Troy tears loose
HALE, MICHIGAN — Some years back, I taught Troy a little about heaven in Sunday School.
This weekend, he taught me a lot about ice racing in Hale.
During three races in less than a month prior to Hale, he's jumped up from C to B division in AMA-sanctioned events on his modified 2005 Honda CR450R.
Then missed winning advancing to the final by the length of one front tire.
Ice racing is a world apart, but in Hale, it's a front-row seat to some amazing wheel-to-wheel racing. As you may have heard, it's also where some of the original Michigan Mafia cut their tire studs on oval-track racing.
Troy, for his part, is hooked up with a Flushing Faction of hard-core, A-class racers. (Some of whom are retired Flint firefighters.)
In the semi, he lost the holeshot to slushy conditions at the line, and was setting up to pass the leader when the leader got sideways in front of him. He backed off the gas to avoid a T-bone.
And it cost him the race.
Ice racing bikes are typically lowered motocrossers. Your choice of flavors, two-stroke or four. The studs are patterned on the inside left-hand side of the tire. Each row of studs is specially angled — for acceleration, cornering and braking.
The right side is stud-free, since the bike never races on that angle.
After the race, in a chilly enclosed trailer with a heater roaring, Troy was like any competitor: Mad that he lost.
"I'm faster than him," he said, spurning compliments on his strong finish. That's an 18-year-old perspective; the older eyes along the snowbanks were judging the fact that he has jumped a class already — in his third ice race.
And he almost reached a final against the A-list riders.
Not many grown men can say that, let alone an teen-aged novice.
More photos here.
