Alright, Colorado Springs isn’t quite the dirty south, but it’s far enough south to somehow miss all the weather that Denver receives on a regular basis. WildRat Raceway has been known to be one of the better maintained tracks in the state, specifically on raceday. Rounds 2 & 3 of the RMXA season saw a different type of track this time around. The track, instead of being rough and rutted, was dry and dusty, resembling a mid-2000’s Watkins. Conditions, such as the conditions we saw over the weekend, are frustrating for some riders and beneficial for other riders; at the same time, everyone rides the same track and excuses are better left for explaining why you ditched class for the 6th time this semester and not so much for why your buddies railed you. Most of the regular players showed up, Derek Anderson, Mitchell Gifford, Rustin Meyer, Connor (The Goggle Guru) Olson, just to name a few. This week, however, we wanted to try to focus on some different classes; don’t worry, we’ll talk about the pro class too.
A’s (or Pro’s)(Or Whatever the Hell):
This weekend was starting to shape up to be the same snooze fest at the front of the pack that we had seen at Lakewood a few weeks back. And that is, essentially, Derek getting consistently strong starts and running pace that is tough to match. Derek, as many have said, is just so hard to beat because he not only has great speed, but he rarely makes mistakes. Derek opened the first 14 motos of the weekend with wins, but in the 15th moto of the weekend, Mitchell Gifford brought Derek’s torrid streak to a halt. Mitchell got a good start and essentially just rode his race. Here’s what Mitchell had to say about the race, “The last moto of the day was pretty sick I didn’t even know I was in first until Derek stuck a wheel on the inside. It was pretty cool to go back and forth with him for the last 2 or 3 laps. I was pumped I held on to it and got the W.” Well, Mitchell, it was pretty cool to see you go toe-to-toe with Derek like that, certainly not an easy feat. For all of Sunday, it was pretty clear to see that Mitchell was really the only one who could match the pace of Derek, and he was finally able to put it together, so congrats on the moto win homie. We were able to catch up with him on how he felt about his weekend all together, and these were his thoughts:
Overall the weekend was pretty sick considering the way it started, my first Moto I crashed and had a DNF but thankfully I came back with some strong finishes the rest of the day. I felt really good on the bike, the thing was handling amazing, Matt at RG3 got me a pretty sick suspension setup and it was working perfect. Everybody said the track was super one-lined, but I feel like I had some pretty sick lines and made a lot of good passes so I was pretty pumped on that. Obviously I could improve on my starts and I would like to get to a faster pace at the beginning of the race instead of halfway through.
It would definitely be awesome to see the likes of Mitchell and other pros give Derek all the competition he can handle for the rest of the season. We would like to give an honorable mention to Kaleb Taylor, who in his first pro race, went out and put in some great races. Connor Olson, a friend of Kaleb and his superior-vision supplier, was somewhat joking when he said this of Kaleb, “Now that he’s pro, he is probably just going to beat me.” Well… Connor most likely didn’t think it was going to happen so quick. Anyway, good racing Kaleb and we’re looking forward to seeing you improve in the pro class as the season goes on.
B’s (Or Intermediate’s)(Or Whatever the Hell):
Not much to report here, there was a pretty sparse turnout for the B’s. So sparse, in fact, that they combined the A’s and B’s in 250’s. Trae Dilley actually faired pretty well racing with the pros, so that was pretty cool to see.
C’s (Or Novice)(Or Whatever the Hell):
What’s that? We’re writing about the Novice (AKA Nervous) Class? You bet your sweet little asses we are! Here are a few things to note about the Novice class; the first being, there is a plethora of sketchy racing to watch and the second being, there tends to be some fast kids on the rise running at the front. First, let’s focus on how entertaining the C class is to watch. Most of the riders in the C class are somewhat inexperienced and as such, do wildly unpredictable things while racing. There were several instances on Sunday where some dude running near the back would just send a big double in the middle of traffic or get loose and blow a berm. This is not necessarily an attempt to roast the novice class, because quite frankly, anyone who is willing to lineup on the gate has my respect. It’s more just bringing to light that it’s a pretty entertaining to watch if you pay attention. Among those who were running at the front, Trey Archuleta had to be one of the most impressive. Trey had great speed all weekend and proved that he was going to be difficult to deal with all weekend. He won 9 out of the possible 12 motos that he competed in. 75% for moto wins is something most certainly anyone would be happy with. Another rider, who has started to become a fan favorite amongst those who frequent dirt bikes tracks, Bennett Wagner, had a solid weekend himself. He wasn’t able to put together the results for an overall, but he still showed that he had what it took to run up front. He snagged 2 moto wins out of 8 possible motos. We got an opportunity to catch up with him and here’s what he had to say:
Overall I’d say it was a pretty good weekend, pulled a couple hole shots and won a few motos. Looking back there is some things I can improve on but I rode pretty consistent and made it home safe so I can’t complain.
As a young racer growing up in the Colorado Motocross scene, there was a lot of exposure to kids with great speed from a young age. Trevor Whitmarsh, Mike Giese, Todd Bannister, were just a few of the kids to contend with on a weekly basis. Looking at the youngins that are now lining the gates, it’s simple to see that Colorado is still producing young rippers. Logan Lessar, Brody Propernick and Carter Malcolm are just a few of the promising kids that are currently terrorizing local tracks on their fun-size 65’s. The first day saw Carter Malcolm #67 run away with 4 moto wins, 100% win percentage on the day. Logan Lessar #211 and Brody Propernick #255 were consistently battling for 2nd and 3rd throughout the day. The next day was a similar story, with the exception of Carter Malcolm, who didn’t line up. Brody and Logan traded paint all day, and both walked away with one overall each. It feels like it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t at least mention young Jack Jamison, who didn’t have any moto wins but was model of consistency in every moto across every class; very Dungey-esque results from the little homie.
