Spring Creek hosts Regional qualifier

June 10-11

By R. Otterness

The competition was intense as Spring Creek Park hosted the North Central Amateur Regional Qualifier. This enables racers that make the cut to head down to Loretta Lynn’s ranch for the Monster Energy Amateur National Championship. Riders were in attendance from many states, including Texas, Florida, Colorado, Nebraska, and Ohio, as well as the nearby states. Some of the more successful racers managed to win all three motos in their classes and thus might be considered serious contenders for a championship. This group included Josh Boaz (Open Pro Sport, College 18-24), Linkin Sarauer (WMX), Ryder Malinoski (250 B, 450 B), Braxton Kragenbring (250 C), Brady Karolevitz (250 C Limited), Kyler Hagedorn (250 C Jr, 125 C), Wyatt McGrath (450 B Limited), Cody Williams (Junior 25+) and Robert Malinoski (Senior 40+). The weather for the event was favorable, with moderate temperatures and no rain, so the track conditions were great. Cody Williams led the pack into turn one as the first moto of 250 Pro Sport hit the track. However, he toppled over as he crested the slight rise at the far side of the turn and fell to dead last. Florida’s Evan Ferry quickly moved into the lead, with Josh Boaz and Conner Burger settling into the 2-3 positions. Ferry and Boaz were running a hot pace and pulled out a gap over Burger as the laps accumulated.

Boaz put in a charge as they were heading down the hill and pulled ahead, but Ferry retaliated and took the lead back over the jumps at the bottom of the hill. Ferry led the entire last lap, with Boaz trying one more shot as they finished up the race, but Ferry took the win by a couple of bike lengths. Izaih Clark took third after fighting through traffic to displace Burger on the last lap. Eddie Norred took fifth, and Williams recovered for the tenth. Burger led the start in Moto Two, but Clark and Ferry were soon running 1-2. Clark was running strong, with Ferry unable to mount a successful challenge, and the moto ended with Clark about 7 seconds clear for the win. Ferry had about an equal gap over Boaz, who had to spend about half the race to get through the pack to third. Williams was pretty close behind for fourth, and Preston Taylor took fifth.

Williams nabbed the start of Moto 3, but by the end of the first lap, the running order was Clark, Boaz, and Ferry all ahead of him. Clark and Boaz set the pace out front and built a bit of a gap over Ferry. Boaz tried an outside pass and pulled slightly ahead of Clark as they hit the jump sequence on the south side of the track, but Clark took the jumps a bit better and led Boaz up Collarbone. Clark hit it hard then for the next two circuits around the track and took the win with about 4 seconds over Boaz. Ferry maintained third, about four seconds behind Boaz at the flag, with Williams and Burger rounding out the top five.

Tanner Johnson and Brady Karolevitz each won their respective division race in the 250C Limited class, setting up the potential for some battles in the next two motos where they would face each other.

Moto 2 fell to Karolevitz as he led from the start to the flag and held about a 10-second gap over Johnson. The deciding third moto started out with Karolevitz running out front on his way to a relatively easy win and Johnson having to work back from an early moto mishap to take tenth. That helped Kyler Hagedorn to snare second overall with 2-5-4 finishes. Emeric Perron and Logan Hale took the fourth and fifth overall spots.

Wyatt McGrath looked pretty strong in the 450 B Limited class as he won his division race after taking the lead away from Tyler Espe-Tiegs. James Clough won the second division, and things were set for the next two motos. Tommy Callow led the pack into Moto 2, but McGrath and Clough were quickly through to get out front. McGrath built a bit of a gap, and although Clough closed in towards the end, McGrath held on for the win by about two seconds clear. Clough, unfortunately, had some problems in another class and could not start the third moto. Mason Hulsey and Espe-Tiegs ran side-by-side through turn one as they headed out for Moto 3. McGrath was close behind, and he sprinted into the lead quickly to set the pace for the moto. Espe-Tiegs settled into pursuit, but McGrath was too quick for him and took the win with a decent gap. So McGrath’s 1-1-1 score topped Espe-Tieg’s 2-8-2 tally, while third went to Jaydn Series, who totaled up 7-4-4 motos. Good luck to District 23 riders at the finals.

Full results are available here: http://racer-results.net/results/mxsports/ll/2023/