WMR

We arrived Friday morning and began setting up our pit under the Moose Racing tent. Moose was the teams gear sponsor and brought in their Semi for the team. Moose really stepped up to the plate on this one. The gear was awesome and really stood out with the red white and blue color scheme to match Costa Ricas flag. Moose is huge in off road but wants the world to know that they do motocross as well. The engineering of their gear is up to world class standards and works great for MX, after all if it can hold up in the woods a Motocross track should be no problem.

With a three man team there is very little time to hang out and check out the scene, the schedule is very tight with at least one rider on the track every hour. The team consisted of David Chacon #119 in the MX1 class on a 450F, Roberto Castro #120 in the MX2 class on a 250F, Johan Mora #121 in the open class on a 450F and Adrian Robert as our alternate. Adrian is very well known in Costa Rica and is a motocross legend there, he was on the 2002 des Nations team with Ernesto Fonseca. WMR provided everything the team needed even mechanics however Moto Club mechanic, Hugo came with the team to help out and act as an interpreter, he worked his butt off all weekend and is a really great guy. We are trying to talk him into coming back to the states and putting him to work in the shop. Chuck Akin was the team manager and had his hands full all weekend keeping track of all the FIM regulations. All in all we were pretty organized and didn't have too many surprises.

When the team came to be we all knew we would have our work cut out for us.

It was WMR's job to build the race bikes and make them the best they could be, the riders job was to train hard so they could last the full 30 plus two minutes. The teams goal was to think about everything we would need and make sure we had it in the rig. We figured that's all we could do and if we prepared correctly we had a good chance of performing well at the race. Well, we were prepared, the riders were in the best shape of their lives and never faded in any of the motos, as a matter of fact they were still pushing and passing other riders in the final laps. What we could not control however came up to bight us as far as overall results would go.

The Pipe dilemma!

When the bikes were sound inspected by the FIM they write on the silencer with a sharpie the decibel level. We even tested our extra pipes so we would have a back up. Pro Circuit supplied the pipes and did a great job, even supplying special tips in order to meet the FIM sound requirement. All bikes went through tech without a problem.

Up to this point in the race we were doing great, we had a 16th in the MX1 moto and a 19th in MX2, all we had to do was run good in the Open class and we would be in the main event. Top twenty go to the main without an LCQ and it was looking good.

In the Open moto with Johan Mora we had a problem before even getting to the line. The crew was out on the track spotting and wrenching for the MX2 moto and didn't have time to go back to the pit to get Mora to staging. His bike was ready and all he had to do was meet us there. What no one realized was the sharpie had washed off the silencer at some point and when he got to staging they would not let him ride without the sound level marking on the pipe. He went back to the pits with time running out, when we got to staging he was already gone. All he had to do was change the silencer with another we had pre inspected and he could have ridden his 450F, but when he got back to the pit there was no one there to tell him. Instead of swapping the pipe he grabbed the extra 250F and headed back to staging. All these guys had lots of time on their particular bikes and they were set up for them specifically. The 250F was not set up for Johan, it was set up for lighter Adrian Robert the alternate and the suspension was too light. Needless to say he had a rough moto but still managed to get a 20th place. We thought we had dogged a bullet but when final calculations were done we missed it by two seconds. it was off to the LCQ. We felt good because we had already beaten almost all the riders in the LCQ except for WMR alumni Martin Davalos.

The LCQ didn't go our way at all, Chacon had a first turn crash that left him at the bottom of the pile with his pipe burning his leg and hand, he tried to continue but the burns were too much and he had to pull off. There was still a chance because Castro was running up front and Mora was charging hard until he slipped over a berm and hooked a snow fence in his back wheel. The nylon fence completely wrapped up in his brake and sprocket and eventually stopped him cold. That was the end of our day, we were ready and prepared but a few small things ended our chances. Martin Davalos of Ecuador, went on to win the moto but his team mates did not fare as well, and just like us they did not make it to the main. That's the thing about team competition, everything needs to go right for the whole team in order to do well.

All things being considered it was still a great event, the bikes were fast and the riders were too. Just being there was an honor and something we will always remember. The next time the MXoN comes to the US we will be there. We want to thank all the teams sponsors, without them we would not have been able to bring these talented riders to the USA to compete in the biggest race of the year.

WMR Performance Products, Motorsport Fox Kawasaki, Moose Racing, HJC Spy, TCX, Spectro Oils, Hole Shot Bike Wash, Ride Engineering, Hammer Head designs, 180 Decals, Pro Wheel, Braking, Cycra, Pro Circuit, Renthal, ASV, Stomp Designs, Light Speed, VP Fuels, Pirelli, Twin Air, Cometic, CV4, Boyesen, Seminole Tribe Motocross, Moroso Motorsports Park MX, Web Cams