How long have you taken off between races?

EastFlorida
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EastFlorida
Edited Date/Time 1/24/2012 9:59am
Many of us "older" guys got out of the sport for one reason or another but felt the need to return.

How long were you out and what prompted your return?

Were you as nervous your first race back as your first ever race?

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Cancerman
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Cancerman 9/26/2011 9:06pm
9/26/2011 9:06pm
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator cuft. Pinch Forward to 2010, I found out I had stage 3 cancer, so I started buy basket cases for a motivator after my surgery in Jan 2011. I never totally quit the sport, just racing. I'm still recovering my strength, and have started practicing at Lake City and Hard Rock (my local tracks). I'm up to a CRF 450, and RM 125 and 250's. I'm finding I can ride alot harder, longer, on the smokers. The CRF is a beast....Unsure ..... I'm preparing for my first race back, I just have not decided which track to race at yet, things are slow around here. Tongue
1
CnCRacing
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CnCRacing 9/26/2011 9:09pm
9/26/2011 9:09pm
Cancerman wrote:
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator...
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator cuft. Pinch Forward to 2010, I found out I had stage 3 cancer, so I started buy basket cases for a motivator after my surgery in Jan 2011. I never totally quit the sport, just racing. I'm still recovering my strength, and have started practicing at Lake City and Hard Rock (my local tracks). I'm up to a CRF 450, and RM 125 and 250's. I'm finding I can ride alot harder, longer, on the smokers. The CRF is a beast....Unsure ..... I'm preparing for my first race back, I just have not decided which track to race at yet, things are slow around here. Tongue
Props to you. Keep up the good work. Cool
jeffro503
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jeffro503 9/26/2011 10:06pm
9/26/2011 10:06pm
Cancerman wrote:
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator...
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator cuft. Pinch Forward to 2010, I found out I had stage 3 cancer, so I started buy basket cases for a motivator after my surgery in Jan 2011. I never totally quit the sport, just racing. I'm still recovering my strength, and have started practicing at Lake City and Hard Rock (my local tracks). I'm up to a CRF 450, and RM 125 and 250's. I'm finding I can ride alot harder, longer, on the smokers. The CRF is a beast....Unsure ..... I'm preparing for my first race back, I just have not decided which track to race at yet, things are slow around here. Tongue
Dude......Good luck man! I hope you have a ton of fun , because it sounds like you deserve it! Congrats on putting up a hell of a fight with that cancer as well. If you can battle that stuff , you can battle just about anything and come out a winner.


EastFlorida ........Was off 5.5 yrs. Haven't raced since 2004 Washougal top gun. I may end up doing a few races this coming spring/summer. I do try and hit the tracks every weekend though. No racing for me right now.....just putting in laps with my buddies.
jock
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jock 9/27/2011 3:33am
9/27/2011 3:33am
Cancerman wrote:
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator...
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator cuft. Pinch Forward to 2010, I found out I had stage 3 cancer, so I started buy basket cases for a motivator after my surgery in Jan 2011. I never totally quit the sport, just racing. I'm still recovering my strength, and have started practicing at Lake City and Hard Rock (my local tracks). I'm up to a CRF 450, and RM 125 and 250's. I'm finding I can ride alot harder, longer, on the smokers. The CRF is a beast....Unsure ..... I'm preparing for my first race back, I just have not decided which track to race at yet, things are slow around here. Tongue
Go for it Cancerman, and enjoy every minute of it. Smile

I gave racing and bikes away at the end of 1992, started playing golf and did so until the end of 2005.I got the interweb connected early 2006, found a couple of moto forums and fantasy comps, joined in and bought myself a CR250.
Was lucky enough to win myself a CRF450 in the MotoXDream fantasy comp, and Bodybag from MXTalkRadio sent it over to me. I am forever indebted to the dude.Wink

I done a bit of play riding for the next year, about 30hrs all up, then Easter 09 went to a race. It ended up a mudder, finished 4th and had a blast. Smile

Unfortunately, after a crash last May, I will never race again, but I can still go for a ride with my son. Smile

