Crawford, White, Sandy conquer Fox Valley Off Road Series Gp.

Story by Kenzie, Photos by 451 Photography

Results

Saturday, May 20th, 2023

Gran Prix racing is a newer form of racing that now has become it's own fun day of racing with real time motos and a great bang for the buck event.  Practice at 10, races done by 3-330 is a day that anyone can afford and spend some real time with intense racing without all the other stuff related to other racing types.  It's a niche area that riders are finding out works.  C class has been one of the groups of riders who come in droves and Fox Valley Off Road had to figure out a new way to start them and this year it happened!  Here is a shot of 32 C class riders on the line.  Intense racing, on a long moto type course through the woods made for some great racing!

There were a couple different battles going on in the 85/SM class, right off the bat Austin Burns (21) and Dane Miller (152) were going at it, along with Cooper Duff (201) and Cooper Lair (53) having a close race as well. Burns started in second with Miller right on his tail, determined to get around him, the question was when he was going to. Behind these two came Lair with Duff right on his tail. There wasn’t much passing until the third lap around on the track when both Burns and Miller got caught up behind a Women rider and had to try and get around, while doing so Miller took the opportunity to try and make a pass, the two bumped into each other and led Miller to be successful with his pass. Burns didn’t let them slow him down he stayed right behind in third. In the same lap, Duff got around Lair and was now headed for Burns, but with only one lap left, there may not be a whole lot left he can do. As they all come around to finish Miller was in second with a little bit of a lead on Burns who stayed in third with Duff close behind in fourth and Lair in fifth.

As the women were coming around Emma Jensen (408), Amanda Taylor (451), and Abygail Buettner (515), were all three following each other closely for the first couple laps. As they were on their second lap out on the track Buettner was coming up right next to Taylor as they were going into the sand berm, Taylor took inside while Buettner took the outside and made a pass to put herself in front of Taylor. Now Buettner was headed straight for Jensen. Going up a hill to go back into the woods, Buettner was right on her tail hoping she could find a spot to make another pass. As these two were now battling, we watch as Nicci Balzer (806) is catching up to Alli Kocher (452), Kocher had quite some distance on Balzer, but within some short time Balzer caught right up to her, but was Blazer going to be able to make a pass before time is up? Next lap around a3nd Jensen is still holding Buettner off until they are going down the middle straight away and Buettner manages to make another pass and puts herself in sixth place and leaves Jensen in seventh. There were several times where it seemed like Balzer was going to be able to make a pass around Kocher but Kocher seemed to hold her speed better when it came to exiting corners which gave her that advantage to stay ahead. So as these girls finish, Kocher came in at third, Balzer in fourth, Nikki Dixon (402) in fifth, Buettner in sixth, Jensen in seventh, and Taylor in eighth.

As A class takes off the line Ayden White (88) pulls the hole shot with Logan Skaggs (997) just inches behind White, Jayson Crawford (8) in third and Garrett Ward (31) in fourth. These four took off from the rest of the class and were all real close together. Already in the first lap Skaggs passed White and took the lead! As the group goes into their second lap, White trying to take the lead back and Crawford trying to hold off Ward, but as they get onto the track Ward makes a clean pass and takes third place! Now that Ward got around Crawford he was getting really close to White, so close it looked like the two were racing right up next to each other at some points. It didn’t take long for Skaggs to pull away from White and the others, on third fourth lap around Skaggs had some pretty good distance between him and the others but as he was going into a corner on the track before they went back into the woods Skaggs killed the bike. By the time Skaggs got back up and started moving White was coming up next to him about to pass him. The two are basically racing right next to each other getting in front of each other just an inch at a time, going back and forth, now this was going to be a very close finish between the two. Last lap around, everyone wondering if Skaggs is going to be able to pass White back or if White will be able to hold him off. As these four are coming to the finish line, White takes the win, Skaggs in second, Ward takes third, and Crawford still in fourth! These four put on a good, competitive, fun race to watch!

This year will be a good year for up and coming riders, White and Crawford have been putting in their time since they were very young.  This race and the many prior this season has shown them to be the next group of fast kids.  White has the hard charging determination that will need refined and smoothness added.  Crawford has found that that backing it down a touch and click up a gear works wonders.  Both riders are going to be the ones to pay attention to as they make their mark on off road racing in IL.

