Knolls Knockout, April 18, 2009

We had a great time at this race. There was 4-6 inches of snow on the ground on Thursday and by Friday, conditions were near perfect.

Josh was making his "debut" in the expert mini class. He pulled a great holeshot and was feeling on top of the world, dicing with his buddy Carson Giles all the way out to the fence. He said they were back and forth and right with each other. They entered the first checkpoint, down the fence, and then back on the loooooong straight. Well....2-stroke, pinned, and lake bed, equaled seized bike.

Here's some video of the mini starts:


Of course, back in the pits, we didn't know this until some of the other FAST Racing Team in our group came in. Josh wasn't the only one that met this fate....apparently it was a bike graveyard out on the flat. Bridger's bike seized too and at one point, we saw one of the Desert Foxes UTV's hauling in three mini's loaded up on the bike....all blown up.

Kobee hasn't raced this year but did great in the Schoolboy class, and was somewhere in the top couple of positions after the first loop, but he'd had enough, so he hung out at the home check for his finisher pin.

Benji is a real trooper, putting in 3 loops on his 65 for a first overall 65. We were all proud of him and he loved every minute of it.

Karson survived a big over-the-bars getoff and managed to to be one of the only 85's in the group to not blow his motor. He dug in hard to ride through the sand and finish 7th or 8th overall out of a pretty big group of mini novices.

Father and Son duo Eric and Trevor Smith also had a fun day, both surviving and enjoying the big bike and mini bike courses respectively.

Mike pulled a surprise great start in the expert big bikes, rounding the corner in the overall 3rd position heading out on to the course.



After hitting the first big lakebed flat, he backed off the gas a bit to avoid another blown motor for the day and got passed by several bikes. About 5 miles later, Mike came upon Gregg Godfrey who had wadded up hard right in front of him. Mike stopped for a few minutes to make sure he was OK. Gregg eventually got his bearings and it was back to racing and playing a bit of catch up.

Mike caught up some positions and had some super fun battles, finishing 9th overall expert for the day.

It's time to tear into some motors and assess the damage.

See you next month at Cherry Creek.

Thanks Desert Foxes! You did an amazing job with what you had to work with out there.