Welcome to Regina: the final round of the MX2 West championship. It’s a bit ironic that the race in the flattest province has more hills than the race in the mountainous mainland province of BC. Regina is probably the fastest track on the circuit with bowled turns and banked uphill corners. Every bit of horsepower a rider’s bike can generate has the potential to be used in Moto Valley. Some riders are saying that the track is too easy, calling it a “highway” because of the track's hard surface, but the fans aren’t complaining about the big air, high-speed action.  

Fastest pappy on the track in qualifying: Craig Decker

 

New father, Craig Decker set the fastest lap time in qualifying today on his Morgan Racing Yamaha YZ450F with a two minute, four second lap time.  Decker had a second place start in the MX1 qualifier and moved past the leader, KTM’s Michael Willard, on the first lap.  Moto results were Decker, Gavin Gracyk, Ryan Lockhart, Willard and Mike Treadwell.

Second fastest pappy on the track in qualifying: Damon Huffman

 

Working backwards, the first MX1 qualifier saw Richmond Racing Kawasaki’s Evan Laughridge take the holeshot.  Laughridge led for half of the moto until Blackfoot Honda’s Damon Huffman (another new dad) took the lead and ran away with the win.  JSR was also in qualifier one and worked his way up into third place before he got a flat front tire after hitting a rock in the new downhill section.  JSR gingerly rode his bike around the track at a pace fast enough to qualify. Moto results were Huffman, Laughridge, Keith Johnson, Marco Dubé, and Doug DeHaan.

 

 

The battles were solid in the MX2 class. In qualifier one, Richmond Racing Kawasaki’s Teddy Maier got the holeshot followed by OTSFF Suzuki's Jake Weimer and KTM’s Jimmy Nelson.  Blackfoot Honda’s Dusty Klatt wheelied off the line and got stuck back in fifteenth off the start.  Klatt quickly moved through the pack and took over third spot after Maier crashed. Klatt continued to move ahead and passed Neslon and set his sights on Weimer--only lappers interfered on the remaining laps.  Nelson looked to be the quickest rider on the track but Klatt's smooth riding style was deceivingly fast.  

Shane Bess led the pack of hungry MX2 rider in qualy two.

 

 

In MX2 moto two Yamaha’s Shane Bess got the holeshot and was followed closely by Colton Facciotti, Nate Tearney and Jeff Northrop.  The four riders battle for half of the moto with some bumping.  Bess finally overshot a corner and Facciotti and Northrop moved out front. Facciotti was leading but Northrop moved past him later in the race. In a last-ditch effort, Facciotti over jumped the finish line and took the win by a knobbie. Check out the animation below.

 

To the best of my math ability, Klatt still leads the MX2 championship race by 32 points since both he and Jeff Northrop scored the same amount of points today in qualifying. By my calculations, tomorrow should be a fun day for the defending champ.

Congratulations to the two winning dads.

Again, congratulations to new fathers Craig Decker and Damon Huffman who are both going through some separation anxiety while being away from home.  Not only did they both become dads within the last two weeks but, ironically, they both won their respective qualifiers today. Ema Page Decker and Maxwell Huffman will no doubt be at home tomorrow cheering on their dads between naps and diaper changes.  Speaking of diapers, both guys say they would rather take on the duty of changing a dirty diaper than changing a dirty air filter.  

 

That’s about it for the qualifiers.  A heavy thunderstorm hit the Regina area following the races today and weather stations were warning of a possible tornado.  The rain and high winds have cleared and tomorrow is looking like a good day.  Now it’s all up to this man to make the final decisions of when things start tomorrow.

 

 

 

See you at the races.

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