Steel Shoe 3 Hour Ice Race
One mans journey
By Wes Orloff
So there I was , barreling down the straight through the
icy air with my opponent dead ahead in my sights. I carefully
lined him up and pulled out of the draft, hoping to slip by
before the first corner. I drafted by on his left at over
75mph....I took a quick gaze at my opponent as I passed.....Damn
F.I.B.'s (F#$%^in' Illinois Bastard for those non cheese heads),
hogging up the whole road with their Suburban and trailer.....why
I ought to....wait a second, Doesn't my team mate (and bike
owner) Larry from Illinois and have a suburban and trailer?????
Was the F.I.B. I just block passed in my Dakota on the way
to the 3 hour Wegman benefit ice race in Ft. Atkinson actually
the same guy kind enough to let me join his team when my ride
fell through??? Turns out it was, and he is.
Thankfully, Larry has a great sense of humor. Good thing
since we were riding a 1980 something YZ490 'widowmaker',
that had only just been converted to an icecycle the day before,
in a 3 hour team endurance race. I was part of a 3 man team
headed up by Larry, an accomplished Enduro/woods rider normally
found on a KTM. Dennis Robinson rounded out the team. A man
famous (infamous?) for a riding style that usually ended with
an attempt to cause bodily damage to some large inanimate
object with parts of his anatomy not normally associated as
being a defensive weapon (head/groin/etc). Dennis also claims
to be an enduro hero. Even with a relatively 'experienced'
(mature?) team we had put together, the combined time of all
three of us on an ice bike was probably substantially less
than a union work day...
We had all come together to participate in the annual Wegman
fund 3 hour team endurance ice race on Lake Koshkonong in
Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin. Did I mention it was cold? When I
passed the bank in Ft Atkinson on the way to the race, it
read 1 deg F. Even in the heat of the day (relative term),
I don't think it got above 15 degrees. We also had a refreshing
breeze gusting to 30-35mph throughout the day directly across
the barren lake. Never did the math on the wind chill, but
it must have been close to 0 degrees Kelvin at full boogie
on the big Yamaha across the lake....I had visited the government
surplus store the day before and was equipped with multiple
layers of clothing under a cold weather riding suit. I managed
to stay fairly warm other than my hands.
Larry and I arrived at the race sight at about the same time
(maybe I arrived a little before due to my practice pass....).
We proceeded to set up our pit. I must say that Larry knows
how do this racing thing in style. We had a generator, radiant
heater, full size gas grill, food and even a (frozen) Keg
in his trailer! Also had a bike squeezed in there....ahhhh,
the bike!
To tell you the truth, I was a bit relieved when I saw the
Yamaha YZ490 we were to ride in the race. I wasn't familiar
with that model and had pictured some twin shock relic from
the 70's. I was excited to see that the bike actually looked
fairly modern, with mono-shock and a decent amount of suspension
travel. About the only thing that gave away its maturity was
the big air cooled lump with enough finning to make a Pratt
and Whitney jealous. Dennis and Larry had spent a ton of time
on the bike prepping it for the race, studding up the tires,
making fender brackets, re-jetting, re-gearing....my contribution
(a rear fender) was minimal due to my late acceptance to the
team.
Dennis and Angie (who qualifies for saint-hood in my book)
showed up a little later and we proceeded to get the team
signed up in the heavyweight class....it looked like this
was going to be a riot! 53 teams had signed up, ice conditions
were great, and the promoters had laid out a large winding
2 ½ mile course. Practice had been delayed a bit due
to the old Christmas trees that were used to mark the course
being blown off mark by the high winds. We used the time to
finish prepping and warming up the mighty YZ for practice.
I was voted to practice first since I had the most riding
gear on at the time....here goes nothing.
I would love to say I made an elegant and graceful exit from
the pits on the big YZ.....but alas, I can't. The combination
of multiple layers of clothing reducing what little flexibility
I had, the mirror smooth ice, and the absolutely tread-less
MX boots I was wearing conspired to drop me to my butt with
the bike falling on top of me as I attempted to swing a leg
over for the first time. I can only imagine what Larry was
thinking (if memory serves, both Dennis and Angie expressed
their thoughts fairly vocally.....). Thank god the camera
was off. My second attempt ended in a stall about 20 ft away
from the pits. 3rd time was a charm however, and I actually
made it out to the track on two wheels.
After our rocky start, I was understandably cautious warming
up to the YZ, affectionately known as 'the Widow-maker'. These
open class large bore two strokes were known for their violent
powerbands and punished the unsuspecting. Not an ideal combination
for ice! I was pleasantly surprised to find the powerband
somewhat friendly, with just gobs of low end and mid range
torque. It just constantly spun the rear tire, no matter what
RPM the engine was at. If nothing else, this was highly entertaining!
Side grip, on the other hand, was another story. I had been
riding with the Gruber brother's the weekend before on their
CR250's which had incredible grip. For whatever reason, the
YZ just wasn't cooperating , and got extremely loose if you
drifted to the outside of the turns made up of a berm formed
by finely chopped up ice particles. The incredible torque
of the machine made the rear end even more dicey, causing
it to come around if you even looked at the throttle wrong.
