The Quesnel Motocross Association hosted one of its biggest races ever on Sunday (April 28), with well over 300 racers competing at the track on Oval Road.
“It went very well,” says association president Denise Smith. “It was a good showing for the Quesnel riders, and there were lots of big classes, which is great to see.”
Riders and their families came from all over the west for the second round of the Future West Moto series.
“We had people from Grand Prairie, people from down on the Island and people from Castlegar,” Smith says.
While newcomers to the sport might have assumed the snow the course received on Saturday was detrimental, Smith says it was anything but.
“Snow’s always good for our track,” she points out.“With sand, snows a good thing.”
The course is able to absorb the moisture effectively, and the snow actually makes the course a little easier to ride once it sinks in.
Notable results for the local racers include two placements for Brad Dunn, who won the Plus 40 class and finished third in the Vet Master class; a second place for Adam Smith in the 2 Stroke class, a third for Blake Neville in the 85 CC ages 7-11 class and a second-place finish for lady phenom Kassee Morrison.
Despite the excellent finish, Morrisson thinks she has lots to improve on.
“After my injury in the fall, I’ve been a little set back, but I’m getting up there slowly,” she says.
Morrison hurt her shoulder at a race in Chetwynd in August. Although it didn’t require surgery, she missed the last few weeks of the season, and the injury affected her ability to train over the winter.
She says coming back, she needs to work on her head game.
“It was mostly my mental capacity that suffered,” she says. “And I struggled with my arms dying a lot.”
She did have some positive feedback as well, however.
“My bike ran great,” she notes. “And I did some training in Arizona in February that helped my cornering a lot, which showed in this race.
” Also, my endurance was amazing, so that’s cool too.”
She will be racing in the Western Canadian Nationals for motocross this year. Last year, the Quesnel rider finished ninth overall.
Morrison is dead set on rocketing up the rankings to fifth this year, so every single race will count.
Her next big race with be in Calgary in June; however, she will be accompanying a few Quesnel riders to Nanaimo in two weeks’ time to race in round three of the Future West Moto series.
READ MORE: Bad break for B.C. motocross star
Quesnel Rider
RESULTS
Open Pro Am:
Jackson Nickolet 6th
2 Stroke:
Adam Smith 2nd
85cc 12-16yrs
Kade Richmond 10th
85cc 7-11yrs
Blake Neville 3rd
Logan Reiter 7th
Casey Fralick 11th
65cc 10-11yrs
Casey Fralick 5th
Gavin Fouty 8th
65cc 7-9yrs
Draydon Lee 7th
65cc Open
Gavin Fouty 5th
Casey Fralick 7th
Schoolboy
Adam Smith 5th
Plus 40
Brad Dunn 1st
Open Junior
Colton Shepherd 8th
Zack Morrison 9th
Dayne Cutrell 10th
Josh Levesque 27th
Kade Richmond 28th
New Kid Beginner
Alex Grant 4th
Under 30
Jackson Nickolet 7th
Zack Morrison 15th
Caleb McRae 18th
Dayne Cutrell 30th
Ladies
Kassee Morrison 2nd
Briana Sundby 6th
Jordan Letoria 11th
Vet Junior
Kevin Fralick 6th
Josh Levesque 10th
Vet Master
Brad Dunn 3rd
250 Junior
Zack Morrison 6th
Adam Smith 7th
Kassee Morrison 17th
Briana Sundby 21st
Kade Richmond 29th
sports@quesnelobserver.com
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