Hundreds of roaring motocross engines added to the deafening cheers of a throng of supporters that packed Trackside MX Park on Saturday to welcome the Southeast Corner Racing Circuit’s (SCRC) final stop in Estevan this season.
“The whole idea of this series is to get local people involved and new racers coming out,” said Randy Franke, who finished seventh in the A-class, second in the Veteran class and first in the 125cc 2-stroke class on Saturday. “It allows a lot of inexperienced guys to come out and try it because of our class structure. It’s a low-key very beginner friendly (series), but we still have some top-notch guys. The first and second place (racers in the Youth 16-29 class) are the North Dakota state champion (Ryan Peters) and the Manitoba champion (Brady Breemersch), so there are some good racers.”
Myah Hjorteland, 15, earned a second-place finish in the women’s class and a fourth-place spot in the 125cc 2-stroke class, but suffered a tough crash off the start in the C-class that took her out of contention in that race. She said while the C-class finish wasn’t what she’d hoped for her aggressive racing strategy did pay off in the other two competitions.
“I just try to ride into the corner hard and get out before they do and always hold the throttle a little bit longer than the person ahead of me does,” said Myah, who has been racing since she was 11 years old. “It just helps.”
SCRC vice-president Josh Nay, who finished fifth in the A-class and fifth in the Youth 16-29 class, said the Estevan stop presented a good opportunity for the racers in this circuit to chase valuable points that could get them a top placing at the end of the season in late September. He said competing throughout a motocross racing circuit season, or two in his case as he also races at the provincial level, is very taxing on the body and takes a lot of fitness and endurance training to get through it, but being out on the track during a race makes the hard work worth it.
“I like the adrenalin rush and I enjoy racing against people,” said Nay. “It’s fun and it’s a challenge.”
Franke said there are three stops left in the SCRC season with its competitors heading to Regina on Sept. 10 and Carlyle on Sept. 17 for races before the group descends on Oxbow for a year-ending doubleheader on Sept. 24 and 25. He said the expectation is he’ll gain a top-three spot in the 125cc 2-stroke class and Veteran class at the end of the year, while trying to hold his own in the A-class, and if the season moves along the way it has that should prove right.
“This year I had more crashes at the beginning of the season than I’ve probably had in the last six or seven years,” said Franke. “Wrong place at the wrong time a lot of them, somebody moved out in front of me, so it was a rough start to the year, but after that it’s been going pretty good.”
Myah said her season with the SCRC and the Canadian Motosport Racing Corporation (CMRC) has been up and down so far thanks to a number of strong finishes in some races coupled with a few bad crashes in others. She said after earning 13th place at a women’s national event in Regina in June her hope is to begin racing the national circuit next season that will take her across Western Canada.
“I’ll keep on going,” she said. “My goal is just to be better than I was the day before.”
