White, Ward, claim 1st round Traxs Winter Series

Story by Kenzie  Photos by 451 Photography

Results 

Being the Last Race of the 2023 season, it is also the first round of the 4 round winter series at Megatraxs.  Saturday, December 16th kicked off our Megatrax Winter Race Series, the crew spent the whole night before and the morning of to get the track all nice and groomed and ready for race day. Like years before, we do kids/little bikes in the morning and later on in the day we put on all our big bikes/adults races. The turnout was great and we got to see a lot of great battles! Intensity is what winter racing is all about, riders find out real quick that racing inside is fast, technical, and competitive to the extreme!

As the 65 Jr class took off the line, there was an instant battle about middle of the pack between Jeffrey Soathoff (93), Michael Dillett (633), and Karson Connolly (14). Within just the first lap, passes were already being made the group got to the middle of the track and Dillett made a pass around Soathoff to switch their positions around. As soon as DIllett got around him he was instantly right up on Zachary Young (101) who was in the third place spot. Next lap around and Dillett made his way around Young to put himself in third and was now headed straight for Cayden Mathews (731). In the same lap, Connolly was making a few passes as well, he was running fourth now behind Dillett, leaving a battle between Soathoff, Young, Cole Kapinos (44), and Aiden Kane (118). As the race goes on Dillett is still trying to find his way around Mathews while he’s got Connelly coming for him, getting closer and closer as time goes by. As the pressure increases, it’s harder to not make any mistakes. Second to last lap, Dillett takes second away from Mathews, now Mathews trying to keep Connolly behind him. But within that same lap, both Dillet and Connolly head into the berm and Mathews makes a small mistake which leads Connolly to make the pass around Mathews as well. By the time Connolly got around Mathews, Dillett had already put a pretty good gap on the two and made sure to keep that second to the finish! Connolly made sure to stay ahead of Mathews the last lap and finished with a third while Mathews took fourth!

The 85 Sr class just waiting for that gate to drop, the second it does they all head into that first corner, Emmett Baker (309) comes out with the hole shot, Jax Ellul (66) in second with Ethan Esactel (451) right on him in third. Behind Escatel is a battle between Alyjah Billman (717) and Eddie Martens (412). Billman is doing everything he can to stay ahead while Martens is right up on him trying to find a way to get around him. Billman is keeping ahead untill the second lap in, in that back corner, Martens finds his way around to put himself ahead! While those two are fighting for fourth place, just a little bit ahead of them we see Ellul still keeping up with Baker while Escatel backs off of them just a hair to make sure he stays smooth and makes no mistakes. As he backs off Martens is coming for him, making his way right up on him quickly. They had about three more laps left, Escatel was holding off Martens while Martens was hanging onto him, about second to last lap the two headed into the berm before the dragon back Martens tries to get ahead and make a pass around Escatel, Escatel keeps his speed as he comes out of the berm and stays ahead! Escatel was not backing down he was determined to stay ahead and keep his third place spot, the two were neck and neck as they raced around the track for their very last lap, they head into the same exact berm the two got extremely close, Martens tries to make one final pass around Escatel but Escatel held him off! The two head to the finish line, Escatel takes a third and Martens finishes with a close fourth!

Camden English (18), Braxton Jackson (38), and Chris Bahnik (122) started the 85 Jr race all right up on each other in the front of the pack. English was leading the class with the other two following closely behind. As the three made their way around the track, everybody is waitig to see who will make the first pass or if there will even be a first pass. The three held their positions for quite awhile, all keeping up with each other. It wasn’t till about second to last lap when Bahnik must have got tired following the Jackson, the two were headed down the straight away and that’s when Bahnik made the pass. Jackson only had one more lap left if he was going to take his spot back. Last lap, Bahnik was going over the big middle jump when it looked like he overjumped it and then wasn’t able to take that next corner too smoothly. As he did that, Jackson came right in and stole his spot back and put Bahnik right back to third. Time ran out so the three finished with the places they started with.

