MY BIKE WEEK ADVENTURE

by Kurt Lucas

Photo by Tyler Miller

For the first time in forever I decided to actually compete in some events for this year’s Daytona Bike Week. The events were the Wild Boar GNCC at Hog Waller, the Daytona Vintage Supercross and the Alligator Sprint Enduro. I’m not sure why this decision was made, but it sure did seem like a good idea at the time.

The Friday before the Daytona Supercross I loaded up my Ford Transit with my KTM 350, KX 500 and street bike, and by street bike I mean a Yamaha Zuma moped and headed for Daytona.

After a night of experience the sights and sounds of Main Street we headed into Daytona International Speedway to watch some Supercross that Saturday. Immediately after Supercross I headed back to the camper to get some sleep before my first event of the week, the Wild Boar GNCC in Palatka where I would be racing the Junior 25+ A/B class.

A few weeks prior to bike week I began to spend a lot of time at Croom Motorcycle Park, riding hours of sand whoops in preparation for the Wild Boar GNCC. Turns out nothing can prepare you for the torture of the afternoon race at a Florida GNCC. I have never seen sand whoops so big, and this was on the first lap! I immediately knew that I would be in for a long three hours. I actually decided to do the opposite of what I would normally do in a FTR Hare Scramble and conserve my energy on the first two laps. This proved to be a smart decision as the track began to fall apart at the halfway mark. The mud sections turned into soup, the sand whoops were so dug out that they reached the water table and formed puddles in between each other, and the breaking bumps were getting sharp.

On the last lap I was able to move into fifth place, which was my goal. Unfortunately about halfway through the last lap I realized my rear sprocket was losing teeth at a rapid rate. I tried to baby the bike back to the finish line but fell about 100 yards short. I was able to push the bike to the finish but lost two spots in the process. I crossed the line at 3 hours and 48 minutes. I was tired.

Tuesday was an early morning as Vintage SX practice was at 7:30 AM. I was racing my 1998 KX 500 that I had only ridden three times, twice in Pre-Modern at both Bartow Hare Scrambles and once at 74MX to prep for this event. Practice went well as I tried my best to hold on to that beast of a bike.

I had never practiced a moto start on my 500, so I wasn’t sure what to expect before my first gate drop. A fellow competitor told me that starting the big 500 in third gear was the ticket, so I decided to try that out. It didn’t work out great. First of all, having the 500 revved on the gate is equivalent to that game they have at the fair where you have to hold on to the grips that shock you for as long as possible, it is wild. Safe to say my start wasn’t great, and I think I ended up 14th out of 27 that moto.

Next moto I decided to start in second gear, but I guess I didn’t click it up enough and ended up starting in neutral and getting a dead last start. I worked my way up to 17th that moto and ended to the day in 14th overall.

The best part of my day was watching my dad pull a holeshot on motocross legends Jeff Stanton and Doug Henry, that was awesome.

On Wednesday we headed north to the DDR property in Ormond Beach for the 69th running of the Alligator Enduro. We met up and camped with some friends, which was a nice change of pace from being at the speedway all week.

Thursday morning rolled around, and we were ready to roll for the enduro. It is crazy how much more relaxed I am before the start of an enduro vs. the start of a hare scramble. Being relaxed allows myself to ride better and that was the case for the Alligator. I felt awesome on the bike all day and with the sprint enduro format there is no way to tell how you are stacking up against the competition. After nine fun tests I came away with the win in A Open, which felt awesome. I’ve been an A rider for a long time and this was only my second win in the A class, so you better believe I was pretty pumped after the race.

Once all packed up I made my way home back to St. Pete, But first some friends and I decided to grab some food and celebratory beverages at Sparky’s in Astor. It was the perfect end cap to an amazing week. I have to give a huge shoutout to my dad, Paul Lucas, for hanging with me all week and being my pit crew. Couldn’t have done it without you pops!