In the B class we had the two win brother battling out there, Regan Doerr (336) and Reece Doerr (363). Reece took the lead right off the bat with Regan right on his tail, usually when these two are out there racing Regan is the one leading of the two, and although Reese was leading this time, Regan wasn’t backing off. There were many times out there where it looked like Regan was close enough to make a pass but Reese held him off long enough to take the win for himself.

Bob Sandy came out swinging with his new KTM, anyone says that the old guys can't compete well there were 9 here today and they were there to gather up some bragging rights along with some much needed excercise. David Pucharich (127) from a woods background,  Sandy with multiple types of racing, are the "young guns" in the class.  DJ Ryan bringing what ever bike is laying around and Jeff Oldenburg is back after some time off.  First moto Sandy and Pucharich battle for a lap or two while the rest of the pack was battling for 3rd. Frank Licastro (371) and Lyle Piecha (3024) were in the top 5 as well.  Ward was last as starting his bike has been a novelty.  As the moto ended 4 full laps and about 20+ minutes on the course Sandy, Pucharich, Ward were to top 3 in moto 1. Licastro 4th and Oldenburg 5th. Second moto was a different kind of interesting.

Gerhard Ward (631) pulled the hole shot in the 60+ class with Bob Sandy (122) keeping up right behind him. First lap Ward goes about a half a lap and him and Sandy have now passed each other multiple times. Then in typical fashion he goes down. As he’s down the whole class passes by, while he is stuck under his bike. (after the race it was heard that Tman Ward came up and asked if he had pushed his button........life alert that is) While tis was going on,  Sandy takes the lead with David Pucharich (127) in second now. By the time Ward gets back up and going he’s dropped down to 8th out of the nine in the class. Luckily he had three more laps to put some work in and work his way back up to the front of the pack. By the third lap Ward already had himself up to fifth place with Sandy still leading. Last lap and all the old guys are coming to the finish line, Sandy keeps the lead in his class and wins, Pucharic keeps second, Dj Ryan (23) finishes in third, and Ward didn’t have enough time to make a pass on Jeff Oldenburg (174) who was in fourth, which left Ward with a fifth for second moto. 

Ben Wolfe (749) pulled the hole shot in the 40+ C class with Aaron McNabb (74) just right behind him in second and Nick Unold (723) in third. Wolfe was doing whatever he could to stay ahead of Mcnabb while Mcnabb was trying to do whatever he could to get around Wolfe. Last we saw them going into the woods heading finish their second lap and start their third. As they came back on the track during their third lap, Mcnabb had taken the lead! Wolfe didn’t back off, he stayed right behind him and was hoping he would have another chance to take the lead back, but with only one lap left, there wasn’t much time to do so. The two head to the finish line Mcnabb still in the lead with Wolfe on his tail, Mcnabb held him off and took the win and Wolfe kept second!

As the 65 Beginner class takes off they head into the first corner, as they do so, Jakob Sprague (27) fell in the corner, but as we know from the first moto he isn’t going to let that set him back for very long. Within the first lap around we already had quite some battles going on, Theodore Cappiello (126), Liam Damewood (441),Sophia Kavsky (121), Sprague, and Ryker Decker (135) were in a tight group and we’re making little passes on one another while being in this group. At the end of their first lap Damewood was able to make a complete pass on Kavsky, but will he be able to keep it that way? As the kids come out of the woods on their second lap around we notice Cappiello who’s in third, Damewood in fourth, and Sprague in fifth, all pulled away from the rest of the group. Onto their third lap and Sprague makes a pass on Damewood to take fourth and as soon as he makes that pass Cappiello and Sprague start pulling away. Now to see if Sprague will get around Cappiello too or will Damewood catch back up to these two and put himself back in the battle? Just as these guys start their fourth lap around, going down one of the straight away’s Sprague makes a clean pass on Cappiello and by the time they come back out of the woods Sprague is completely gone from Cappiello. Now Sprague is going after Ryder Laws (9) who is in second, before going into the woods he was getting real close to her, will she be able to hold him off for the last few laps? As they come out of the woods she is still managing to hold him off but Sprague was not going to back off, he was only inches behind her, hoping he could find the right place to make another pass. Time was running out, she keeps holding him off, down to the last section of the track before the finish line jump, the two come into the corner and over the jump as she pulls second place leaving Sprague with a very close third!

Coming up on Father's Day weekend this very popular event will be back at the park with another fun filled double header! Gp on Saturday and HS on Sunday.  One of the more popular weekends with dad's get to pick the event and activities!