Adelanto, CA- July 23, 2017- Another race weekend is in the books, and it was a good one!  I was able to make it to practice the day before the DIRT Series round 6 at Sunrise MX Park.  I have never raced there, so I wanted to get a feel for the track.  Practice went really well on Saturday.  The car ran great and I was able to figure out which lines I wanted to take.  The track was fun and had awesome whoops and jumps, but it was pretty tight and there were only a few places to pass.  My plan was to get out in front of the pack as quick as I could.
Sunday was race day and it was another hot one!  I had thought about the track overnight and I wanted to try a different line over one of the jumps.  We had a brief practice session before racing started so I thought I’d give it a try.  I lined myself up straighter coming off of a hill at the back of the track instead of veering to the left and it worked perfectly.  I knew I could do it in the race and it was a faster line!
After the drivers meeting, I headed back to my pit quickly because my class was race one in the line-up for the day!  There were 5 cars in my class.  I picked an inside line at the start and I hoped it would be good.  The green flag flew and we were off!  It was a short distance from the start line to the first 90 degree turn.  I fell in to second place at the first turn but I stayed on the car in front of me.  I knew there were only a few places to pass, so I took the opportunity early on and hit a double jump.  I flew over the jump and landed just ahead of the first place car.  I hit the gas, and was able to make the pass!  I had to stay on it and make no mistakes.  I remembered all of my lines from practice the day before and the new line I had tried during practice earlier.  Coming down off of the hill, I lined myself up straight and hit the jump head on.  It worked!  I was able to stay in the lead and won the 1st moto!
The day got hotter as it went on, and by the time we were lining up for moto 2, it was 106 degrees!  I knew I was going to have to be on top of my game and I was pretty nervous as we lined up.  I decided to pick a different spot on the line.  I went to the far outside because I thought it might be a straighter shot to the first turn even though it was more distance to travel.  The flag flew and we took off again.  I got the hole shot and rounded the first turn.  The second place finisher was on my bumper.  I knew there was no room for error, so I focused and stayed on the gas.  I was able to stay in the lead for the entire race, but it was not easy.  I was stoked to see the checkered flag fly after 5 laps and I crossed the finish line in 1st place.  I took home the overall 1st place spot for the day in my class!
Our schedule picks back up in August!  We will be attending a local dirt lifestyle festival called Off Road Nights on August 5th.  Then, on August 13th, we will head to Pala Raceway for the DIRT Series round 7.  We will round out our month on August 26th with the Quad X Series round 3 at 333 MX Park.