STEVE LEIVAN
2011 RACE REPORT
WHAT/WHERE/WHEN: Round 7 National Enduro; Moorestown, MI; July 17
MY BIKE: KTM 350 XCF
HOW IT ENDED: 3rd Vet “A” – 24th Overall
BEFORE THE START: Rumor has it that the Jack Pine Enduro is the oldest running Enduro in the United States. This was the 86th version of it and since I had never been before, it was cool to see it on the National schedule. It was a pretty good drive up there (900 miles) so we drug out the journey over Thursday and Friday.
It’s really dry in Michigan so the organizers had shortened some of the test sections to keep us off of the dustiest parts. I was able to get a spot on row 14 and hoped that would keep me out of the worst of the dust. The other concern was the heat. while it was hot, it was nothing like at home. That didn’t concern me but I did go ahead and chug quite a bit of Pedialyte during Saturday.
THE RACE: The first test was the longest of the day at just over 9 miles. It was kind of tight but my biggest problem was reading the trail. The ferns were really tall and full so seeing around the corners was hard which made it hard to maintain speed. I would imagine that the more bikes that rode the trail, the more they would have gotten knocked down/over and the better it would get. I rode pretty good in there, but had to pass a lot of guys and some times there just weren’t many places to get by.
Test two was shorter and had some fresh stuff in there. I felt better in that section but then again, there weren’t as many ferns to deal with. Dad was waiting at the end of the section so I changed the brake fluid, got some gas, and ate half of a PB&J samich.
The third section was pretty fast and other than losing the trail in there once, I rode good. It ended up being my best test of the day overall. My only crash of the day was in section four when I tried to get around a guy that was stuck on a log. My line didn’t quite pan out and I lost probably 15 seconds or so getting regrouped.
The last two sections were both five milers. I felt like I was breaking trail a lot in there as attrition had taken care of a lot of the riders and the last section was “A” and “Pro” only. I spent a lot of time chasing arrows in those tests.
In the end I finished in third. Chris Gallt made a rare appearance and handed it to us this week. Tommy Pierce beat me by just under a minute for second.
THOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS: I don’t think my row had a lot to do with my result. Sure, the trail would have been more established on a later row but the trail might have been rougher, it might have been dustier, who knows? It was all good.
We’ve got a week off from the Nationals (we do have a MORE race though) and then we head to Pennsylvania for round eight. I have been assured that it will not be a rock race – which would be just fine with me!
QUICKEST ON THE DAY: 1. Gallt (KTM); 2. Pierce (KTM); 3. LEIVAN (KTM); 4. Ketchum (KTM); 5.
THE NEXT WHAT/WHERE/WHEN:Round 3 MORE; Argyle, MO; July 23-24
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT!
SPONSOR LIST –HELPING ME MAKE IT HAPPEN
AIR GROUP RADIANT RACING :: KTM NORTH AMERICA
ARAI :: ATHENA :: BULLET PROOF DESIGNS
CLOCKWORK :: DUNLOP :: ENDURO ENGINEERING :: EVS
FAH-Q :: FASTWAY/PRO MOTO BILLET ::FLY
HYDRAPAK :: LEOVINCE :: NGK SPARK PLUGS
NICHOLS ENTERPRISE :: OZARK FOAM INSEALATORS
PIVOT WORKS :: PROUD SIS :: RACETECH SUSPENSION REKLUSE :: RENTHAL :: SCOTT :: SILKOLENE
SMS RACING :: SOURCE MX :: TIRE BALLS :: TSUBAKI