Reddick Area Qualifier Race Report
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | 10:10 AM
It is only February, the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Loretta Lynn's Amateur National Championship is still seven months out, and already the road to Loretta's has begun. The first area qualifier of the new year has been run at Motocross of Marion County in Florida. Through years of experience hosting this event the Blackburn's have gotten this race down to a science. With immaculate prep they were able to keep the track pristine all weekend long, while being sure practice and motos took off on time. The Blackburn's have kept their track basically the same for a long time while making incremental adjustments over the years. Some of those small changes were tried out this weekend and seemed to go over well creating a more challenging and fun track for the riders.
And plenty of riders showed up, most classes saw big gates from the 60's through to the 450's. This kind of rider turnout usually guarantees some great battles throughout the weekend, and there were many. However, in the Open Pro Sport division, Daniel Baker from Kentucky made sure there was no close racing for the lead. Whether he holeshotted or not Baker quickly moved to the lead and opened up a gap in both of his motos. SevenMX rider Chase Bell made his debut in the A and Pro classes starting off in 3rd in the first moto of Open Pro Sport before making the pass into 2nd early. In the second moto he would start 2nd and remain there as well behind Baker who went undefeated. DJ Macfarlane finished 3rd after a subpar start relegated him to 4th in the first moto.
The 250B Limited class was a much different story however. The first moto commenced with a five rider battle between Egan Mastin, Jordan Bailey, Darren Walsh, Ramyller Alves, and Max Markolf. Mastin was able to pull about a one second lead over the pack early, as Bailey and Walsh went back and forth. Eventually Bailey found his way around with a lap and a half to go and set his sights on Mastin. Meanwhile Ramyller put on a charge and moved past Walsh as well. They would finish that way with Egan Mastin 1st, Jordan Bailey 2nd, and Ramyller Alves 3rd. Off the start of the second moto a big crash resulted in a red flag, as Johnny Baker went down hard into Alves who was shot off the track. After the medics were able to attend to Baker the race was restarted. On the restart it was Egan Mastin who holeshotted again with Markolf 2nd and Walsh in 3rd. Ramyller was able to make his way up into 4th early before Bailey came through and dropped him back to 5th. Bailey then set his sights on Walsh and Markolf. With a lap to go Bailey moved past Walsh and began to close in on Markolf. Unfortunately for Jordan though, the race was over before he could get close enough to make a pass leaving Markolf in 2nd. Mastin took the win and overall with 1-1 scores, Jordan Bailey took 2nd overall with 2-3 motos, and Markolf was 3rd by way of 4-2 motos.
One of the new classes at the national this year will be the Women's Pro division. For years the Women amateurs and pros have raced each other at the national; much to the chagrin of many amateur girls. But this year the pros will finally have their own class to race at the national, and on this weekend Kylie Fasnacht made it clear she would be one of the top contenders. She dominated both motos by holeshotting and opening up a big gap quickly. This year will be Kylie's second year racing as a pro and she seems determined to make it a breakout. Keep your eyes on this girl in 2015.
250C (12-16) limited was the class of the two strokes at Reddick. In the first moto Zack Robinson took the early lead on his yz250. But by the beginning of the second lap was already being challenged by the sx250 of Perry Warren. By the end of the lap the pass was made and Warren went on for the win. Robinson held down 2nd and Justin Maloy took 3rd. The second moto would start off much worse for Robinson. He found himself on the ground on the first lap and fighting his way through the pack for the remainder of the moto, trying to salvage a qualifying position. Meanwhile, Max Szabo would lead early ahead of Justin Maloy. But on the third lap Perry Warren came rushing through the pack to once again take the lead away. He went on to secure the victory ahead of Szabo, and Maloy.
If there is anything to take away from this qualifier it is that the Southeast Regional is going to be one of the toughest events of the year. It is likely that several riders who began their road to Loretta's this February weekend in Florida will be standing at the top of the podium in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee come August. However, in order to realize that dream they still have to conquer the regionals to punch their ticket to the 2015 Rocky Mountain ATV/MC Loretta Lynn's Amateur National Championship. It won't be an easy road, good luck to all of the racers who try.
Story by: Jeremy Winslow