Sliding Doors With Sierra Roth- Round 1 Recap

ROUND 1 CDNWMX WESTERN NATIONAL SERIES RECAP- KAMLOOPS BC

It is hard to believe that Round 1 has come and gone already. It feels like just yesterday we were in August, planning for the 2016 series. For being the first round and having new organizers, everything went smoother than expected. There were a few hiccups with sign in and transponder issues, but we will learn from that and move forward. We had a lot of new girls this year, which was extremely exciting to see for the future of our sport. We had 34 women line up to the gate first moto, either beaming from ear to ear or nervous about what was to come. Girls headed out for their hot lap for Moto 1 on time, and at that point we were ready to roll.

Our RTR Performance Holeshot winner went out to Sara King, who was out of the gate just as expected with the 1W. Shelby Turner, however, had her head down and quickly made the pass on Sara. Jamie Munro and Lexi Pechout (another wild card who we knew would be fast in the corners due to her other discipline riding skills) were following just behind on Shelby and Sara’s tail end. From there we had Dominique Daffe, Brittany Danyluk, Courtney Stelter, Kate Lees, Jamie Routley, and Zoey Shamley rounding out the top 10 off the start.

After that, there were so many battles out on the track. I think those that were watching were in shock on how fast our top 10 girls were actually going. A whoop section on the track, followed by a double-double section, had girls thinking it would be a deal breaker on being top 3 or not. However, as awesome as these girls are, many started jumping it, not just the top 3. After the first lap, we had Shelby Turner, Sara King, Lexi Pechout, Brittany Danyluk, Dominique Daffe, Jamie Munro, Kate Lees, Courtney Stelter, Danika White, Jamie Routley, Camille Bunko, Madi Watt, Zoey Shamley, Jacey McQueen, Tamala Whiteside, Kristin Tse, Summer Knowles, Maia Kerr, Brittni Waddington, and Jessica Unger rounding out the top 20 girls. Girls were swapping positions left and right, including Shelby and Sara, making things interesting for anyone spectating. By lap four, Sara had a solid lead on Shelby and Lexi was closing in, looking for a pass into second. To our surprise, a few laps later, Sara got into lappers and ended up falling over. At that moment, almost simultaneously, Shelby also fell in a corner before, giving Lexi a solid lead. By the time Sara got her bike up and running, she was in third, just behind Shelby, who also seemed disappointed in her small mistake that ended up costing her the race. A solid ride by Lexi Pechout put her on the top of the box. Dominique Daffe and Kate Lees also put in solid motos, putting them in the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

The RTR Performance Holeshot winner in the second moto went to Jamie Munro, who had a wicked jump on the rest of the girls. Shelby Turner got around her right away, hoping to make a gap between Lexi and Sara, who moved into second and third respectively a few corners later. Shelby Turner made a gap right away and made the heat of 35+ degrees look like nothing. Sara ended up tumbling in the rollers around the second or third lap, but after talking to her, things could have been a lot worse. Lexi also had a bad crash on a landing of a jump that costed her a few positions. I talked to a few other girls to hear their take on the second moto and many said the heat and rough track took a toll on them. Dominique Daffe said she got a bad jump second moto, but was able to make ground quickly. She battled with Brittany Danyluk for quite a while and actually was in third for some time. However, Brittany fell in a corner by the end of the moto and had to salvage a fourth at the checkered while Dominique was able to put herself into a solid personal best of third place. Kate Lees had about a 15th place start and then made some ground throughout the moto, making her way into ninth. She said the track swallowed her up and wasn’t able to put in a consistent lap like she hoped she could do after having a personal best of top 5 in Moto 1. Heat definitely got the best of her as she spent most of Sunday in bed with heat stroke. Courtney Stelter impressed many of us as she had decent starts and made her way into the top 10 both motos, finishing 6th the first moto and 8th in her second moto. The heat got the best of her also and said she felt like she had no energy by the end of the moto, so her main focus was to just stay on two wheels. Madi Watt explained that she let nerves get the best of her this weekend, including the rough track and hot weather. Before the first moto, her clutch went during practice and was able to get in a new clutch five minutes before first moto sight lap. This left her pretty scrambled and uneasy the rest of the day. With mid pack starts each moto, she was only able to break the top 10, which she isn’t ready to settle for and is looking forward to the next round.

Kristin Tse was our Gibson Tyre Hard Charger Award winner who hit neutral on the start first moto and ended up dead last off the start. She was able to work her way through the pack up to 7th. Second moto she had another bad start that left her fighting through the pack once again in the heat. She was able to make her way up to 6th place, giving her a solid 6th overall. With better starts, Kristin will be a top 5 contender at the next three rounds.

By the sounds of it, most of our top 15 girls are ready to put their heads down and focus on the next round, which should make for some exciting racing right to the end. Shelby Turner holds the overall position going into Round 2, but with Sara King and Lexi Pechout both showing they are capable to run up front, it will be a battle to the final round in Regina.

A shout out to Jacey McQueen and Brittni Waddington who both got hurt this round; we wish you both a speedy recovery. For anyone wondering, Jacey crashed during the first moto, casing a jump that left her with a bone chip in the left ankle and a sprain and pulled tendons in the right ankle. She is hoping to make it back to our series for both Calgary and Regina. Brittni crashed during the second moto leaving her with a concussion that she will have to take some time off to recover from. To the other girls that will be returning next weekend with war wounds from crashes this weekend, we wish you all the best and keep on charging. There are better days to come!

The 2016 CMRC Western Canadian Women’s Nationals presented by M7 Designs Co. would like to thank the following Kamloops sponsors for all their support in making this series possible:

M7 Designs Co. , our round sponsors Valley Speed/Valley Moto Sports, Mile Zero/John Meaney Photography, Cycle Works and Schrader’s for putting in $1000 to the top 10 round purse at each round, Laminacorr Racing who provided an additional $200 to the top 3 each round, CMRC for running the event as smoothly as possible, Gibson Tyre Technology for providing the Hard Charger Awards, RTR Performance Holeshot money, Scona Cycle for the bike stands, DC Signs for helping decal our sweet axe trophies, our draw table prize sponsors: Scona Cycle, John Meaney Photography, Diamonds and Dirt, Troy Lee Designs, Hardcore Candy, FXR, Evans Cooling, Platinum Recreation, and Moose Leisure. Also a thank you to our series purse sponsors that will be supporting the top 10 overall from our series: Lucas Bachman Memorial Fund, RIMK Industries, Cycle North, Hardcore Candy Inc., Lloydminster MX Club, and Oriana Fraser #49. A big shout out to Conx2share for live broadcasting our event, as well as all the media guys for helping promote our series, you guys all rock!

Congratulations to Shelby Turner, Sara King, and Lexi Pechout who also received purse money from the Ride Like a Girl contingency program. We would like to extend a special thank you to the following supporters of the #RideLikeaGirlProgram: Laminacorr Racing, Backwoods Promotions, MX & Off-Road Magazine, Importations Thibault, Scott Sports, Yamaha Canada, Yamalube and Evo Motorsports.

PS – Due to miscommunication and technological issues, overalls for the day are as follows below, which caused our podium top 5 to be in the wrong order. Sorry for the confusion. (Official Overalls: 1st-Shelby Turner, 2nd-Sara King, 3rd-Lexi Pechout, 4th-Dominique Daffe, 5th-Brittany Danyluk)

See you all at the Wastelands in Nanaimo, BC this weekend!

RESULTS Go to: http://cmrc.tracksideresults.com/class.asp?e=47&c=29