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Paul,
In 1989 I was 22yrs old, had a 33″ waist, weighed 193 pounds and late ’88 is when I finally started getting mad skills. Ask Frank Young, I did not have mad skills in 1985, just determination and a good gate start.
Now I am 39, 38″ waist, 229 pounds and the skills are slowly finding their way back. But remember, in Jan of this year I was 256 with a 42″ waist and huffed & puffed around EHT at the Jack Frost. I got a wife, two kids, and a career. I did not even ride a bike for 10+ years prior to 2006 (unless you count a few trips around the block on the cruiser in 2005).
So, I really do not feel it is fair to compare. Yes, I ran Superclass after the State Championship in 1989 after a #3 State Plate, but that was then this is now, and I got enough busted up body parts this year to validate my novice classification.
But don’t worry, I’ll be up in Expert soon enough.
And for what its worth guys, I really appreciate all the “congratulations” I am getting for taking this as far as I did this year. Unlike alot of the guys at the Nats, I did not sandbag. I got on a 20″ in June and almost have my move-up points in less than 3 months. How did some of those guys “race” since last September and not get 20 move-ups even though several of them came in with 800+ points? I know Kent Gordy is one of the exceptions, he rode cruiser all year and built the 20″ just a couple of months ago, but what about the rest? For crying out loud, give me some freaking props here.
The only guy that truly beat me the whole weekend at the Grands was Rodney Rice. I beat everyone else in the top 20 and kept several of them out of the show on Sunday. Yes, this probably validates the fact that I need to move up to improve my game now, but it also shows you where true sandbaggin will get ya in the long run. I think Gordy and me did as well as we did because of our late mad charge to the Grands, where alot of the others had to coast so they didn’t move up to expert. Well, at least that is my opinion.