Victoria Hett, 5/25/11

April 3rd – Roots of Doom H.S. – Vancouver Island

I entered the Intermediate class, which turned out to be the largest class of the day. The weather and trails were fun and minimally challenging, but being the first race of the season that was fine by most! I struggled with a power valve issue and my recluse clutch, which was not working properly due to air in the system, and my results reflected this. I finished 7th place in the Intermediate class when I was hoping for a podium finish. That being said, I feel I rode well in the circumstances, and it was a treat just to hit dirt seems how we were still battling several feet of snow back home on our trails at the time!

May 14th, 2011 – Orofino Loggercross (endurocross) - Idaho

The Orofino endurocross normally draws an estimated 3,000 spectators and some of North America’s top endurocross stars such as this years line up of: Cory Graffunder, Geoff Aaron, Kyle Redmond, Colton Haaker, and Kevin Rookstool.  It also boasts a $10,000 purse!  This was my second time running in the Orofino endurocross and I entered two classes: women’s and amateur 250cc.  I won my qualifying rounds in the women’s class and earned a podium spot in the amateur 250cc class against the guys in my qualifier!  The crowd was pumped to see a girl duking it out with the guys in the main event night show, and I was equally excited!  I got up to a battle for 2nd in the night show and ended up 5th in the end.  After the event there was no end to the kids and adults that wanted autographs, it was a very neat experience just as it has been in the past.

The GasGas bike got a lot of looks as I had it parked on display at both events where people could take a look at it.  While the bike was on display there were a lot of people, mostly in Orofino who came to admire the custom graphics and take note of the sponsor names on the bike and ask questions about each sponsor.  The race announcer also made sure to announce sponsors during the event as well.

The May long weekend brought about the classic double header race, the Squealin’ Pig Night and Day Hare scrambles.  I entered the night race in the intermediate class on Little Red Forest Creature with a borrowed helmet light and the stock headlight on the bike.  Unfortunately the headlight stopped working a few minutes into my first lap, but the night race starts just as the sun starts slipping behind the mountains, so I was able to get in two laps with the helmet light only before it got too dark to see well enough.  I timed out after my two laps leaving me to settle with 9th place.  The next morning 15 intermediates including me lined up at 12:00 noon to battle it out on the challenging “A” course that has a reputation for being tough.  The “A” course was a great mixture of flowing faster trails and nasty bike swallowing mud pits riddled with logs!  I did 3 laps of the “A” course and made it up to 3rd place after my near last place start!  A mud pit incident on the last lap dropped me from 4th to 5th place and a great battle to the end with the guy in 4th was the perfect end to the day!  I finished in 5th place and was more than happy with how the Little Red Forrest Creature handled the course.  That night wrapped up nicely with bench racing stories and the standard burn-out competitions.

At the end of the long weekend there were also a lot of well wishes sent out to Willy Toews one of the mainstays of racing who is at home with an injury.  Everyone knows what it feels like to have to miss out on races due to injury and the entire race gang is eager to get him back!

I continue to update my website www.victoriahettracing.com and will also continue to send updates your way after every few races to keep you in the loop as to where I am travelling and racing!  I hope your all keeping well!

Tory