Taylor in Duluth
Taylor Dyess, right, placed second in a Junior division race in Duluth, Minnesota. Photo captured from UStream web video.
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Update on Taylor Dyess: Duluth
Pinedale 15-year-old competes in snocross race in Duluth
December 13, 2009
Clark Dyess sent in the latest update on son Taylor’s first snocross race in Duluth, Minnesota. Taylor took a 2nd and a 2nd in his heats in the Junior 14-15 class and a 4th and a 3rd in his Junior 16-17 class. Taylor qualified 3rd in the Junior 14-15 and 7th in the Junior 16-17. In the end, Taylor took 6th in the 14-15 and 8th in the 16-17. Taylor now stands 5th in points in the 14-15 and 7th in the 16-17.
Scroll down for the full update from Sunday, December 13th.
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"What a week it has been!! I don't know where to even start, but to tell you that this has been a week for the record books and storytelling :)
Taylor and I left Pinedale on Monday night at 10 PM for Duluth in a middle of a snow storm that didn't quit until Wednesday. In my personal opinion it must of been the snow storm of the decade! The first night we drove to Laramie, Wyoming and finally stopped at 3 AM. We then picked up and continued about 7 AM just to find that it had snowed another 2-3 inches while we took a short rest. We made it all the way to a little town called Underwood, Iowa that night. I decided to call it a day there when it took us an hour to go 18 miles from Omaha! I must say that those 18 miles are some of the worst roads I have ever driven!
When we woke up the next morning, I made the difficult decision to stay at the truck stop we were parked at even though I really wanted to continue on down the road, but the wind and snow had made Interstate 80 in Iowa almost impassable. I decided that it wasn't worth getting stuck out "there" in the dangerous frigid temperatures even though both Taylor and me really wanted to get Planet X to test and tune and realizing how important it would be for us especially with all of time had been spent at 9500 feet with Taylor's new race sled. We knew that to be successful we needed to tune the sled at the elevation Taylor would be racing at which was over 8000 feet lower.
What happened next is something that I can confidently say that very few if any people have ever done. Taylor and myself decided that we didn't need to make it to Planet X to test and tune, we had all the snow we needed right where we were and the elevation of the little town of Underwood, Iowa was very close to the elevation of the track in Duluth so lets tune here!!! I went in and talked to the owner of the truck stop and asked if there were any laws against riding sleds around town and she said no and in fact a lot of people ride their sleds right to the fuel pumps for gas. This was perfect! You don't even know the excitement that we were experiencing! We right away unloaded Taylor's race sled and started our tuning session! The corn field just across the road from the truck stop became our "Planet X"!!! As you can imagine we did get our fair share of funny looks and fielded a lot of questions as to what we were doing, who we were and where we were from and where we were going....it was fun!! It will be a day I will never forget and a memory that I will forever cherish with me and my son!
We spent the day with Taylor making runs in the corn field and coming back and making adjustments with calls on the cellphone and emails to our mechanics. I couldn't have ever planned such a day in my wildest dreams, right down to having free wi-fi at the truck stop for emails! It is amazing sometimes how something that seems to be so terrible can turn out be such a blessing! We might of not got that prefect tune we were looking for, but it 98% better than what we would of had otherwise!
After a day of tuning, we loaded up with much clearer roads and headed down Interstate 80 again at 6 PM that evening. The roads weren't perfect and was slow going at times, but we made it to just outside of Duluth at 4 AM, Thursday morning. Stopped for a little rest and went on into Duluth and setup "camp" in the pits about 9 AM.
Taylor had a very successful day on Friday, winning around 4 to 5 of the holeshots out of 6. All our tuning in the corn field paid off! We were plagued with one issue that we couldn't tune in the corn field and that was Taylor's suspension setup. We fought with getting his suspension dialed in all day on Friday. The holeshots Taylor would win would slip due to Taylor getting just pounded. Taylor fought it out and still made an awesome showing! Taylor would take a 2nd and a 2nd in his heats in the Junior 14-15 class and a 4th and a 3rd in his Junior 16-17 class! Taylor qualified 3rd in the Junior 14-15 and 7th in the Junior 16-17. In the end, Taylor took 6th in the 14-15 and 8th in the 16-17. Since Taylor did so awesome in his heats, Taylor right now is 5th in points in the 14-15 and 7th in the 16-17! I am very confident that we have resolved Taylor's suspension issues and expect even a better showing in Milwaukee this weekend! I didn't know quite what to expect going to the National level this season with Taylor, I just knew Taylor had talent and he would do well. I truly believe that Taylor will be in the top 5 in points if not the top 3! I can't wait!
Now to the reason for this very long email. Please follow the link to the recorded ISOC video of Taylor's first race of the season which is Heat 1 in the Junior 14-15. I will try to send emails with the rest of Taylor's heats and finals from this past weekend later this week. Unfortunately I can't link you straight to the beginning of his first heat, but if you jump to 32:07 mark of the video that is the beginning of Taylor's first heat. Follow this link: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2941286
Taylor is on the black and red Ski-Doo, third from the left. You will see it is close on the holeshot, but Taylor comes out of the first corner in the lead. The video will show the placing and the time of Taylor throughout the video.
Well, this more than I ever planned in this email. I will update more later. In closing, my thanks to all of you as always for your all your support and allowing us to be apart of your lives if it wasn't for all of you we wouldn't have the adventures to share with you like this past week! God bless!"
Clark Dyess
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