We had a great turn out with the 50cc classes so our 50cc Open class had to be split into two different classes/races. In 50 Open 1 we watched as there were many battles going on at all points throughout their race. Jeffrey Soathoff (93) started making passes out there quickly in the first lap to take the lead. Jacob Fox (711) dropped down to second with Kayden Moore(95) and Malachi Anschutz (335) both hanging onto Fox closely.  As the front pack is keeping close and having their battle, about middle of the pack, Aiden Nelson (32) is doing everything he can to keep Easten Daniels (56) from passing him. Behind these two by a few spots, Major DeSplinter (9) is having a battle with Nolan Cooper (997), the two being right on top of each other. As the race goes by these groups get closer and closer to each other with the pressure just rising for them. Soathoff had made his way away from the rest of the class, he was making sure he finished with a win. Daniels was not backing off of Nelson but Nelson was not giving in that easy. It wasn’t till the very last lap when Cooper found his way around DeSplinter to make sure he finsihed with an 11th and DeSplinter with a 12th.  Nelson came out with an 8th and Daniels with a 9th.

In the 50cc Open 2 race, Zeyden Lawson (514) took off the line to steal the hole shot, Fynn Johnson (194) came out in second and quickly got right up on behind Lawson. Jaxson Donnelly came around holding the third place position close behind Johnson. First lap in, as Johnson and Lawson come over the second jump down the middle section of the track, as the two are jumping they end up side by side. As they land and head over the big middle jump, Lawson manages to keep the lead with Johnson still hanging on, with only inches in between them. As the next couple laps go by the three start running into lappers, Lawson gets around them quicker which leads him to start pulling away from the other two and gives Donnelly time to get right back up on Johnson’s heels. The two fought off the lappers all the way to the finish, leaving Lawson with a win, Johnson in second, and Donnelly in third.

As the little bikes finish up, we move on to our big bike races. With the big turnouts in Womens class last winter we had decided to make two different Womens classes for this Indoor Season, one being Women Advanced and Women Intermediate.

Starting off with the Womens Advanced, Kasia Kosciarz (725) took the lead, with Payten Sikma (25) close in second, and Kyleigh Rebatzke (165) in third. Shortly behind these three, Abygail Buettner (515) and Mallie Arnold (99) were having a little battle going on fighting for fourth place, Arnold holding that spot. The two ended up right up next to each other a few times, but by the end of their second lap, Buettner made a complete pass and took that fourth place spot. Next lap around and Buettner was right up on Rebatzke, wanting to make another pass and move herself right on up. Buettner almost had her several times throughout the last couple laps but just couldn’t quite get all the way around her. As the time was running out, the two were getting closer and closer to the finish line. The two went up the dragon back, came off of it to head around the front sweeper and that’s when Buettner decided she was taking third. Buettner made the pass around that front sweeper just as the race was coming to an end. Kosciarz took the win with Sikma staying in second, Buettner up in third, and Rebatzke finishing in fourth!

As the 30+ B/C class takes off the line, Brent Johnson (70) takes the lead with Tony Spizzirri (992) right on his heels, starting a battle immediately. Johnson is doing what he can to stay in the lead and hold odd Spizzirri for as long as he can. As they are still in the first lap, the two head into the corner before the dragon back, Spizzirri tries to make the pass but Johnson blocks him to keep that first. Next lap around and Spizzirri finds his way around Johnson, switching their places right around! Once Spizzirri gets ahead, he starts to pull away from Johnson, leaving Johnson with Michael Stanley (314) following closely behind. Was Johnson going to be able to stay ahead or was Stanley going to steal second place from him? There was only a couple laps left before the race was coming to an end, Stanley was still just inches behind Johnson, the two kept this competition going all the way to the finish. Luckily for Johnson he finished with ahead of Stanley by just an inch or two. Spizzirri came out with a win, Johnson taking second, and Stanley finishing with a third! 

Next Event is Jan 13th!  Traxs Winter Series rnd2.  Woods Ex (extreme) is on Jan 20th coming up the week after!  The Megatraxs crew is going to put in some long hours to make all this happen but fun, will that isn't measured til the end of the day!  See ya soon!