Traxs Winter Series kicks off the Season! Megatraxs!

Dec. 10th, 2022

Story by Kenzie Aters

Photos by 451 Photography (Amanda Taylor)

December 10th was the first round of the Traxs Winter Series
At Megatrax we do races here a little different compared to Megacross, for Megatrax, little bikes are in the morning/day while big bikes are at night. 
The kids put on some pretty good races throughout the day, in the 65 Jr class Brayden Heinrichs (513) and Leland Anderson (817) were out there battling pretty hard. Heinrichs started out in second with Anderson in third not too far behind him, and as each lap went on we could see Anderson inching closer and closer to Heinrichs, building the suspense to see if he was going to be able to actually catch Heinrichs and make a pass or not. As Heinrichs was trying to keep that second-place spot, Gage Lane (444) was long gone in first place. As the front of the pack of the class came around to try and get around some lappers, that was when the gap between Heinrichs and Anderson really shrunk down. Now down to the last lap around, Andersons chances of passing Heinrichs were really narrowing down. Heinrichs was fighting to keep in front of Anderson and was doing a good job of it until, they were coming back around to over by the starting line where Heinrichs did something funky and ended up on the ground which led Anderson to get right passed him, along with Carter Rombout (76), which put Rombout  finishing in third and Anderson in that second place spot he was fighting for. Heinrichs was able to get up in time to not let anyone else get by him after those two which put him still finishing in fourth place for the night. 

As 50 Beginner went out Hutch Goodman (830) and Legend Duff (84) were neck to neck, with Goodman leading them around, until the end of the first lap when Duff made a pass around Goodman and put himself in first place! Even though Goodman just got passed, he wasn’t gonna give up that quick, he made sure to stay right on Duff and didn’t even give Duff a chance to make any kind of gap between them. Duff was trying to do anything he could to make sure he stayed in first. Was Duff going to be able to hold off Goodman long enough or was he gonna give in to Goodman? Was Goodman going to find somewhere to make a quick pass or was he going to back off of Duff? As the two were making way on their last lap, giving all they got against one another, Duff still in first, Goodman in second, they headed to the back section of the track where Goodman was able to make a final pass and take the lead back! Goodman and Duff definitely deserved first and second place, these two kids put on such a good race and never once gave up!

Now on to the races of the big bikes, which had a pretty goof turnout themselves. There were quite a few classes that had to be split in two and the Womens class turnout was absolutely amazing! There were 17 women who came out to race on this night, which made for an entertaining race since there is hardly ever that many Women in one race anymore. Back in the day Megacross boasted big Women's class numbers.  They pretty much always have their own class and not many realize that Girls and Women classes are some of the biggest increase in ridership over the last few years.  It's great to see!

 
Connor Madigan (983), Cutter Riebe (322), and Nathan Bills (7) had a tight race in the 125cc class, with Madigan starting out the race in second, Riebe in third and Bills in fourth. These three were all staying real close to one another, pushing each other to see who would be able to do what out there on that track. Madigan was able to hold off Riebe till about the third lap around when Riebe made a clean pass back in the Dragon Back section and put himself in second right in front of Madigan, still leaving Bills in fourth. The boys were moving at pretty good speeds which meant it was time to get through some lappers, which it seemed like Riebe was having a much easier time getting around them then Madigan was and at this point in the race Bills completely disappeared from the front of the pack so he must of crashed out there. The last couple laps around Riebe was able to keep one lapper in between him and Madigan which led him to finish with a second place and Madigan in third and Bills down in sixth. 

You wanna talk about an intense race? The 14-24 race was very intense between Braden Munson (717) and Ayden White (88). Munson started out the race leading with White right on his tail. Munson is out there trying to do everything he can do to stay in front of White while White is trying to find every line that will give him an opportunity to pass. Munson is able to hold off White for a while but just as the two jump over the finish line jump to finish their second lap around, White makes the pass down the straight away to now take the lead! Even though White was in ahead of Munson, Munson was not letting him get very far ahead, the two were still tire to tire. Finally White realized if he wanted to stay ahead at all, he was going to have to pick up some speed, so that’s what White did, which gave him the smallest bit of a gap between them, it wasn’t much but it was something. Then finally when we all thought White was going to pull through and win this one, White must have had a quick fall over or something right by the starting line. Munson quickly passed White while he was down and took back first place! 
It's always a good time when you’ve got two best friends racing against each other. In the Open C2 class Travis Wilkinson (199) and James Coleman (917) were having a friendly battle, Wilkinson in third and Coleman in fourth, right behind him. Wilkinson was able to stay in front of Coleman for the first two laps, and then about half way through their third lap around going into the corner right after the big middle jump, Wilkinson crashed and fell over, which put Coleman in third now. Wilkinson didn’t spend much time on the ground, he made sure to get back up and do whatever it takes to catch right back up to Coleman, and that’s what he did within about half a lap. Now to see if Coleman will be able to stay in front of Wilkinson or will Wilkinson make his time all back up and pass Coleman back to take his place in front of Coleman back? These two had my entire focus this race, especially once it got down to the last lap…. The two were coming up the face of the West wall jump and as they jumped Wilkinson made a clean pass against Coleman and put himself ahead of Coleman! Wilkinson ended up finishing with a fourth and Coleman with a fifth place.