I had done about 5 laps when I exceeded available traction
and lost the front, causing a fairly non-eventful low side.
No damage to either myself or the bike, so we brought it back
to the pits. At least we had found the limit!
We had a bit of a surprise as we handed the bike off to Dennis
for his practice...the flagman was showing the checkers to
end the session! Unfortunately due to the delays setting up
the track, the practice had been shortened. Dennis managed
to get out for one lap, but I felt pretty guilty. I got 5
good laps, Dennis got one, and Larry got nothing and would
have to learn the course during the race!
By now we had actually gotten a fairly decent sized rooting
section, with all of Larry's relatives in a 150 mile circumference
showing up to verify his insanity. Incredibly even Stacey,
who gets cold in the middle of summer, showed up and appeared
to be having a good time (probably from the anti-freeze being
passed around the spectators). Larry, Dennis, and I retired
to the trailer to come up with our game plan and answer the
big question, who was going to start the race?
None of us really wanted to! The thought of lining up with
53 other bikes in a bunch of ungodly fast open class four
strokes manned by AMA pro's who actually wanted to win this
thing didn't sound really appealing. Good judgment probably
would have put me out first, as I had the most laps of the
track. Luckily (for me), we decided to do a coin toss, which
Dennis promptly lost. I felt like giving Dennis last rights
as he wheeled to the starting line. Hope he was paying attention
on his 1 lap of practice! At least the course seemed to be
free of any large rock formations for him to run into.
The bike started by class....first the lightweight 125',
then the 250's, and finally the open classers and Dennis.
I don't know how he managed to make that first lap, as visibility
was nil behind all the bikes. Dennis completed the first lap
in....not in last! He slowly started picking through the field
and was riding real well. Since we had no illusion of trying
to win the race, we agreed to take a couple more pit stops
and rotate riders every half hour or until our hands got cold
enough to lose function. Dennis pussed out at 15 minutes and
brought her in. I was second man up so we made a fairly smooth
exchange and hit it hard. As the laps went by, I started to
get a rhythm and feel more comfortable on the bike. I found
the trick was to bog the motor in the slow corners, as the
thing was still making enough power to spin the rear and turn
the bike. The bike was a handful, but it was a riot riding
it. There was a gentle bending left hand turn that went by
the pits you took flat out in 5th gear. It was just awesome
to be on that bellowing machine WOT with the rear drifted
out....something I will not forget! I rode and rode and rode,
my fingers finally giving up due to the brutal cold, so I
signaled to come in. We shot into our pit and made a clean
exchange with Larry.
Wes - 'Man, I must have been out there 30-40 minutes! I'm
beat!!!!'
Dennis - ' Try 15 minutes ace.....'
Wes - '?'
And then depression set in.....
I'm not sure how Larry did it....his first laps of the track
were at full race pace and he was looking great. He was the
iron man of the bunch probably did 20-25 minutes. Things were
looking good and the bike was holding up beautifully.
Dennis went out for his second shift, really putting the
coals to it and staying out at least 40 minutes before we
flagged him in. He was really moving and looked really good
on the bike...racing a lot of people. He says he never crashed,
but I'm not so sure.....I didn't think that was possible!
For what ever reason, I have found that once you get your
heart rate up on your first ride, your much more tolerant
of the cold. I went out on my second stint and felt great,
my hands were staying warm and I was comfortable with the
pace. Got a good rhythm going and spent a lot of time figuring
out the track. The bike was a handful in the corners that
had a lot of powdered ice though. As my shift went on, I got
a little tired and sloppy....the Big YZ must have noticed
and decided to live up to its widow-maker name.
It was probably the nastiest crash I had ever had, bar none.
I was turning in to one of the sharp corners from a relatively
high speed straight and got out a little wide into the deeper
snow to the outside of the corner entrance. I flicked the
bike in, and the rear lost traction and came completely around....I
remember the handlebars literally banging into the lock in
my attempt to save it. By now, I was just a reluctant passenger,
as the rear end violently gripped and snapped to the other
side full lock. The thing just ejected me completely off the
bike and onto the hard ice, landing on my head/shoulder/elbow.
It knocked me silly for a second, but I regained my composure
and got the bike running again, determined to make a few more
laps and not end my day with a crash. The bike got torn up,
ripping the rear fender off and busting a hand guard. I ran
around a couple more times, but the crash really knocked the
wind out of me, so I finally retired after a 40-45minute run.
Larry took her out to finish the race and was really running
well. I think we all felt more comfortable on the bike as
time went on. As the course got more and more rutted up, the
other bikes with better grip had to slow down the pace and
it played well for us. There were some incredibly fast guys
out there we could only dream of keeping up with.
Overall, I think its safe we all had a Blast for a good cause.
We were beaten by a lot of teams, but we also beat some guys
too... Our friends the Grubers finished 1st in their class
so that was pretty exciting . Thanks a million to Larry for
the use/prep of the bike. Dennis to for all the prep work.
I'm suffering a little with a mildy separated shoulder and
bruised ribs from the crash, but nothing that wont heal up
quickly. Most of all the race was just plain fun and I find
myself looking forward to next year already. It will be a
long summer....
WFO
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