The MX in Posto Santo is all part of their Village Festival and is sponsored by the town and the village sporting club. The do a real good job of organizing their events. Unfortunately, their fest is during Praia da Vitoria's festival. PV is the second largest town and they have the biggest festival - more than 100,000 visitors alone! As such, turnout is usually slim due to Saturday Night hangovers. For those of us too old for dancing 'til dawn or have race gas in their veins, Posto Santo is the place to be!
As I explained in my previous post, Posto Santo is on the side of a volcano and has very little dirt. Just rocks, rocks, some more rocks, and maybe a few rocks thrown in for good measure. What dirt there is becomes a fine powder; finer than baking soda or talcum. Needless to say, dust is a problem.
Taking the Gas-Gas EC300 sporting new JRDS graphics (JRDS, look it up on Facebook. Best prices in Portugal) with a full tank of gas this time, the wife and kid we met up with my friend from the mainland, Joao Rego (the JR of JRDS). He is a superfast young man and past regional MX2 champion. After a quick practice, just to bed in the non-standard racing lines, we relaxed for a couple of beers and waited for the first moto.
In MX2, Joao lined up next to Miguel Mendoca. Miguel is an upcoming rider who is improving rapidly. Out of the 2 race series, he pulled 6 straight hole shots! Joao came up third off the line behind a Yamaha DT125. He made short work of him, ran down Miguel and put a clean pass and disappeared for the win.
In MX1, I hole shot the 300 against 450's and just settled down into a pace just ahead of the 2nd place rider. The plan was calm, no mistakes, no agrivating my torn rotator cuff. I crossed the finish in 1st and settled down for some cold beers and bench racing.
The second moto was just like the first, without the DT. On the final lap of the first moto, the motor let go and he wouldn't be continuing. Once Joao got by Miguel, you could see the wind come out of his sails. Miguel just rode around waiting for the finish with no fight left in him. Joao came back in suggesting he might be losing power and a peak at his aircleaner suggested he might be right. Four moto wins in MX2 for the series. Not to bad for a visitor riding his father bike!
I again hole shot MX1 and settled down with the same plan of calm, calm, calm. But of course, I had to have a little drama. In the hairpin, I was looking back and washed out the front end, losing a position and the lead. It took a couple laps to catch and pass the leader and with that don, I just kept the pace to the finish. Another podium for the TSM T-shirt!
In the final moto of the day, it is combined MX1/MX2. Miguel hole shot with a CR125 in second, me just keeping him honest and holding Joao back. I cleanly pressured the little 125, kind of amazed at the hookup on the difficult terrain. The course is tight but there are a couple of places the 300 or a 450 should disappear but it wasn't happening. Finally, I passed him on an up hill and closed in on Miguel. A slight slip up in a corner reminded me that I am riding hurt. The pain wasn't enough to stop, but enough to decide that if Miguel didn't screw up, I wan't going to challenge him. Second place was good enough. Of course, as with all plans, they don't survive contact with the enemy. In the dust, on the last lap, I hit a larger than normal rock and bounced off the side of the track, allowing Joao to slip through. He closed in on Miguel and was beside him on the last corner but Miguel held him off for his first win. I rolled in to finish third.
All in all, it was a tremendously fun couple of races. It is great having old (?) friends visit and get to race with them. Thanks to the organization and everybody involved for putting it together.