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Premixed
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Premixed 9/27/2011 3:40am
9/27/2011 3:40am
cancerman, if you're out there handling hardrock ocala FL, i tip my hat to you sir. that main track is not for the faint of heart, especially if you can wick the watertower.

i raced in 1988 at dade city, then raced at dade city again in 2007. i was most nervous about the 14 year old on the RM125 next to me in the gate.

i moved to japan in 08. its 2011 now, im planning on moving back to FL within the next 6-10 months, and im sure it will take me about a month to get a 250 two stroke and be running a saturday night at dade city in the 30+ "i have to go to work on monday" class.
robkinuk
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robkinuk 9/27/2011 4:18am
9/27/2011 4:18am
Retired in 1981, mortgage marriage, children etc. Came back into vintage racing in 2005. was able to buy back my original 1978 Maico 440cc, sold to my best friend Ian, who then emigrated to OZ so stored for 24 years.
Back into vintage racing now. I mostly do commentating but turned out this summer for one Twinshock round at Condover.
40 lbs over fighting weight, absolutely fcuked after 4 laps but had the biggest grin on my face afterwards.

If someone could bottle that endorphine rush from the gate to the first turn & beyond , & sell it, you would be a multi millionaire.

Always remember Ian and I driving off Sunday morning to a race, past all the guys out cleaning & polishing their cars, thinking
wow that was the summit of their ambition! Huh and we were going racingWoohoo , 8 track cassette tape blasting out Motown, the Eagles Hotel california etcSmile Smile
Kryan5
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Kryan5 9/27/2011 5:21am
9/27/2011 5:21am
My last race was when i was 12 years old(I started racing mx when i was 5) at Budds Creeks. I was leading MAMA in my class. It was just one of there normal mama races and i knew the track well. At least i thought i did. Turns out the pro race was coming up soon and they wanted to spruce up the track a little. Well during practice I stayed behind to practice my starts. It was concrete back then. Everything was going fine the first lap until i got to what is now the finish line jump. This used to be a double then a table top. Well i hit the double and they must have re lipped it. My kx80 shot the front end straight up. We were about 30' feet up and i knew there was no way I was pulley this off. I ejected the bike and landed..... on my feet snapping both tib/fibs on both legs. Then from the speed and velocity it through me down knocking me out and reverse dislocating my shoulder(My arm bone was about halfway down my back). That was a long recovery especially for a 12yrold kid in grade school. Well 15 years later i got the itch for motocross again. I never stopped racing, but car racing never did it for me like mx, which what i did for that time period. Started riding this year with a buddy and its all came back fast. I've been pretty happy with my results and hope to point out to A next year. Def. happy to be back on the bike.
mxtech1
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mxtech1 9/27/2011 5:48am
9/27/2011 5:48am
District level racing seemed to lose its appeal to me about 2 years ago. It just got to the point to where it wasn't worth being gone all day long to get 30 minutes of track time at the races.

Me and my friends have been hitting more open practices and riding private tracks where we can be gone for about 3 or 4 hours total and we spend all of that time riding. It's just alot more fun and cheaper than racing. I'm going to return to a full racing schedule next year to support some friends that still race regurlarly so we'll see how it feels to get back to race days.
Jefro98
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Jefro98 9/27/2011 5:54am
9/27/2011 5:54am Edited Date/Time 9/27/2011 5:58am
I stopped riding / racing MX 3 years ago when my gf was expecting our son and had to take care of a lot of stuff around the house before he was born.
Never got back to it since then.
This summer Rupert X took me riding at Braircliff OH and I loved it.
The track was perfect for a guy who had not been riding for 3 years since you can do a few easy laps before you get back to a faster speed again. That's not possible here in Holland with the sand tracks.
I still have my YZ250 in the garage and it's very tempting to go out riding again but I won't.
Gotta be in shape to ride the sand here and it takes too much time and effort to ride regularly for me now.
edgo897
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edgo897 9/27/2011 6:53am
9/27/2011 6:53am
Quit in 1980. Started vintage racing in 2007. I saw a 78 YZ400 in ebay and it was close to me so I bought it.
Baird
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Dayton, OH US
Baird 9/27/2011 8:15am
9/27/2011 8:15am
Jefro98 wrote:
I stopped riding / racing MX 3 years ago when my gf was expecting our son and had to take care of a lot of stuff...
I stopped riding / racing MX 3 years ago when my gf was expecting our son and had to take care of a lot of stuff around the house before he was born.
Never got back to it since then.
This summer Rupert X took me riding at Braircliff OH and I loved it.
The track was perfect for a guy who had not been riding for 3 years since you can do a few easy laps before you get back to a faster speed again. That's not possible here in Holland with the sand tracks.
I still have my YZ250 in the garage and it's very tempting to go out riding again but I won't.
Gotta be in shape to ride the sand here and it takes too much time and effort to ride regularly for me now.
Briarcliff is one of my favorites!! Glad you got to check it out!
rocrac
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rocrac 9/27/2011 8:35am
9/27/2011 8:35am
1977 Hodaka 100. broke my foot and played in the woods then to the street I later went on to wrench for my son for 13 years.

