Round 5 of the GNCC circuit was a rough one this weekend for everyone in Tennessee. Torrential downpours all Friday night along with hail and tornado warnings for Saturday proved to be paying its toll on everyone. Can-am Rider Zac Zakowski was among many others to experience problems in the monsoon like weather and mud. Zac nearly had the holeshot, but sufficed to the mud and fell back to 4th heading into the woods. After a long day of battling for the lead in the mud Zac had fallen victim to a broken steering component on the last lap, causing him not to finish and end up 8th in class and 75th overall.
Zac Zakowski: Wow, talk about terrible weather for a race weekend. Heading into Round 5 this weekend at the famous Loretta Lynn’s dude ranch the weather didn’t look to be to promising with weather men calling for possible tornados, hail, and damaging winds. Like everyone else I’m sure, all of us here at Zakowski Motorsports figured it would pass. At the track on Friday the weather was beautiful. Sunny skies, cool breeze, and happy faces seemed to throw a blanket over the idea of a storm hitting tomorrow. Waking up in the middle of the night to lightning storms and wind, we’ll just say that the weathermen were right.
I stepped out of the camper on Saturday morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was standing water everywhere in the pits, when just the other day they were watering the pits due to the dust. It wasn’t raining yet at this point so we all thought the track would hold up due to all the rock at this track. While sitting on the starting line looking at the odd start (it was a sweeping straight into the first right which proved to be rather confusing and challenging) it started to sprinkle. Everyone threw their helmets on and the next thing we knew they were throwing the green. And the muddy roost began to fly.
We flew to the first corner with me edging everyone out. Could this be? Could I really be about to pull off three holeshots in a row? My questions were answered when I slid through the first corner in the mud and Rath went by me. Going down the second straight I edged Rath out of the corner only to be surpassed yet again. I tried to hold my second place position through the next series of corners, although I fell down to 4th. It may have been tire choice but I just couldn’t hold my own in the muddy fields.
The whole first lap the top four stayed right with each other playing follow the leader; nobody was willing to make a move. The track proved to be in terrible condition. There was water everywhere and every corner was slick. I was bouncing off trees left and right coming out of corners with my OMF Rims. I couldn’t see out of my Scott Goggles, there was just too much mud, as we went trucking through the woods. We came through the finish barely seconds apart.
On the second lap I was tired of playing follow the leader. I made a move on third and began to position myself to move into second. We came to a split in the trail, Buckhannon went left, and I went right holding it wide open while brushing trees with my Cycra Hand guards. I passed so close to Buckhannon that I could have reached out and touched him. I was right behind Rath when I was asking myself, do I settle in here and take it easy until the end, or should I try to pull a lead? I decided to pass. I locked on Rath’s heels to make a pass. We came to a bottleneck and ventured into the woods. I got caught on a down tree allowing enough time to fall back down to fourth.
By the third lap it was absolutely down pouring. You couldn’t see anything but the occasional crack of lightning in the sky above. I pitted on the third lap to get some clean gear. After taking off I came into a corner a little “too hot”, taking out a banner in the process. We got a little separated on the third lap, as my goggles got so caked with mud they just wouldn’t work.
I crossed the finish going onto the last lap 30 seconds back. After 2 miles I caught the top three in a bottle neck. Cecco and I sat there eyeing up a rather steep hill climb that would bypass the corner that was bottlenecked. Cecco hit it and made it right to the top. I lined up and pinched it to the top. I got to the top and got stuck, as I teetered on the tip of the hill. I tried as hard as I could to get the quad to go over the tip. I rocked it and shook it, stood on the front bumper and yanked it. Nothing would help. I watched as Cecco and the other leaders in my class raced off into the woods.
As I sat there, my front-end was hanging slightly into the racetrack. People drove by hitting my front tires slightly. I made the decision to send the bike back down the hill and go back up. Before I sent it down I saw that my right front tire wasn’t connected. The bikes driving by had broken something in my front-end; I knew instantly that my day was done. I sent the bike back down the hill, almost breaking my leg in the process. I figured that I could still do something in the race so I helped fellow riders stuck in the bottleneck. Afterwards, my sad ATV and I limped back to the pits.
Unfortunately this definitely wasn’t the way I had hoped the day would end. Although the weather was less then optimal, the race still proved to be fun and very competitive. It sucks that I was unable to finish the last lap. The top 3 and I would have been in a mad dash the last 8 miles to the finish which would have been awesome. This race definitely hasn’t brought our spirits down, if anything it’s made me more excited to see the mad dash to the finish at the next race. I will be off to Iowa this weekend for round 1 of the IATVHSS series. Wish me luck and thanks for your help!
Huge thanks to everyone for your support.
Can-Am/BRP, Countryside Auto Transport, Janssen Motorsports, Bopp Race Components, All Terrain Research, Tire-Balls, Rath Racing, Straightline Performance, Frogz Skins, OMF Wheels, Ricochet Skids, Ron Woods Racing, Amsoil, Scott USA, Fasst Company, VP Fuels, and Cycra…
