Friday 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.