2010 GNCC iron man 40 Plus c ...I finished which is about the only thing I can say about it. 33 years in between F$ am I old.
dcg141
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dcg141 9/27/2011 8:41am
9/27/2011 8:41am
Cancerman wrote:
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator...
My last race was the Perris, Calif. Vet Nationals, in 1993, I cased a double, knocked myself out, and seperated my shoulder and torn my rotator cuft. Pinch Forward to 2010, I found out I had stage 3 cancer, so I started buy basket cases for a motivator after my surgery in Jan 2011. I never totally quit the sport, just racing. I'm still recovering my strength, and have started practicing at Lake City and Hard Rock (my local tracks). I'm up to a CRF 450, and RM 125 and 250's. I'm finding I can ride alot harder, longer, on the smokers. The CRF is a beast....Unsure ..... I'm preparing for my first race back, I just have not decided which track to race at yet, things are slow around here. Tongue
Wow..hang in there man and enjoy the ride.
I took off 2 years when I dislocated my lunate. That was almost 10 years ago now. I race everything now. MX, GP's, Enduro's and Hare Scrambles. I wanna start to do some bucket list races. Mammoth, Elsinore GP and I want to try some dez racing just to cover all the off road stuff. I'm doing my last "series" racing this year and start going to select events. Working on getting a dual sport ride also to do some ralleys and ds events.
flyinb501
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flyinb501 9/27/2011 10:54am
9/27/2011 10:54am
My last race was back in 2000. Broke my neck, and moved away to college about a month after getting my halo off. I rode a little bit the summer of 2001, and then sold my last bike. I'm hoping to pick up a bike in the next couple weeks, and start racing again next spring. I'm curious as to how rusty my skills will be... I am definitely a little nervous. I turn 30 next month so +30 class here I come! Smile
englishman
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englishman 9/27/2011 11:04am
9/27/2011 11:04am
Quit in '92 after having raced 15 years straight through the schoolboys, Brit supports & 250 nationals.

Started riding again a couple of years ago and now ride every weekend, first race back was surreal - to be behind a start gate after almost 20 years.

I told the guy next to me " Haven't raced in 20 years so if I take you out coming off the gate I'll apologize now " . Ended up almost getting the holeshot on my YZ250 but a big dude on a KX450 just nipped me going in to the turn.

I didn't feel too bad though - it was Ron Lechein Smile , ended up finishing 2nd just behind him.
Moto East Mag 9/27/2011 12:21pm
9/27/2011 12:21pm
I sold my CR125s in 1990 to go to college and had no money to race. In the interim my main hobby was playing in rock bands. Finally in 2003 I got so bored of playing clubs that I quit my band and was back on the track the next day. So a 13 year gap.

I decided to start racing again but the day before my first race I crashed and broke my femur. Six months after that I started riding again and a year later I did my first race and have raced for eight straight seasons since then. Now I am 44 and wondering how much longer I can ride. Injuries definitely catching up with me, but I have a decent trophy collection too.

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