Label It Racing’s First National- Ste. Julie Quebec May27
Bradley Jr. and I finished loading up the trailer first thing Friday am and were on the road by 11:00. Almost clear sailing except for a bit of bumper to bumper in Montreal. We arrived at the track at about 7:30 that evening and began the pit parking game. Fortunately Brett Dailey of Racer X Canada's Factory Racer for a Day saved us a little spot. We set up camp, Burkey and Deakz showed up and it was off to do some go-carting.
The go-carting was crazy having a couple dozen Pro MXers unleashed on that track along with some non-racing normal citizens. Some poor girl got punted all over the track and when she tried to pull off the track worker sent her right back out. It must have been very scary for her as it was for me. Deakz had the fastest time till Josh Woods bested him on his last run.
Saturday was amateur day so the perfect track that was there on Friday night was now an over-watered mess. I still had no idea where the track went after practice. The first half of the day was muddy and rutty and the second was muddy, rutty and dusty which is John Nelson's forecast for all National tracks. The Pro practice at the end of the day was a waste of time except to show the guys which way the track goes because the next morning we awoke to a perfect track. After a short morning ride it was time for the timed practice where the boys timed in at 13th and 15th fastest with Jay edging out Adam.
In the first moto our team came out of the first corner in the top ten. Unfortunately right after the first turn sweeper there are 2 doubles going into the second turn. On the landing of the second Deakon hooked bars with another rider and went down hard but fortunately the other 35 riders behind him missed him. He picked up about 1 minute the pack and put in some strong laps trying to shake it off. Jason on the other hand stayed in the top 10 the whole race and ended up a well earned 9th.
As discussed with Jason he would skip the first MX1 moto if he's in the top 10 of MX2. Good one to skip as there was huge carnage as many of the top MX1 guys hit on one of the opening sets of jumps and went down hard. The race was red flagged and we had to roll over the line one more time.
It was lightly raining for most of the day making the track greasy for the second MX2 moto. Once again we had great starts with our D4 prepared Hondas with Jay in 3rd and Adam in about 7th. Once again though Adam got knocked down on the first lap and was way back. Jason rode the best race he's had thus far as he went back and forth in the top 6 or 7 finishing an amazing 4th. His 9/4 gave him a 6th overall 1 behind Eric Sorby but Sorby was later disqualified as his previous credentials don't leave him eligible for MX2 in Canada.
The pits were awkward as poor Adam was destroyed as he was hoping for a Top 5 overall and came away with no points and Burkey was beaming with his own performance knowing that next weekend is his favourite track, Gopher Dunes. This left only the last MX2 moto on a track that has now deteriorated to a mudfest. Jason had a solid start and looped the track in 12th until the last few laps when he went down twice giving up a few spots and ending up in 16th. We were more than happy with that since the first 2 MX2 motos must have worn Jay out. As good as his conditioning is even Jay said that the last half of the race he was just hanging on.
It was a great weekend with Dave Burke, Jay's dad looking after bike washing and security, Jr. and I on mechanics duties, Megan working on Jay's Utopias and Tony Deakon helping clean up, motivate and entertain.
Aaron of FXR was his usual animated self and I hope he had a great birthday. So no injuries, no broken bikes, no ripped jerseys and we're of to the Dunes. .
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