North Central Vet Regional - Oak Ridge MX
The vet regional was the first of the regional races in the north central region and it kicked off with some challenges and plenty of excitement. The races were held at Oak Ridge MX in Garwin Iowa and it was a beautiful place with lush green grass and lots of elevation changes provided by the naturally hilly terrain.
The first of the challenges was the weather, there was just a small amount of rain expected on Friday for the practice day. But mother nature can be a bit unpredictable and we all learned that. The track was tilled deep and looking beautiful with water being applied and practices starting soon when the rain that looked like it was going to miss us hit and hit hard. The rain came in fast and poured down for 30 or so minutes completely saturating the ground both on the track and in the pits and making it a challenge to get any place. The track crew did what they could in the short amount of time to deal with the surprising outburst and pushed back the start of practice a few hours, which did help but there was just not enough time.
The Friday practices were just a mess and borderline on being dangerous for most. The deep and saturated conditions, it made it hard to get traction and keep the bike going in a straight line. There was not much being jumped all day except for the most skilled of riders and many had to veer off to the water lines to get up the steepest hills to prevent tip-overs. Many riders decided to play it safe and wait till the afternoon to try a few laps or just skip Friday practice altogether.
For Saturday morning and the start of the first motos, the conditions had only improved slightly due to the lack of sun or wind to help dry things out. The morning motos were still pretty sketchy due to wet conditions and we maybe set a regional record of some kind for the number of tear offs used and the number of goggles tossed in the motos. By the afternoon the track started to shape up, the sun had come out and the dirt went from sloppy to tacky. This allowed the races to be more competitive and faster in general
By Sunday for the final motos the track shaped up beautifully. The dirt was in excellent shape and made for a great day of racing as many of the classes were still in contention for the final motos. The day went smooth and the track crew did a great job with the tough hand they were dealt. Need to get back to Oakridge another time in better weather to enjoy it in regular conditions.
Pro Sport & College Classes
Our regional riders had a good showing in the pro sport classes with locals raking in about half of the advancement positions to the ranch. Class favorites Eddie Norred and Jayden Clough did not disappoint, with Ryder Beth having a great day with his first year in these big bike classes.
Ryder Beth - Open Pro Sport, 250 Pro Sport
Eddie Norred Jr - Open Pro Sport, 250 Pro Sport, College
Jayden Clough - Open Pro Sport, 250 Pro Sport
Joshua Boaz - 250 Pro Sport, College
Skyler Leaf - College
Vet & Age based Classes
There’s no sleeping on the age-based classes as they range from super fast in the 25+ class to still ripping dudes in the 50+ class. The local region riders had a good turnout and a good amount of them punched their tickets to the ranch to try and bring home the #1 plate.
Jake Loberg - Junior (25+)
Jared Trepanier - Vet (30+)
Nick Click - Vet (30+)
Bill Fosnock - Vet (40+), 50+
Ryan Tracy - Vet (40+)
Anthony Wenck - Vet (40+), 45+
Joe Buskirk - Vet (40+), 45+
Adam Wright - Vet (40+)
Bill Loy - Vet (45+)
Ray Schlegel - Vet (45+), 50+
Eric Mccann - Vet (45+), 50+
Milt Reimer - Vet (50+)
WMX
The women’s classes were not going to be outshined by any other class as the fastest women in the mid-west and other states showed up to compete for that ticket to the ranch. The weekend ended up with just two of our regional ladies punching their ticket, while the other spots went to non-local riders.
Linkin Sarauer
Hailey Nowicki
You can view the full results on the official scoring page here http://racer-results.net/results/mxsports/ll/2022/results.aspx?e=67