Ward Creek 2005 • Ward Creek is traditional start of the VDR Fall to Spring Season. Weather was perfect, which meant use of the hills. The trademark of Ward Creek is the blend of steep up and downhills on dirt and natural terrain. (see above) The track is in Raymond Washington.

RICK ALM • The first race of the year. How exciting! We're all packed up and hop in my 78 Toyota pick-up. (also evo!) We are about half way to Raymond when we start seeing lightning ahead of us. All the sudden it starts down pouring and then hailing. Thank god for windshield wipers, oh great they just stopped working. We had to pull over, just couldn't see. After the rain stopped we headed out again. We arrived at Ward Creek, set up tents and went to sleep about 10:00pm... well my kids did. After about 3 hours of listening to my kids take turns snoring I decided to sit in my truck and listen to the radio. After stuffing my ears with tissue I finally got to sleep. It's race day. Yahoo. My back feels like a broken 2x4. How exciting after practicing all month and working on my bike, I knew I was going to have no problems. The bike starts first kick every time and works flawlessly. After my first practice lap my bike stalls on the big up hill. I thank god I was able to turn it around and coast down the hill. at the bottom. I tried to restart bike and she wouldn't fire, how depressing... I tried everything to get the bike going and no luck. I had bought another bike before practice to fix up for another racer from Randy Johnson before practice. This bike was missing a foot peg, shift lever, was pouring gas out the petcock and hadn't run in months. I told Randy what had happened and he said well lets get this thing off the trailer and see what we can do. He had a foot peg and robbed a pet cock off another bike. I poured gas in the bike and after a few kicks she started yahoo! My friend said I was moto 6 and they were already on moto 4. We rolled the bike back to our camp and tried to fire it up again and noticed it was idling way too high and when you kicked it over the kicker lever would hit the stripped out foot peg pushing it forward and the brake lever would not return. Race 6 was on the line and well all hopes of racing were quickly looking grim. While trying to get the bike to idle and keep the foot peg from moving I looked down at the motor and in-between the swing arm and motor there was a stream of oil coming out of the crank case. there was a small hole in the case. CRAP! I shut the bike off and went for a walk to cool down. After cooling down I told myself oh well there's no reason to ruin the day I'll watch the races and cheer on my friends.

After returning to our camp ground my friend Jeff came up to me all excited and said my race wasn't 6th it was no#13. They were on race 10 of the first round. We started the bike up and let it run for about 10 minutes stopped the bike and check the oil. It wasn't losing enough to hurt the bike. In a mad dash and a lot of support from my friends and kids we ripped the plates off my other bike and tried to get everything to work. It looked like a pit stop at nascar..
• Ward Creek Results • Vintage • Evolution •••••••••••••••••• Ward Creek Photos •

Rick Alm on the four stroke 500

First Race: I made it, got a bad start but I was riding. Every time I came down hard it
pushed my peg forward and locked up brake but I just pulled lever up with my boot to free brake. took 5th in first race. The bike was cutting out, fouling a plug. We changed plug, disconnected back brake and I was ready for the next race. Off the line I held her open and popped clutch. My wheel came up I hit 3rd held her open and I was in first to the first turn. After the first lap I was in 3rd and gaining on second place rider. Into the big up hill jump the bike started cutting again so I shifted down into 3rd and let off the gas. I was able to make it up the hill but I got passed going up. I stayed on it and put my front wheel right on the 3rd place riders rear wheel to let him know I was right there and ready to make a move. he went down now I was in third and closing on the second place rider. Coming to the finish line I had my front wheel on his rear I grabbed a hand full of throttle to pass and the bike cut out. Oh well... I took 3rd which gave me 3rd over all! Not too shabby for a bike I've never ridden and best of all my kids got to see their Dad race and I finished both races with some points. What a great day at the races. Nothing could get me down now.
I hopped in the truck. OH GREAT MY TRUCK WONT START!

Whom do I have to look out for this year? •
VDR Class Champions • page 1 • page 2 • page 3 • page 4 •
Hammer & Tongs Champions • page 1 • page 2 • page 3 •