North Central Amateur Regional | Spring Creek MX | June 7-9
A weekend filled with friends and competitive racing ended with a golden ticket to Loretta Lynn’s Ranch!
I packed up Patty Thursday morning and headed for Spring Creek MX Park straight from work. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a massive line to get in like I expected. I parked under the tree of Jesse and Angela’s camp site (as usual), and headed up to sign up to get checked in. I made it just in time and was happy to get everything settled Thursday evening. I ran into Krista and Grady and climbed Mt. Martin to check out the newest track changes. They provided an interesting twist to the weekend’s racing. When I returned to Patty, Jesse and Angela had arrived and we began unpacking. Eventually, more friends arrived, and we enjoyed each other’s company before calling it a night.
I woke up earlier than necessary Friday morning, and waited for my first practice around noon. I honestly wasn’t feeling the best all day, but didn’t let it get me down, since it seemed most people were struggling with the track (and the new downhill).
In my second practice, I was finally starting to feel like I had a normal pace. But of course, the sandy downhill had different plans. I came into the section a bit too fast (in Grady’s words, I was “cooking” down the hill), and flew over the bars in slow motion. In the process, my throttle cable got pulled out, resulting in my throttle being stuck open. It took me a while (and some friendly advice) to figure this out, but I finished the practice and riding for the day.
After practice, I washed my bike, but noticed Levi came back from practice in pain. I helped him into his camper and enlisted a little help from the moto moms to get him iced and bandaged. Afterwards, I finished prepping my bike and enjoyed a moto family dinner, despite the endless vegan jokes. We hung around talking for a while and eventually made it to bed.
Saturday morning, I headed out for my couple laps of practice and was feeling confident in my warm-up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the women’s class was moved up to race 6, instead of 12, and was stacked with competition. After the rider’s meeting, we headed back to camp and went up to staging way too early. I was getting antsy and ready to race.
In the first moto, I had a decent holeshot and was able to sneak up the inside on the start. I ran in third for most of the race but was passed on the final lap. Just as I was passed, I found that I was unable to shift due to a lost shifter. I finished the lap in second gear (and thankfully didn’t lose anymore positions) for 4th in moto 1.
After watching Brandon’s race, Jesse and Angela helped me get a new shifter put on for the second moto of the day. We learned that my mechanical skills will need a bit of improvement (lol!).
On our way back from watching races, Blake passed Tyler and I in the pits. I hadn’t seen him all weekend, so I waved to say hi, but noticed his boot was unbuckled and bike was banged up. After trying to find parts, Tyler and I helped him get ready for his next races. Unfortunately, he was unable to compete with his ankle injury. It breaks my heart to see the kiddo work so hard and have such bad luck.
I thought I was antsy for the first moto, but the second moto was even worse. We got to staging way too early and waited for what seemed like eternity. I struggled in the holeshot in the second moto and was caught up in gnarly traffic. As we made it over Bob’s table top on the first lap, a girl swapped out in front of me, causing me to come within inches of her bike. I slowly passed a couple girls and held down 4th for a couple laps. I was then passed, putting me into 5th. And on the last lap I swapped out in breaking bumps, leading to a 7th place finish. However, one of the girls that passed me on the last lap was penalized for passing on a yellow flag, resulting in a 6th place finish in moto 2.
This was the end of my Saturday racing, so I washed up and prepared for another family dinner. All the boys got to join, and we gave Blake the bucket of shame (ice water) for his ankle. Another fun night of hanging around ended with Remington (the pup) waiting for me in bed. He was reluctant to move, so I shared the bed and pillows with him. He was polite enough to stay on his side of the bed.
I chose not to partake in the site lap Sunday morning, so I felt a bit groggy for the third moto. I had an awesome jump on the start but missed a shift and ruined the holeshot I could have had. Again, lots of carnage on the first lap, but I struggled to make passes and found myself around 7th for the entire race.
My 4-6-7 finishes got me 5th overall and a golden ticket to Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National Motocross Championship. However, the national takes place in the middle of the Eastern Canadian WMX series, so I will be unable to compete unless my plans for Canada fall through.
Overall, I am so thankful for all of the positive and supportive people around me. I enjoyed a regional that had little pressure and lots of fun! Thank you to the people that continue to get me on the track! Though I’m happy with how this weekend went, I have a lot of work to do in the next month to prepare for my trip to Canada.