Time for another short blog…I haven’t done one in a while as we’ve been awfully busy over the last few weeks. Since my last blog we hit a GNCC race, and a couple other events, but I just haven’t had time to write about them…school got in the way…ha!
Anyway, we decided to head to the JDay GP race at the Crow Hill track in Baldwinville, MA. This is the track that Robby Marshall and his family own/operate, and apparently Robby did a ton of work on this JDay course layout.
I decided to focus on racing my CR 125 in the A200 class and not worry about the junior class this time around. Dad had to swap out a leaky head gasket the day before, so I just wanted to make sure the bike held up for 2 motos.
The track looked awesome, the extreme section had a rock garden, a few double logs, and some culvert jumps. There was a RAM TRAX sand section in the woods, and of course the Crow Hill MX track…this was going to be huge fun.
Moto 1: My start was not so hot…while the bike started right away, I just could not get to the front, so when we entered the super fun and flowy MX track I was towards the back of the pack. It totally reminded me of riding in the Midwest…sandy, smooth jumps, and lots of lines to pass. By the time we got to the woods I worked myself up a little ways and put myself in a decent mid pack position. After quite a bit of dicing in the woods and the extreme section, we came back out to the track and I found myself in 4th. Luke Yanke was in front of me, so I figured I’ll stick with him and see if I can get him. Unfortunately even though I grew up riding sand, I proceeded to drop the bike twice in a sandy corner on the MX track, then once in the extreme section, and ended up working awfully hard just to stay in 4th for the moto. Not bad but I definitely gave that one away. I was happy though…over all I felt good, the bike felt awesome and I knew I had something for moto 2.
Moto 2: This time my start was way better…I came out in 3rd and immediately started charging to get to 2nd. First place was a little further ahead, I could not quite catch up to him at that point and I really wasn’t worried about it. My tires (Kenda Triple sticky) hooked up incredibly, I don’t know if it was the changing track conditions or the small suspension adjustments dad made, I felt like I was on rails this time. I really just focused on smooth lines and smart choices. I made the pass for 2nd and was starting to get my flow. I did not want to drop the bike for any reason and give up another freebee. But I took a digger on lap 2 in some nasty woops before the extreme section. I kept the bike running and I lost 3rd and 4th position in the process of getting up but I quickly made the pass for 3rd and then it was once again me and Luke duking it out for 2nd. I made the pass and it was a battle for the whole race. When we first started battling we were about 1 minute behind 1st place but as the race went on it turns out, we made up time each lap and by the end we were only 10 seconds off the leader. When it was all over, I ended up taking 2nd for the moto which put me in 3rd place for the day – I’m good with that. This is my 1st podium in A200…I am super pumped, especially since I know I made lots of mistakes in moto 1 and left quite a bit of room for improvement. The Honda ran awesome (I love racing 125’s), the suspension was dialed in! I can’t wait for next week’s race to do it again.
As always, thank you to my awesome sponsors: Fly Racing, Kenda Tires, Magical Go-Go, EKS brand goggles, Panic Rev, my grandparents, mom and dad, and a quick shout out to the Wisconsin Crew – you guys would have loved this one :)
Thanks for reading and taking interest in my racing progress!
“Braaap”
Hunter “747” Neuwirth
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