the craziness of the last week on the road, it was time to relax and cool down with some food.  Of course, not just any food would do, so it was off to give the “Blazing Challenge” at Buffalo Wild Wings a try.  After spending 2 and a half hours eating dust and dirt, the challenge was a breeze for Binz and Phil, and they both left with some new free shirts and burnt lips.