Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 1:09pm
Another thread got me thinking about this. What is your best holeshot story? In my years of racing I have 2 that stand out.
1999 Houston SX 125 West - got holeshot, but Brandes parked me in 2nd turn
But the best, was 1999 Mammoth MX in the 250 Pro main event.
After the parade lap , I came back to my gate and started my ritual. I had a great good pick after a good heat race. I started my burn and my "launch" check at the perfect moment as when the gate was about to drop I had the perfect burn and traction was awesome. When the gate did drop, after 6 inches I knew I had a massive holeshot. The bike hooked up and I was clicking gears, leaning off the back of the bike as far as my little arms would let me... Around the first left sweeper, I was tucked and pitched, clicking it into 4th, then 5th before going right back down three gears. When I got to the top of the hill I stuffed it into the left turn perfectly without hardly letting off, when I went down the first little drop off hill and got on the brakes it was silent. Dead silent.
Right then. My mom let go with her distinct AWOOOOOOOO that I could pick out anywhere anytime on the track. I actually remember hearing that yell and thinking go... Run away and make these f$&@kers run you down. It was still silent as I turned right, set up and went off the top off the famous downhill... When the tires left the ground and I chopped the throttle, I could hear the announcer (who I believe was Larry Naston maybe?). Shout and echo through the valley...
... AND IT'S HARRINGTON!....
Tires hit the ground, the rear brake dragging commenced and I was wide open hitting the biggest breaking bumps faster than I had all week.
Dubach passed me before the end of that first lap and by the end of the main I was spent, a 135 lb noodle armed kid hanging on for dear life and a 10th place finish with intermittent rear brakes. But that start.... The stars were aligned for sure.
1999 Houston SX 125 West - got holeshot, but Brandes parked me in 2nd turn
But the best, was 1999 Mammoth MX in the 250 Pro main event.
After the parade lap , I came back to my gate and started my ritual. I had a great good pick after a good heat race. I started my burn and my "launch" check at the perfect moment as when the gate was about to drop I had the perfect burn and traction was awesome. When the gate did drop, after 6 inches I knew I had a massive holeshot. The bike hooked up and I was clicking gears, leaning off the back of the bike as far as my little arms would let me... Around the first left sweeper, I was tucked and pitched, clicking it into 4th, then 5th before going right back down three gears. When I got to the top of the hill I stuffed it into the left turn perfectly without hardly letting off, when I went down the first little drop off hill and got on the brakes it was silent. Dead silent.
Right then. My mom let go with her distinct AWOOOOOOOO that I could pick out anywhere anytime on the track. I actually remember hearing that yell and thinking go... Run away and make these f$&@kers run you down. It was still silent as I turned right, set up and went off the top off the famous downhill... When the tires left the ground and I chopped the throttle, I could hear the announcer (who I believe was Larry Naston maybe?). Shout and echo through the valley...
... AND IT'S HARRINGTON!....
Tires hit the ground, the rear brake dragging commenced and I was wide open hitting the biggest breaking bumps faster than I had all week.
Dubach passed me before the end of that first lap and by the end of the main I was spent, a 135 lb noodle armed kid hanging on for dear life and a 10th place finish with intermittent rear brakes. But that start.... The stars were aligned for sure.
On one particular weekend at Budds Creek it rained on Saturday which meant morning practice on Sunday was a muddy affair. That year I went through all kinds of problems with my bike and my dad and I had agreed not to do practice on Sunday in order to salvage my bike (Plus we didn't feel like cleaning all that mud off the thing for a 10 minute practice session).
I had raced Budds plenty of times so in my mind I wasn't worried about riding the track. I was sure I would be ok for the motos. Also my first moto came up and I think I was probably the 11 or 12th moto of the morning. Back then the start at Budds was concrete and I used to get terrible starts anyway so I don't think I even cleaned the gate off due to the muddy conditions.
Well the gate dropped and all I remember was I needed to not spin in the mud so I kind of eased out of the gate before dumping the clutch down the start straight. Never in my life had I ripped such a start and this was actually my first time out on the track for the whole weekend.
As everyone slid into turn one, I had a clear view of everything. I was so shocked that I actually overshot the second turn which at that time led up Henry's hill (Reverse Direction). Two bikes passed me and I remember battling this Honda 250F side-by-side with me up Henry's Hill. I don't know what I was thinking but I hit Henry's did a little scrub and found myself in second place going up the back tabletop called "DeerStand."
Well going up "DeerStand" the leader slammed on the breaks going up the face, while I held it on to clear the jump. While in the air I finally understood why he slammed on the breaks lol.
During this whole time I completely forgot that the track was in terrible condition due to the mud and ruts. I hadn't rode practice so I didn't know where any of the lines developed or where the big muddy areas were.
As I sailed over the jump I finally realized I was headed for a huge mud hole. I tried everything I could for all of two seconds before I landed. After landing my bike sunk in the mud and promptly ejected me over the bars. The bike was stuck standing straight up with the mud coming just below the radiators.
My wonderful feeling of leading for the first time ended with me feeling stupid.
However somehow I ended coming back to finish tenth (we had a full gate), after taking 20 seconds to pull my bike out of the mud. I think the only reason I did so well afterwords was because I was in a blind fury after humiliating myself
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I line up for the start of my first moto (+30C) and grab the holeshot on my trusty old RM125 against a field of big bores. As I rounded the first corner I was overcome with excitement and let out a mighty yell to celebrate the tiddler's awesome starting prowess. I knew the track went a little right before a left hander, then the right sweeper up horsepower hill, but misjudged exactly how far it swung right and damn near jumped off the track and right onto a fencepost.
