by Chris O'Neal
Mini Olympics Update: Friday
Saturday, November 24, 2012 | 4:10 PM
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PrintFriday at the Winter Olympics was all about qualifiers, with a handful of first motos completed on the motocross track. The track held up considerably, but with so many riders, qualifiers in almost every class and a two moto format, it did get a lot of square edge chop with hard pack kickers. Some of the classes, like the C classes and mini bikes, had three qualifiers per class, plus LCQs, making for a very long day.
Star Racing Yamaha's Cooper Webb continues to get great starts and lead to the checkers in almost all of the A races. Lucas Oil/ Troy Lee Designs Honda's Shane McElrath, Club MX's Jace Owen, KTM's Dakota Alix, Yamaha's Paul Coates and Andy Bristol have kept him honest, but haven't been able to consistently get the starts Webb has.
In the other divisions, Suzuki's Barry Carsten won the first moto with ease in the 45-plus class. The Four Stroke class is packed with young talent and Suzuki's Matthew Burkeen was able to grab the win with Honda's Cade Clason and Yamaha's Aaron Plessinger rounding out the podium. The Schoolboy class is also loaded with fast riders, with great support. Kawasaki's Mark Worth and Suzuki's Daniel Baker won each of their qualifiers and are looking good going into the second moto.
The track got very hard packed as the day went on, causing the conditions to be very technical. Towards the end of the day, Jantz Grodzicki needed medical attention that delayed the races for quite some time. The last update we received is that he is showing signs of improvement. Everyone at Racer X sends our condolences to his family and friends. Stay tuned for a complete race recap and detailed report tomorrow.
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i remember when they had nationals at the track, even the factory bikes had a problem with blowing out wheels from the square edge holes that develop.
Cooper Webb and his holeshots are making them Yammy's look good again!
way to sugar coat a horrer story." jants'' died from a severed spine on that stupid elevator jump that has no place in an amature race.its 110ft uphill triple that has injured many riders over the years. get the fu#k rid of it!
now i am fuc$ing pissed. amature racing is way to proffesional way to young, way too fu$king expensive,the kids go way to fast with way to much expectation.tone down the obtacles, have longer motos,so the kids dont have to risk it all in a five lap dash.
anybody who has a rebutle comment can fu&koff;!
TBonemx47: Totally agree! What the hell are these people doing putting kids on 250 & 450F’s? Bring back the 125. Shit like this doesn’t have to happen in the amateurs. Same thing with the MEC, why where those super minis and 250 riders expected to race the same track as the pros. It was stupid and Ricky Carmichael should have known better.
i agree that longer motos and safer jumps would make for safer and better racing. The bottom line is all the new 4 strokes haul ass, especially the 450's. they have stupid amounts of power. People see all the power they have then build insane jumps. Its not going to get any better either. just like diesel trucks. the old 7.3 powerstroke was a powerful reliable motor. Now all the new diesel trucks are 800 lb ft of torque. who the hell needs that kind of power in a truck? In twently more years instead of seeing 100 ft doubles, we will see 140 ft doubles with 450's pumping out 80 hp that cost $16,000. and $800.00 for a valve job that needs to be done every 10 hours. and youll see more R.I.P announcments on here than anything else. I love this sport but damn is it going in the wrong direction.
I don't believe the elevator jump is still there. At least it wasn't when I raced. This sport is what it is, there really isn't any way to guard against a freak accident. Bikes used to bog and pitch people off, and people have died in first turn crashes. It just sucks plain and simple.