Race Report: ECEA Round 7: RORR Enduro  

WER Rider: Zack Huberty 

Bike: KTM 200 XC 

Result: A-200 5^th   

Point Standings: 5^th 

Report: 

            The 7^th round of the ECEA Enduro Series brought riders to the coal mines of Tamaqua, PA.  With new Kenda Triples on the bike, I was ready to tackle the rocky terrain; however, I was a little nervous about riding in the rocks for the first time this year.  With the forecast calling for a day in the mid-90’s, I knew it would be a long day.  After getting all of my gear on and warming up the bike, I headed to the starting line. 

            The first section of the day was a great warm-up piece for me, but I struggled to ride smooth and fast.  I was about a minute off the pace through this 4 mile section that consisted of some woods trail, off-camber trail, and rocky hill climbs.  We then headed into the next section where I was once again off the pace of the other riders in my class.  I just couldn’t get into a groove nor was I was feeling comfortable.  One of the problems was that I had gotten so used to using my front brake in the sand, and using the front brake the same way in the rocks just put me on the ground.   

            By the middle of the race, my day started to go down-hill.  My physical fitness was not there and I was riding horrible.  I ended up getting stuck on the side of a ridge where I used all of my energy to get up the hill in order to not risk sliding down the ridge into a creek.  After this disaster of a section for me, I tried to gather my bearings.  In the next section, I was able to keep it together a little better and kept an A-4 stroke lite rider in my reach the whole section.  But I got stuck in a stream that we had to go through towards the end of the section.  My front wheel got wedged between two rocks in the stream so I had to get off the bike.  We had a gas stop before the final section where I tried to re-energize myself.  My dad was there with a cold rag and had the air conditioning on in the truck.  I tried to cool-off as much as possible. I was not looking forward to the last portion of the day which was around 10+ miles. 

            In the last section of the day, I learned a couple things about myself and my bike.  With my new WER suspension on the bike, the bike acted a lot different in the rocks.  The bike consistently traveled in a straight line through the rock gardens and I felt more comfortable on the bike.  My confidence was down in the rocks so this was preventing me from going at a faster pace.  I also realized that I wanted to make some changes to the front forks as it seemed to be dipping in the front more than I would have liked (I ended up fixing this after a phone conversation with Drew Smith).  My endurance was also poor.  I got tired early in the last section which kept me at a slower pace than normal. 

            At the end of the day, I placed 5^th which is not where I would like to be in the results.  Coming into the day, I had hoped to be in the top 3.  With some hard work between the next couple of races, I hope to get back on the right track. 

            Once again, I could not have done all of this without the support of my family, especially my dad for his race support, as well as my sponsors which are Johnny Limp at Torc1Racing, Drew Smith at WER Suspension, PowerSeal USA, FMF, BRP, EKS Brand Goggles, P3, All Balls Racing, Galfer USA, Sixsixone, Kenda, N-Style, Vertex Pistons, AXO, DT-1 Filters, AP Brakes, Motorex, Acerbis, Matto Cycle, MotoConcepts, Renthal, Clockwork KTM, and Topar Racing.   

For more information: 

Check WER Suspension out at Facebook “Works Enduro Rider (WER)” 

Check Zack Huberty out at Facebook “Zack’s Racing” 

Check-out Zack Huberty at http://zackhuberty323racing.blogspot.com/