Backing off and letting somebody show me the way around for a lap or two was my first mistake. The second mistake was jumping in behind a KTM625 for the run up horsepower hill. I don't think you could have bounced more rocks off my helmet if you had been using heavy equipment than that bloody KTM did. It sounded like three guys taking turns smacking me in the head with a shovel.
Lined up way inside on a right sweeping start at Field of Dreams for a C class moto. The next bike was at least 15 spots to my left. There were 20+ riders on the gate. Easiest holeshot ever.'
Worst:
Full gate of C class into a fast left handed sweeper. Running 4th into the 1st turn and I lock bars with another rider. I was flying off the bike and the other 36 riders were dodging me while some hit me like I was roadkill. A few tire burns and a sliced tongue later, I was OK but didn't finish the moto. Scariest wreck (that I can remember) I've ever had.
My worst holeshot was my second one. I crashed while pulling the holeshot for a LL qualifier at Budds. I don't remember much, but somehow I got up and rode half a lap before dropping out. When my mind caught up my body after the crash I was going down finish line and rolling backwards. I had no clue how I made it around that half of lap.
I suffered a concussion from the first turn crash and also cracked a few ribs from being run over.
I got my first moto win at that race at FOD that day too. So, it hasn't been too bad to me in the past. The worst holeshot crash was at Ace in NY.
First one at a local mx race, getting ready to line up for 125A, really hard packed blue groove track, and it just rained, so its like riding on ice. First turn is a hard 180 left turn. Before getting in the gate my little brother says, I'm gonna take it easy into the first turn because I bet everyone else piles up. Gate drops, he is pinned massive holeshot down the straightaway, and I'm about 2 bike lengths behind in 2nd. He never even lets off and tries the inside line and downs it sideways in the corner. I've slowed down and everyone else caught up and they're all slow spinning and wrecking trying to go around his bike, I just wheelied up and over his bike for traction and got a good lead from there. He kept those old plastics with burnout marks all over them just to show what a nice brother I am.
Next one, circa 2008, during the fall I was in between new bikes. Got the itch to race a harescramble, so I pulled out the 95 cr125 from retirement, always just kept it around because it was my first big bike. Signed up for Open pro, had a dead engine start with a long sweeping grassy left hander. God that felt good to pull the holeshot on that old thing.
The guy behind me didnt.
He used my front wheel as a berm and my ass hit the ground so hard it ripped the plastic belt thing off of my new pants. It was a not so fun 15+2 with them falling down. Especially because there arent many jumps to adjust in the air at the wick...
They beat millions of others for the first turn!
Pit Row
I don't even know how I did what came next. We scrambled back onto the bikes, rolled back down to the line, and the adrenaline musta been pumpin' hard 'cause when the gate dropped again I ripped a wicked holeshot. First one ever, I think. Anyway, about a lap later the impact of the first start that had gone so bad started to catch up with me. Sandbagger got by me first, but I only let one other guy by. Crossing the finish I felt so good about it I threw a fist in the air as I cruised to the side of the track to return to the pits. That's when I realized everyone else was still zooming by on the track.
I had pulled off a lap early. Curse you head trauma!
H
However, I must have been, in RD's words, super-pumped, because by the time we got to the first turn, I rocketed through those two with a half inch on either end of my handebars and took the holeshot by probably 20 feet. Hit full stop on the grip and speed shifted all the way. Good thing they didn't sqeeze together, because no way in hell I would have stopped. Just meant there would have been 3 of us cartwheeling down the track. Went 3-1 that day for the overall.
Have a picture somewhere, anyone tell me how to load it up?
Best thing that ever happened to my holeshots. Now the biggest thing I have to do is make up my mind I'm getting the holeshot.
I told my dad, "I'm gonna do my best but don't hope for too much."
He said, "Alright son. Keep it on two. Love ya man" and proceeded to walk to the end of turn one. He stood with my mom and she was extremely nervous because of 2010.
The board is sideways and I'm bouncin' Lynn (my bike) off her rev limiter. The gate drops. I'm WFO down the straight. I'm coming into a tight left hand corner with not 1 or 2 or 3 bikelengths but 4 bikelengths in front of 450's. I see my mom smiling as I rail to a second place finish. I'll never forget that feeling.
In the sequence below, I am getting the holeshot on the actual bike I raced in 1982, only this is last year. The other cool thing is that the #4 bike in the photo is being ridden by my buddy Ed Tashjian. We were in the same class at the Coliseum back in 1982 and here we are racing again!
The worst part is that even though I get a good number of holeshots, Ed always manages to pass me....
When the gate dropped for the parade lap I waited for everyone to go first and then held my front brake and roosted all the mud and water out as I left. I got back to the line to find my dad had worked it into a perfect launch pad. I knew I had a fast enough bike because I holeshot 2 of the A motos at LL's the week before and being 5'6" and 140lbs didn't hurt either. I timed the gate perfect and it was like slow motion as I slowly inched out front down that long ass start. I must have held my breath all the way down to the sand whoop section but that was it because by the time I hit the 3rd whoop Larocco blew past me like I was, well... some 18yr old that just came out of the amateurs. I held tough the whole track but those whoops had my number as I only got passed there, but I lost about one spot per lap through those things finishing 16th at the end of the moto.
The best/worst part of getting that holeshot was when Cycle News came out with the coverage of the race there was a shot of the first turn and I was far enough out front that the caption said Larocco got the holeshot. All you could see was the roost from my rear tire hitting his front fender.
Good Times!
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