Well, Round 1 of the Monster Energy Women’s Motocross Nationals is in the books!! I’ll catch you up to what I’ve been up to this weekend. On Friday, I arrived in Kamloops around 12:50 BC time… or 3 hours behind Ontario. When I was leaving Calgary I was texting with Amber, who I was planning on staying with and it turned out there was a big mix up. The Girouxs’ didn’t realized I was staying with them, or driving back to Calgary with them. I sat in the airport, calling everyone I knew was in BC trying to find a ride to the track. I was stuck there for a few hours before I called Derek at IMX, who suggested I rent a car.
I ended up doing that, and just as I was paying Kyle Keast showed up behind me. He said I could follow him and Johnny Silegren back to the track. A quick stop to pick up the Medaglias’ and we were on our way. They drove really fast, and I lost them at a red light. So here I was driving through the city trying to figure out where I was, no map and no clue where I was going. I stopped for directions, and they told me to just follow Westside for a long time. Well by a long time, they meant it. I thought for sure I was lost, and then I came upon a sign that said another 20km to the track. Finally I made it to whispering pines raceway!
I found the Girouxs’ and got my bike set up. I spent the night hanging out with Missy Hackett, and ended up crashing with her and her mom Carrie in their trailer. Thank you guys so much for that!!
Saturday morning I got up and got ready for my first ride on the Team Giroux Yamaha. Practise went really well, the bike hit a lot differently than the power of my Honda, but the suspension felt pretty good. I learned the track pretty quickly and was doing most of the reasonable jumps. Some of the jumps were just crazy, there was a 90 ft sand double that the lites pro guys were struggling to clear. First moto I had a pretty crappy start but the main point of racing the amateur day was just to adjust to the bike and track as best as possible. There were 39 girls on the gate, the largest turnout the women’s nationals have seen to date. Saturday is amateur day, or basically just a day for the women to get some seat time on the new track.
I finished out the moto with a 14th, and I was pretty happy with that, considering I had a total of 3 laps of practise on the bike ever. Second moto I crashed in the first corner with a few other girls, and could feel my finger bleeding in my glove. I decided not looking at it would be the best idea, and got up to finish. I’ve heard horror stories about people having their fingers cut off and not even realizing it until they take their gloves off and I was a little worried about that. I was feeling good and working my way up, until the front table top.
The girl beside me nose dived really bad as we were jumping almost side by side, her bike shot across in front of me and I smoked it as I came down the landing. All I know is I flew for a looong time! I was waiting and waiting to hit the ground and it felt like forever before I hit. When I did hit, I crawled off to the side as fast I could to check myself out before I got up. My head felt fine, my hip was a little sore but just minor. Then as I went to stand up, I could feel this pressure on my shoulders. I looked up and the Shrader’s mechanic was there making sure I was ok. As I was racing a Shrader’s Yamaha, he had met me earlier in the weekend and was watching out for me. The paramedic was next, and basically pushed me back down, and held my shoulders so I couldn’t move. I kept yelling at him that I was fine but he didn’t want to listen to me. Finally I basically shoved him off me and got up. The race was over by this point and I was pissed I didn’t get to finish, but at least it wasn’t the important race.
When I got back to the Giroux pit, I pulled my glove off to check it out. I had ripped my nail off and tore up some skin but it wasn’t missing, good news! As I pulled my gear off I noticed some small rasberries but again, nothing major so I was happy. I bent the clutch lever a little but no significant damage to the bike made Roland happy I’m sure haha!! That afternoon I met up with my good friend and sponsor Mark Perrin from MPI. He offered for me to stay at his hotel that night with Daryl Murphey from the CMRC. It was really nice to finally get a shower and a good sleep.
Sunday morning was the big day. We got the track early, and hit riders meeting at 7:30. Monster Energy had a big surprise for everyone, dropping their riders off by helicopter. We watched the pro practises and then it was our turn. For the first time, women are required to wear transponders this year. As we lined up for practise, they informed us that we would need to qualify, and that our practise times would determine if we made it in. So obviously I went hard, and pushed for the highest time I could. I felt good, and somebody said I was around 15th out of 35 with my qualifying time. Moto 1 came, and we were told that we didn’t in fact need to qualify, they had made a mistake, and we would need to pick pins instead. Everyone was pissed, we had gone hard and not taken the time we maybe could have to check some sections out more in depth. It also worked against a lot of the top qualifiers who may have picked poor pins.
Moto 1 saw a lot of crashes. My teammate Ami Houde crashed in the first corner and lay there the whole moto. It’s really sad having to drive by someone getting worked on all moto. She ended up breaking her wrist and will be out for a few weeks to recover. A lot of other girls crashed, or DNF’d as well. I felt off, I wasn’t able to charge hard, and the track was already brutal. I was able to work into a 16th place finish. While I wasn’t happy with this, I also have a lot of things that aren’t in place they should be. I definitely was not ready for this round, and I wasn’t planning on coming out until less than week before. It was a last minute decision, and I don’t have much time on my own bike even. I’m not on my own bike out here, and I don’t have my dad out here with me. My dad is at almost every single race with me, and when I don’t have him it’s not the same. He can read me, he knows exactly what we have to do to be ready.
Second moto went much the same, except I smacked my hand off a watering post that was really close to a corner. It really hurt and I have some nice bruising across it now. The track was totally mangled, and I was tired after the second lap. It was a struggle to keep the bike straight and in control. I finished 18th for a 17th place overall. Again, I’m not happy with that, but at the same time I feel it’s pretty decent consider I’m not where I should be to compete at this level. Had I been on my own bike I think it would have been a better finish.
We headed back to the hotel and crashed early, we were all super tired. The next day I dropped Daryl off at the airport and headed back to the track where Mark and the boys took down all the banners. I went for a nice jog down a cool little trail alongside the Fraser river with the mountains all around me. After clean up, Mark and I decided to get a hotel for the night rather than crash at the track. We drove around to probably 5 places before finding a reasonably priced one. It turned out to be a really cute little place and we had a good nights sleep.
Now its Tuesday, and the guys are still at the track cleaning up the banners and finish line. I had to bring my rental car back today, so I’m sitting in the Kamloops airport waiting for the monster rig to come get me. I hope I’m not here all day, as we are planning on heading to Calgary tonight. I’m really excited to drive through the mountains and see the landscape. And I’m excited to see my good friend Scorgie, whose place I will be staying at for the week. My brother is coming into Calgary Friday morning and will be helping me out for the weekend. I haven’t seen him since he left in April and it will be awesome to have him there with me.
This trip really is an adventure, and it’s incredible so far. I’m so proud to be a part of the moto scene, it really is an amazing place. I can’t thank the Giroux’s enough for letting me pit with them and having a bike for me to ride, and Mark for giving me a place to stay and helping me out on the line and just everything that he does for me!! Again, gotta thank IMX of course for making it possible!!
Wow, ok that was long!! I’ll try to update more frequently, sometimes it’s hard to get wireless.
Love Cas
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