Kenny Carlile

My friend Jeff and I hit the Washougal motocross park last Sunday for the last practice session of the season. I'd never ridden Washougal before, although I've watched four AMA National motocross races there. What an amazing place! Being on that track was a childhood dream come true. It's such a surreal place for me having seen my childhood idols race there as a kid. Riding that track seemed so unimaginable and now I'm in a position where I can just pay $30 and ride it a few times a year.

My bike actually did better than I was afraid it would do. Don't get me wrong, the handling was pretty bad, but power-wise it did okay. That is, it worked. It didn't work well, but it worked. I was able to pull Horsepower Hill better than I expected and it worked decent in the ruts.

In practice round 1, I passed about four other riders before I tried to avoid a big jump, mistimed a smaller jump, jumped off the track, smashed through a hay bale, and landed facing into traffic on another part of the track. I technically "passed" about another dozen or so riders, but since I cut a huge section of the track out, I don't count those passes.

My second time out, I passed a couple riders before taking a nasty spill. I was coming out of the corner right before Horsepower Hill when I got cross-rutted, tried to power out of it, the bike started swapping, and then I high-sided. You can see this crash in the videos below, but unfortunately for me, the angle looks like I just tipped over for no reason. I can assure you, I was trying to save it before I crashed. After my little crash, I took the rest of that round easy.

My third round out, I didn't push myself very hard. I was getting tired and starting to feel what a pig my bike had become on the track. The more tired I got, the worse my trailbike worked as a motocross bike.

Despite my two gaffes, I had a great time. The motocross bug has really bitten me. It was something I always wanted to do as a kid and just never was able to do it for one reason or another.

Another very positive experience was meeting the people I rode with. Jeff is a great rider and a really nice guy. I also finally got to meet another friend from the forums, Eric, who is also a fantastic rider. My previous experiences with motocross riders, when I was growing up, were fairly negative. They were always very competitive and arrogant. However, this group of guys was compeltely different! They were all extremely supportive and encouraging. I know that I was relatively slow and awkward on the track, but they all told me how great I was doing, which was really nice to hear. I'm very happy to have met these guys.

My latest scheme–I mean, plan–is to train and save over the winter, buy a gently used CRF250R and do some racing next year. I don't care if I come in last place every time, I just want to ride and have fun. I never got to do it as a kid, so this is my chance to fulfill a childhood dream. Wish me luck!