The Wizard GP, Rocky Hill, CT
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| Photo: Art Pepin |
After spending the last few months focusing
on the NETRA series, we had a break in the schedule and it just happened to be
a race weekend for the JDay GP series (check out www.jdayoffroad.com).
The race was hosted at Rocky hill MX and I really wasn’t sure how John Day would put together a super fun course
for the Wizard GP. But he did it! The woods had some nice ruts and not a rock
in sight! Best of all, this track was only about 45 minutes from our house, so
travel wasn’t an issue. When we got there I found out that a lot of my race
buddies from the NETRA series had the same idea, so I got to rip it up with my
boys Brian D, Anthony F, Mikey D, and the rest of the gang. Great times!!!!! I
decided to sign up for 2 classes to make it worth the effort, plus I needed the
seat time anyways to get used to the fast flowy stuff again.
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| Photo: Art Pepin |
My first moto was the Junior moto 1:
My start was pathetic, I ended up way in the back. I have sort of accepted the
fact that the Husky won’t give me any hole shots due to the starting procedure,
so I wasn’t too upset. 30 minute motos are long sprints, there was plenty of
time to go to work and reel in the leaders. And that’s just what I did. It took
me a few laps, but ultimately I made the pass for first and started to build a
gap. That’s when I made what would be the only mistake of the day. I tried to
pass a couple of lapped riders on the inside of turn one. These 2 guys were
battling each other and did not realize it was me coming up on them, so one guy
thought the other guy was making a pass and sort of tried to block him…only…it
was me…and I ended up hitting the corner post with my rear wheel as i was braking
into the turn. I ended up flipping over the bike, the bike flipped over me,
bottom line, the posts are not just plastic.
It was a good crash (anyone have it on video?). I got up quickly, but lost
the lead and got going again in 2nd place. The bike was pretty
tweaked and I really could not push as it was hard to steer, so I rode to the
finish in 2nd place. Dad grabbed the bike and started working on it,
we had about a ½ hour until my next moto.
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| Photo: Art Pepin |
Of course dad got it done, the bike was good
to go and I went up for A-Open moto 1: This time I didn’t even plan on a
hole shot, I planned on sweeping turn one on the outside and hopefully be able
to get myself towards the front of the pack within a lap or 2. This worked…sort
of. I ended up towards the back of the pack again, but I wasn’t too upset as I
was confident that I would be able to work my way through the field, and I had
a few good spots picked out where I knew I could make some moves and pass.
After the second lap I was in 5th, after lap 3 in 4th,
and by lap 4 I had worked my way up to 3rd place. I felt great, the
bike handled and ran awesome. The MX part of the track felt good to me, I was
able to find a nice rhythm, the jumps were all enjoyable and the woods were
starting to develop some good lines. I finished this moto in 3rd. I
was totally happy with that, I was close enough to possibly improve in the
afternoon.Junior moto 2: The start was even worse than in my 1st
moto, I got pinched off and had to come from pretty much dead last. This was a challenge.
Working through the traffic, trying to get around slower riders and trying to
catch up to the leaders took some time…actually…it took until the 2nd
to last lap, but once I made the pass for 1st, I didn’t look back. I
was able to build a big enough gap so I didn’t have to worry about having to
force anything, I could just ride it out and ultimately take 1st in
moto 2 and with a 2-1 take the overall. Job complete, bike was in good shape,
and I still felt strong for my fourth moto of the day.
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| Getting Ready for M2 - A Open |
A-Open moto2: As expected, my start was a D- (DEE MINUSSS).
No worries though, I knew how to deal with this, after all, that’s what I did
all day. Coming from behind….I raced my butt off, pushed and didn’t make any
mistakes. After lap one I think I was still in a different zip code than the
leaders, but the gap was getting smaller. I passed a lot of people on the now
very dusty MX track and worked myself up to 4th. At that point I
figured I might have about 3 laps left and I had 3rd place in sight.
I made the pass. 2nd was going to be tough, and while I was closing
in, the gap was still too big to get it done in 1 lap. I remembered what dad
keeps telling me all the time….just put yourself in position…things happen at
the end of the race, people wear out and make mistakes, and if you are there,
you can capitalize on it. I was there, the guy in 2nd made a mistake;
I passed him and ended up 2nd in the moto for a 2nd
overall.
So at the end of the day I won Juniors and
got 2nd in A-Open…a very successful race day for me.
Thank you Justin Sokol and Layne Dutlinger for
pointing out the good lines! Huge thanks to John Day for a great event and the
cool award! :)
Thank you to my awesome sponsors!!!! Kenda
Tires, Fly Racing, Magical GoGo, EKS Brand goggles, Panic Rev Ministries, FMF, Art Pepin for the pics, and
of course my family!
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Hunter “747” Neuwirth