The De Keyrel Racing Teams 1st Ride of the Season!
Kaleb & Mason De Keyrel and Tom Swager
On March 18 we headed south to Hallet, OK. Motor Speedway for the weekend. The plan for the trip was to test the bikes and to work out the boys first ride jitters. We arrived late Friday night, set up and headed to bed. Saturday morning, after an awesome breakfast of Heather’s breakfast sandwiches, the boys were ready to ride. They warmed up on their bicycles and Doug prepped the bikes. Jerry Morgan of Frisco, TX had delivered Tom’s 600 and the boys’ 110 to the track.
Kaleb and Mason did a great job the first session, starting out slow, getting in a groove and then stepping up the pace. Rather than mounting up rains, the boys decided to sit out a session since the weather was 48 degrees, windy, and was raining and hailing by the time the first session finished. After the rain stopped the high winds dried out the track quickly, the sun came out and the boys had a great day of practice. Brother, Levi, (15 month old) had a great day at the track also, pushing his little blue motorcycle in the pits. He must have put on 3 miles, showing it off to everyone going rooooooooom, rooooooooom, roooooooooom! Tom did a couple sessions on his TZ 250 and one first-time session on the 600. He did great and had a lot of fun.
On Saturday, Brad Heath, of Oklahoma Motorsports Magazine, interviewed Tom and the boys. He will be writing an article that will be featured in the magazine. You will also be able to view it on line at www.ihigh.com/oklahomamotorsports . We ended the day with 61 degrees, sun and windy
Sunday started out where we left off on Saturday, 61 degrees, sunny and windy. This worked out great for jetting. The goal for today was to work on body positioning. Both boys warmed up on their bicycles, had pancakes for breakfast and were ready to go. The first session was a success with the boys working hard on head positioning and getting off of the bike more. Kaleb said he did not like it, “since it feels slower,” but he continued to work hard at it anyway. By the end of the day Kaleb, Mason and Tom had all dropped their lap times down considerably. Tom on a TZ 250 and Kaleb on the RS 125 were the only 2 stroke bikes in the RACE group and Mason on the Moriwaki MD 250H was in the STREET A group. It was great practice for both Tom and Kaleb since Tom would gap Kaleb on the long straights but Kaleb would catch back up in the tight back session. Tom asked Kaleb if he wanted to try the 600. Kaleb was all over it. With approval from Connie, Hallet track staff, Kaleb took off in the STREET A group for his first ride on a 600. He rode great! We could tell he was riding cautious but he was still picking people off. He came back with a huge smile on his face. Jerry Morgan said, “Doug you just wrecked that boy. He ain’t gona wana ride that little 125 anymore.” Kaleb continued to ride the 125 in the RACE group and the 600 in the STREET A group the rest of the day.
It was a safe and very successful riding weekend. Mason was shifting great, had awesome lines and was very smooth. Kaleb was ultra smooth, consistent, and did a great job on the 600. It was a long drive home Sunday night for work on Monday. Driving through dense fog in Iowa GOD kept everyone safe. A great weekend with Family, Friends and testing.
GOD BLESS