After our extravagant dinner our host and friend provided for us for the second night in a row, he made his announcement, "The bus to Cheese Nuts (the track. no kidding) will leave at 6 a.m. sharp. I awoke around 8, very thankful that Masami had arranged a taxi for us to pick us up at 10. Upon arriving at the track, I was glad it wasnt raining, or near as cold as yesterday. Jason Hooper's 8:40 race went well, until his prime piece of machinery, the Fantic200, broke down in the middle of the race, I think he was in 5th overall up until then.
Kailub's race began at 12. The announcer introduced every rider in the pro classes, and the start was triggered by a wave of the Japanese flag. I thought that was really cool. One of the biggest things I noticed at this race was the amazing level of honor and positive spirit. I would like to see more of that at our own GNCCs. At the end of both races, fans lined up from the finish line to the pits to congratulate every single rider that finished.
Kailub Russell and Josh Strang were at least 20 seconds ahead in the 5th or 6th turn; Kailub said most of the course was like a motocross track without jumps that was in the woods. The track was also a lot shorter than a normal GNCC track, and I think they ended up doing 15 laps in the 3 hour race. When the riders rounded the track to my vantage point at the stop of the carnage spawning hill I mentioned in my first JNCC saga post, Josh Stang was in the lead, about 5 or 6 seconds ahead of my cousin Kailuib. They both flew up the hill with ease, picking totally different lines. Strang went high on the hill, zigzagging through a few rocks, and jetting down the cliff while Kailub, attempting to catch the leader, came out of all the ruts, riding up a huge rock, and jumping blindly down the hill, reducing Strang's lead to about a bike length.
Next, Takeshi, Japan's national champion, came around about 3 minutes later followed closely by our own Randy Hawkins! After those riders passed, the race became total carnage. I made an involuntary transition from journalist to Japanese MudFlea, forming human chains and pulling bikes up and kicking bikes down the now slippery and rocky hill. (See pics, that dont really do it justice.)
We later found out that Strangs brake line was messed up, causing him to pit almost every lap, this helped to explain Kailub's increasing lead. Russell had a 7 minute lead coming into the last lap, I cheered loudly as he rounded the muddy turn 40 yards from the now nearly impossible and bottle necked mountain. He charged toward the top blocked by multiple downed riders, and got tripped up by the rubble, sending him sliding down to the bottom where mud and screaming fans reigned supreme. He kicked his bike a few times, but the crowd, myself, and his machanics, Hollywood and Watanabe, noticed something was wrong. His chain popped off! Hollywood's gelatinous mass sped towards our hero like I've never seen him move. They fixed the bike in time for Kailub to still cross he finish line with with 1st place.
The end results of the race were, 1. Kailub Russell, 2. Josh Strang, 3. Takeshi, 4. Randy Hawkins. We stuck around for the awards ceremony, which felt as long as the GNCC banquet due to the super cold temperatures. We arrived at the hotel with plenty enough time for me to pass out cold on the bed fully clothed. We had breakfast this morning at 7:30; and we are currently on a bullet train, going 250km per hour toward our destination. Tokyo.
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