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I always love it when my buddies get out of their comfort zones and try new things. I’ve known “Jerbil” since he was a little kid and to see him learn how to shoot photography and stay involved in the sport we all love makes me smile. I have been telling him that riding/racing moto will help him with his off road racing so he decided (while I was in Georgia) to race a local Saturday MX at Glen Helen. This is his story, in his words below. If you’re a west coast desert rider or even an east coast woods guy, riding moto from time to time will help build skills that can come in handy when riding/racing on the trails. -KK
Written By: Jeremy Doerksen (AKA, JERBIL)
There is always a certain level of aggression or lack of respect between the off-road racers and the motocross racers on who’s the toughest! “Ohhh 20 min that’s garbage , we race for five hours thru rocks and natural terrain”. “Yeah well we have 40 guys on the same gate in close quarters with nothing but high heart rates and risks of losing focus in a sprint format”, is just one of the argument that stands the tests of time on who’s toughest, who’s cooler and who has the chicks at there races (it’s the quad guys by the way). When it comes down to it we all chase the same feelings, the same passion and the same reasons when we throw our leg over that dirt bike! FUN! That’s the magic word.
I came to my friend Kris Keefer with an idea. I’ve raced and ridden dirt bikes my whole life since I was about 4 and have zero motocross race experience under my belt! I’ve ridden motocross, raced a good amount of grand-prix races and lots of desert racing on the west coast but never really hopped into the motocross scene. So what leads me to wanting to do this now at age 30? I have no clue! I got the wild hair up my ass thinking maybe it would keep that progression from the off road series I chase (district 37 sprint enduro series) on my 2014 KTM 250XC. I don’t really ride much, and I don’t know why? Maybe it’s a lack of want or maybe I lost that “fun” part of it? I can say the last two years have been some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time, and I think that is because of progression. I’ve noticed that the dopamine that you get when you feel really good from getting a section down or when I get that checkered flag at the end of the race is the most fulfilling feeling ever! Now why am I telling you this? Through out a season of racing I tend to build and get better and better that’s largely because I’m out of shape. My idea was to fill in the gap in-between the off season of the District 37 off road series with some moto in order to try and keep me motivated. I don’t know what the deal is with me where I need to almost be forced to do it in order to do it! I got the idea to document my decision through Keefer Inc which helps me not back out of doing more motocross to help with my off road riding. So without further adieu here is my story.
Saturday comes along and it’s race day baby! I’m up too early! I get to Glen Helen and get signed up, which by the way pretty inexpensive which is cool. I paid 45 bucks a race which was in the ballpark for a District 37 event as well so this isn’t as bad as I thought it would be yet. I was first practice which I missed, but I went out which was all good and I got a good feel of the track. Now when I say this don’t laugh! I forgot how to jump, I don’t know what the deal is, I rode like three laps of practice and I jumped a few but for some reason I was scared. I went back to the truck a little defeated because I got arm pump and didn’t jump everything on the track. Seems like I was setting myself up for disaster already.
My race was number four, so I got to see a few starts before mine just to see what these guys were doing and how they go about the track. I get ready go to the line, I pick my rut and the start guy tells everyone to back off the gate. We are picking gate picks by order you signed up so it looks like I am last! I don’t really know the science of packing a gate and I didn’t have anyone with me so I chose the man route and just winged it. I had a 125 next to me and I’m on my 11 year old KTM 250 two stroke but I did notice that his dad packed his gate basically to the I-15 freeway I was confident leaving the gate. Between my poor reaction time and potentially desert gearing on my bike that confidence went to shit. I didn’t get the best jump and luckily for me everyone that got a better gate on the inside kind of tiptoed around the first corner.
I get going and got to one of the first jumps that I never did in practice, but for whatever reason I hit it perfectly on the first lap. I don’t know if it’s something that clicked or everything I learned over the years just took over? Who knows but I went from not jumping anything in practice to jumping everything first lap! Then going from like the sketchy dweeb, front end high to dropping that front end a little. It was quite the feeling, until lap 4 where the bumps and intensity had gotten the best of me where my hands have left the chat my friends. The amount of times I landed in a braking bump and lost my hand or whiskey throttled would make you wanna check your shorts in the pit! I had some decent battles, caught some people and felt good on how I rode. So I would say first moto was a success.
In between motos luckily I knew at least two people that let me invade their space as well as their shade for a bit while I figure out what I can do to make my second moto better. One big thing was my start. I need to make it easier for me so I’m not trying to ride out of my mind! Another thing is breathe, I am pretty sure the last three laps I stopped breathing so maybe I’ll carry a sleep apnea machine with me! I looked at the results and saw that I got fourth with third finishing right in front of me! I’m jazzed, I’m like ok game plan now! I need a better start then find that guy and keep him behind me! I can do a 4-3 then maybe add my first moto trophy to my off road collection.
Lots of time passed and Moto 2 has reared it little head! One thing about off road is that you race your race then you’re done! In moto it seems like I am waiting forever. It looked like they did some track prep which I thought was cool and my body thanked the club who put open this race! We all get lined up! GATE DROP! Similar outcome. A little better this time around, I get about 3 quarters around the first lap and there’s my target!! The guy that finished just in front of me in the first moto was about 2 riders ahead of me so I went full lunatic and I rode over my head for a full lap to get him on an outside line! I finally take a breath and I’m like ok just gotta kind of just ride like a normal human. He seemed to drop back a bit the next two laps and I’m gauging him on some of the 180s (you moto guys call it eye racing). In my head I am saying to myself I’m going to go 4-3 , blah blah blah but I take a look back behind me a bit and there he is. Almost instantly, I tighten up! I’m basically riding the last lap with my shoulders at this point which is what it feels like when you try and push with arm pump! I get to the last corner just to see where he was but it looked like he has surrendered a bit and then I got a sudden feeling of relief crossing the finish line.
As I sit in the truck going through the race in my head thinking, WTF! It is so crazy that you can make up these random battles in your head that the guy could or could not know about. I had sooo much fun racing and the fact that I actually cared so much about where I finished or how I can get better still makes me think I have that racing bug inside me! I did get 4-4 for 4th OA so I didn’t get that trophy but it makes me hungry to go get one again soon. I had a ton of fun figuring out what lines worked for my janky desert set up, on my 11 year old KTM and I’m sure Kris is going to like this, but it does make me want to ride more moto! So not only did this moto race motivate me, it might even push me to use this flavor of riding as a form of training! So much for being an off-road guy only.
Moral of the story! Challenge yourself! If there stuff that you think you can get better at keep working at positive results! Party on Wayne!
