Round 4 at Shadow Valley Raceway completes the western swing of the series and ends the new tracks for me. I'd never been to any of those tracks before (St Thecle will be new for all of us so that doesn't count).
Carmen the Electra ran great all the way and has recovered nicely from her 'clouds of smoke' incident.
Friday and Saturday were write-offs as far as weather goes. As we all know, the amateur program and pro practice were canceled Saturday. It was a wise choice.
We awoke Sunday morning to bluebird skies and a stiff breeze from the northwest.
Of course there was still a lot of mud hanging around. Some people enjoyed it more than others. Remember when you didn't care about getting THIS hung up in mud?!
I snapped this 'candid' shot of Beat's mechanic Donk repping for his sponsor.
There is a concrete start in Morden so #5 Kyle Keast was up to some old school tricks to try and get of the line fast.
Tyler Spikman (Spikman206) was a big help Sunday while we were stuck up top and brought us the results and took some pics. I haven't seen his shots up here yet but I know he got a few 'juicy' ones.
JSR was cruising around in his rental car and was almost talked into trying to do a portion of the track. He edged one tire on the track and almost got stuck so he raised his elbow and roosted back to grassy safety. I should also say thanks to him for the cool new Oakleys.
Walking into a clean puddle to rinse off the gum boots.
Even Brett Lee got his hands dirty. He's always good for a few stories and information on the live webcast. Thanks Brett.
Joe Borda's team worked hard all weekend and kept the track looking very professional. Although they work hard, I believe they play harder!
The big news in the MX2 class was that Tucker Hibbert was there. He said he was doing this round and then 5 US Nationals. He also said he'd come up and chat on the webcast but after the day he had, who can blame him for packing up and jetting outta there.
I heard he had tranny trouble in the first and then he disappeared again in the second. Seems like a really good guy though when I bugged him earlier.
I tied to describe where we were doing the webcast so here's a pic that shows our 'rock star' location. Great place to watch a race as you can see.
Mark Perrin sat in for the second MX2 moto with Andrew while I tried to get some pics. Thanks Mark.
Yes, we had a better set up but it was too windy so we had to resort to the folding chair.
A very scary moment in practice when Facciotti crashed in a rather strange place injuring his left leg. He was icing his left ankle before the first moto then proceeded to go from a distant last to third place! It was VERY impressive to say the least.
So #27 Kaven Benoit shows up for his first national of the season and grabs the holeshot! Nice job. He eventually faded back a bit and by the end and finished 5th on the day. I think he's doing the rest of the series.
This is the final turn before the finish line. It was under 4 feet of water Saturday. It rutted up nicely leaving lots of lines, as you can see.
#14 Teddy Maier won the first moto but then had a mechanical while leading the second. He ended up 7th. Too bad because he was on fire!
Don't worry red-headed Julie, everything looks just fine!
Like I said last week, #22 Brock Hoyer is due for some better luck. They waited for them to try to get his bike ready before the second but the gate eventually dropped without him. He earned 15th overall with a DNS in the second.
Everything was looking rosie at this point, too. Gopher boys, Gopher.
#130 Cloe Siebler was back in action this week. He got 12th. I was actually glad the detoured a section of the track. It gave us this cool 'GP style' section to look at!
#39 Josh Snider is a super nice guy and doesn't deserve to be mocked but he wouldn't stop falling in front of me during practice. He raced both classes getting 26th in MX2 and 16th in MX1.
Here he is falling in the GP section.
And here he is in the turn before the GP section.
Never would have guessed it was going to be shorts and flip-flop weather Sunday.
#12 Kyle Beaton had a good day getting 4th overall. It couldn't have been easy holding the bars over some of those huge Morden jumps. Hopefully, the time off now will help him.
I really like watching Spencer Knowles ride. He makes all the jumps look easy. He didn't have a great weekend and ended up getting 18th.
The Allison twins, Jared and Parker, continued their strong season and even came up for an informal interview on the webcast. Jared ended up 9th and Parker got 13th.
Nick Evennou's day went well and he ended up 3rd overall however, I noticed a certain sticker missing from his helmet!
Always stealthy, Eric Nye finished in 2nd place when the day was done. This shot just shows the size of the big uphill double we were blabbing about all day.
I almost missed her but I circled around for a second approach.
Here's #29 Joey Leadbeater's new Face Book profile pic
He finished 17th and said he likes a loud pipe when I mentioned it.
Aaron Harvey ended up taking the overall Sunday. He looked really good but nobody had anything for Teddy Maier until his bike quit.
These 'flatfeet' wandered around making sure nobody was having fun and then disappeared.
Most of my MX1 pics are from practice so its muddy. Here's #43 Ryan Millar 'backing it in' to a corner during practice. He led a moto fro a while and that had the locals going crazy along the fences. He got 11th overall. He had to pull into into the pits for new goggles after pulling the lens out.
I just like these pics with grassy mud flying off the back wheel. Norcal got 5th.
#5 Kyle Keast battled hard all day, as usual, and ended up 8th.
Steve Simms was thrilled that I caught him cleaning the bike with a wooden spoons. Now THAT'S old school!
One of the jobs at the races is to find 'trophy girls' Friday and Saturday night at the local watering holes. Tough job.
#30 Tim Tremblay had to push his bike to the finish line. I don't know the rules but he was scored a '0' in the moto???
#3 Tyler Medaglia was in some great battles. He finished in 6th.
Jack Carpenter had a DNF in the first moto and got 12 OA.
Dusty Klatt rode very well again this weekend. The top 3 seem to be interchangeable at this point. His 2-2 placed him 3rd.
I had to take this shot from the roof but it gives you an idea of the battles up front.
Facciotti took the overall with 3-1. He came from a distant dead last in the first moto. It was a clinic out there!
Paul Carpenter went 1-3 for second and charged hard all day too.
Hanging around a national after the racing is done is interesting. A lot of hard work goes into these things.
Of course, I just wander around and take pictures of other people working.
The Julies spend a little time cruising around on a mini bike.
I crashed at Tyler's place and hit the road first thing Monday morning. The drive is not the most exciting in the world, to say the least. Here's a tip, don't tell the North Dakota Customs Officer that you can't wait to get to Fargo to get some souvenirs of the movie because it was funny. She asked me if I assumed all of them were like that...I lied and said no.
"Pull your car over there, sir and the officers will be right with you." 
The week had a bit of a 'waterslide' theme to it. This area is apparently the Nation's Largest Water Park. I suggest everyone rides a plastic patio chair down a waterslide at least once.
Nope, not turning here...
This must be the place!
See you at Gopher Dunes...
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