My bad Washougal story

Have to say, our weekend at Washougal was awesome...until Sunday's amateur racing program. We raced PIR on Thursday since my son's class at amateur days got postponed to Sunday due to rain and had a blast. The pro racing on Saturday was epic and our favorite rider (Dungey) goes 1-1.

Then Sunday...I'll preface this by saying that I go through a pre-race checklist on my son's 85 before every race. Check all nuts and bolts and everything in between. I went through my "checklist" on Saturday early AM before the pros raced knowing that we would be hanging out at the race all day and then having to get up at 6:00 to get ready for 7:00 practice on Sunday.

Well...sometime between Saturday morning and Sunday morning, my son's bike was messed with in a way that the bike would still start, but certainly would not finish. His motor expired during the race and I thought it was a simple breakdown. Upon returning to the pits and looking at the bike I could not have been more wrong.

The spark plug had been loosened with a pliers (you could see the tooth marks...and I've never used anything with teeth to install the plug) and it had loosened itself out. I assume that as the plug worked its way out it created a lean situation which fried the piston. I also noticed that someone had used pliers on the ignition wire where it comes out the ignition cover (there were obvious tooth marks and the insulation had been ripped). I then asked my son if the bike felt weir any other way. He said the clutch felt funny when he was riding. So...I pulled back the rubber boot over the clutch lever and there was a screw that was screwed into the clutch lever leaving just the head in between the lever and the perch. So...the clutch wasn't fully disengaging the entire time so I'm pretty sure the clutch plates are cooked as well. I haven't checked the fuel yet, but I guess I should just assume I'll find something I don't like in the tank as well...

None of these issues were present when I went over the bike on Saturday AM (yes, I did double check spark plug with a wrench...I do this before every race...I also checked his clutch for proper free play which it had etc...).

What disturbs me is that it is obvious that whoever did this knew what they were doing...they did things to the bike in a fashion where it would start and you wouldn't notice anything by just glancing at it. I just am stumped...why us? My son is a good rider, but nothing spectacular. We only race two or three times in a year now because my son really focuses on football and baseball.

Thank god the motor puked when it did...he was just about to hit a pretty good sized jump (for an 85). If it let go when he was going up the face of that jump, it could have been really ugly. Hard to explain to an 11 year old kid that looks forward to this race more than Christmas itslef that pieces of sh*t like this exist in this world...

I guess the moral of the story is two-fold. 1) I have to wait to give his bike the "once over" until the morning of the race (instead of the day before) and 2) I can no longer leave his bike unattended in our pits ever again without being in a locked trailer. Sad...