Aden de Jager Spring Creek Report
Leading up to the Millville round, I was offered a spot on the Wonder Warthog Team. This was a great opportunity as they now took my race bike to all of the rounds allowing me to save a lot of stress and time by now being able to fly to the rounds instead of drive.
Practice/Qualifier 1: With only 15 minutes to learn and get comfortable with the track I had to be able to push my self and get up to the pace fast. This was one of my favourite tracks I have ridden. I set a good few fast laps, however got a little beat around by the Millville Whoops. My lap times landed me 22nd fastest time in my Group B with literally only a few seconds seperating majority of the riders.
Practice/Qualifier 2: I was disapointed in finding out my result from the first practice. I felt good riding and knew I could push it just those few seconds more to try and qualify. I made sure I warmed up properly as it was only about 60 degrees F (approx 15 degrees C). I dropped 4 seconds off my previous best time and was feeling comfortable and smooth. Unfortately it still was not enough to qualify. I still needed a further 2 seconds to qualify.
LCQ: I got a great jump out of the gate, unfortately with a severe lack of horse power with a stock standard bike I got dragged down the long Millville start straight. I was in 9th position passing 3 riders on the first lap putting myself in 6th. On my second lap coming down a fast straight, the rider in 5th directly infront of me high sided coming through the breaking bumps resulting in his bike flipping and landing only about 10 feet infront of me while I was already heavy on the brakes. Unable to stop before the bike I landed ontop of the rider and his bike. While I was stuck about 7 or 8 riders were able to get passed me dropping me back to about 13th position. Without anywhere to put my feet down my only option was to dump the clutch and ride over him with high hopes. As it is only a 4 lap race, I knew I had 2 laps to push my hardest and try to work back to my previous position. I worked my way up to 10th but swapped out on the last lap going through the whoops and going off the track resulting in ending the race in 12th spot.
My next race will be Washougal. I am really looking forward to this round and enjoying every step of this adventure.
I would like to thank Troy Crisp from BDR. I would also like to thank the Wonder Warthog crew Chris and Scott for hauling my bike to the rest of the Nationals and letting me pit out of the rig. We will be doing some more testing throughout the next few weeks getting ready for the next National. I would also like to give a big Thanks to all of my other sponsors who have helped me out tremendously; Fly Racing, Kwala MX Components, Kali Protectives, Stomp Grip, Hammerhead, No Toil, Go Pro, Scott, The Burgess Family and my Mum and Dad; without their support I would not be here.
