Report and photos by Brett Dailey

Looking for a workingman’s hero to cheer for this weekend? Look no further that our factory rider for Nanaimo, Andrew Belin. Only 20 years old, Belin has been rushing in and out of the racetrack each weekend trying to make it back home in time to be at work for Monday morning. He broke his shoulder at the season opener in Ste-Julie but recovered quickly and was back in action for Round 3 in Morden. After the Calgary national, Belin packed up before the final MX1 moto and hit the road for the 12 hour drive to Vancouver so he could grab the first ferry in the morning and be back at work for 10:00. Despite crashing in almost every moto this year (as you’ll read below) Belin finished 11^th and 9^th overall in Regina and Calgary, respectively. He hauls at Nanaimo, finishing 6-5 for 5^th overall there last year so watch out for our factory rider this weekend! 

RXC: Andrew, how did things go in Calgary?

Andrew Belin: Well, in the first moto, I got a fairly decent start and then I was cruising around in 7^th or 8^th and had a nice crash after the finish line—I’m surprised I got back up. I kept going but my bars were tweaked and riding in the ruts was very difficult with bent bars so I fell over one more time. I ended up 13^th. In the second moto, I got a decent start but had to move up through the pack again and ended up 10^th for 9^th overall.

Did that meet your expectations?

I expected to do a little better but you can only do so much with having to work and everything. Also, there are quite a few new American riders up here this year and a few Canadian guys that are going well. Jared Allison, he was hauling—and that Intermediate rider, Shane Wiebe, he was hauling too. So, there’s quite a few people coming up, which is good.

Were you planning on racing the entire first MX1 moto?

Well, I was in about 11^th place before the restart. On the restart, I got tangled up with a couple of people and ended up around 21^st. I worked my way up to 16^th but my arms were just dead and I crashed pretty good so I figured it wasn’t worth it and just focus on the 125 class. 

Take us through the Ste-Julie opener. What happened there?

Ste-Julie was going good. I actually had a brand new bike sent out there. On the last lap of practice I crashed and broke my shoulder blade. I didn’t know how badly I was hurt so I still went out and qualified around 34^th or 35^th. It was pretty sore and I went out for my first moto but pulled off around the halfway mark because I couldn’t even hold on anymore. I went to the hospital on Wednesday because it wasn’t getting any better and it turned out that my shoulder blade was broken. 

What made you decide to do the whole series this year?

Well, I got a 450 last year at the nationals and I like the 450 and I feel that I go pretty good on it. I decided to go out and do the first couple of rounds and maybe get a little more help to do the rest of them. But it didn’t work out that way.

Was it difficult to recover from the shoulder injury between Ste-Julie and Morden?
When I came back from Ste-Julie I took the entire time off until Morden. I didn’t even ride a bike because I didn’t have any bikes back home. At Morden, I felt good but I was behind Davenport and got hit in the eye with something going up the big step-up. That was it for my weekend and I spent all week with a sore eye and then woke up Saturday morning in Regina and had to go to emergency because I couldn’t see. I spent all day in emergency and missed practice but ended up going out on Sunday morning because my eye was good again after all of my eye drops.

Did they ever figure out what was wrong with your eye?

They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it at the Regina hospital so they sent me to another hospital to see an eye specialist. Basically, something inside of my eye was swollen and the pressure wouldn’t allow my eye to react to the light. If it was pitch black, I was fine but if it was light out, my eye went totally blurry. 

How did the first moto in Regina go then?

I think I was in around 9^th place but I fell over and my hand got stuck under my bike for a bit. Anyway, I ended up 12^th in that moto. Then, in the second moto, I got 11^th. It was a pretty good weekend.

I guess Calgary is a pretty good weekend for you as well considering what you’ve gone through this year.

Yeah, I haven’t had time to ride much. After Regina, I flew home on Monday morning at 5:00 and I was at work at 10:45 in Nanaimo.

So what are you doing now?

Right now, I’m just packing up the rest of our stuff and trying to make it back for the first ferry tomorrow morning in Vancouver so I can get back to work for 10:00 [laughs].

Who do you want to thank?

Duncan motorcycles, Troy Lee Designs, Factory Connection, Bikesmith, Sunline, Hindle, Ride Industries Northstar Motorsports and Tymatt Contracting.