street race?

[Ty G]

I live in the boonies here in NE Texas.  I ride dirt road and trail every day.  However, there are no mountain bike type races near me (Tyler area).  There are quite a few road races.  I know gearing differences exist between road bikes and MTBs.  How stupid would it be for me to enter into a road race with my "future TD MTB" just for shits and giggles.  I do have aerobars, so that should count, ...right?   
I just want to have fun and complete.   Would this be just plain stupid?

Ty

[Done]

Probably entertaining to enter a time trial, but I don't know about a regular bike race. There's a lot of close and fast drafting, and if you don't have experience riding in those conditions you might cause mayhem. Might be worth checking with the organization that's holding the race to see if you can go for a group ride with them first, so that you learn about riding in a pack...

[riverfever]

You definitely won't be able to use bar ends or aerobars in a mass start event like that. The lower categories are always dangerous because those riders are typically learning how to ride in tight groups despite what type of bike they are on. In St. Louis (which is a really tough cycling town) there are weekly crit races/TT's. Years ago we used to have a guy that would show up on his mountain bike with slicks and do fine but he was a courier and had road cranks on the bike and he could also spin very fast so the gearing issues were not as big a concern. I do not think that very many people could pull it off but it's certainly possible.

There aren't ANY races within 2-4 hours of your town?

[riverfever]

What about the Huntsville Classic on October 2? There's probably no racing anywhere in Texas right now with the heat of summer.

[Ty G]

Thanks guys for the feedback.  I sure wouldn't want to cause trouble from not knowing how things work.  I'll hunt up required info.  and go watch one. 
Many thanks.

[pro_out]

Keep an eye on these guys. http://www.facebook.com/spinistry They promote dirt and gravel grinders in the North Texas area. I know of several Texans that are racing the TDR this year that have used there races for training. Go get ya some.

[Ty G]

Some thing is missed here, most of the replies are out of discussion.

I feel that the replies answered my original question very well.  They ever-so-nicely let me know that I was entertaining a crazy thought without experience in the road racing field.  Then pushed me to hunt down more info on local MTB races.

[riverfever]

Ty...me thinks that is SPAM.

I hope I didn't discourage you either. I think if you want to try a crit/road race on a mountain bike then you certainly should. Intensity training is always good but I think it would be frustrating. If you're focus is more on TD prep then the gravel grinders are probably a really good option for your bike as it is currently setup. Best of luck and have fun.