Hagedorn Dominant as Spring Creek Hosts D23 Featured Event/ SS #11
By Rolfe Otterness
Kyler Hagedorn snagged three overall wins this weekend in the Supermini, Schoolboy 1 and 250 C classes, becoming the only rider to manage that feat. Spring Creek Park hosted this, the last points- paying District 23 motocross event of the season as a D23 Featured Event and also this event counted as the season finale of the Super Series. Per the finishing order of each moto, points were awarded separately as the practice for the D23 featured events so that meant double points available for those chasing championships at the district level. The Super Series points were awarded on the basis of the overall finishing order as usual but for some riders in close battles for season championships at this level it allowed one last chance to get some more points to put them on top.
A pretty good shot of rain fell during Saturday evening, leaving the track with significant erosion ruts and significant mud so the Dozing Duo of Alex and John fired up their iron steeds to fill ruts and clear the track of the worst of the muck. Collarbone Hill was excluded from the route also so lap times could be shortened up a bit. The track was challenging during the early motos but in pretty good general condition later on, especially for the second set of motos. Race entries totaled to 430, which was impressive for such a weather-impacted event.
The Schoolboy 1 class had the distinction of being the first victims to be fed to the freshly groomed but still nasty track. Luckily these guys are young enough not to know better so they took off to make history! Cash Anderson worked his way through the difficult conditions to take the win while Louie Etzel was the best of the rest as he crossed the line for second. William Markkula, Carson Swedeen and Carter Miller followed them in to fill the top five. Etzel blitzed the sloppy starting straight to go right to the lead in moto two. Markkula quickly latched onto second place and put in a solid ride but Etzel maintained a gap of a few seconds to take the win. Maxwell Malloy improved from a first-moto sixth place finish to grab third. Josh Lynch was fourth with Carson dropping to fifth.
Levi Geis came off the line to jump out front when the 65cc 7-9 class was released upon the world for moto one. Fortunately for the little guys their class was late in the running order so the track was fairly cleared of the worst mud. Geis made the best of it and pulled a bit of a gap over Landon Gottas. These two were running a hot pace and left the rest of the pack behind. Geis was in control and took the win by a couple of seconds. Beau Engel snared third over Eli Bumgardner with fifth going to Tate Fridgen.
Moto two featured Geis and Gottas reprising their performance at the forefront of the class, zooming off to the checkered in a good battle. Bumgardner wrangled a third this time around to lead in Engel and Fridgen.
Luka Marble jumped out from when the Girls Jr. 9-12 class hit the track and she was running strong. Anya Heiniemi gave chase and did a good job to stay fairly close all the way in to the checkered. Emma Gerber took third over Addison Boie while Aria Amiot took fifth. The second moto went off much the same but Gerber and Bois switched finishing positions. Good rides on a tough track for all!
