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Wickenburg, AZ was the site of the final round of the AMA National Enduro series as well as the fifth round of the AMRA off road championship series. Many of the factory off-road teams were on hand to contend with the unusually warm October temps, the many rocks, cactus and extremely technical trails encountered during this race.

The race started on a 5 mile transfer section and narrowed to singletrack before arriving at the first check. This gave me a good opportunity to get warmed up and settle down a bit before the start of the first test section.

My goal for the first three tests was to ride smooth, keep the mistakes to a minimum and not crash (since I’ve had some trouble the last few races during the first half of the race). My plan worked out perfectly and I made it through the first half of the race exactly as I planned and posted some great times to boot!

Once we began the B test sections I began to make some mistakes as I realized that I had forgot to clip on my chest protector at the fuel stop. I didn’t want to stop and risk losing time though, so I just rode it out. 

With the high temps and the 85 mile long, very challenging course, riders were starting to drop like flies as we headed into the A test sections. I really started to charge hard and made some good time through this brutal test. My pace led to a few mistakes which cost me some time, but I gave it all I had and finished the race strong

As the results came in I was very pleased to finish 7th in my class right behind the top three points leaders in the AMRA series for my class. This is my best finish since moving up to the A class and I fully expect to continue to show improvement with each race.

Many thanks to my great sponsors this year along with the best pit team a racer could ask for in my wife Silvia, kids Raven and Kai and my parents Larry and Lucy Quiroz!

 

Round 4 of the Arizona Motorcycle Racing Association off road championship series brought us to the scenic BullHollow Raceway where the AMRA co-sanctioned with the WeBe Racing group out of Colorado to put on a fantastic event. This was a welcome venue as it gave us a good excuse to get out of the triple digit heat in Arizona and into the cooler, thin air of Utah.

The typical Hare Scramble start would prove to be anything but for me as the green flag waved. I’ve been getting some great starts thanks to my electric start KTM 300XC. On this day, however, panic set in as I pushed the button at the start line and ... nothing! After kicking several times I got the bike running, but already had a dead last position to deal with. This definitely didn’t do any favors for my typical first lap arm pump and I ended up crashing or dropping the bike at least five times during the first couple laps.

After the first couple laps though, I was able to get into my pace and started to catch and pass several riders in my class. I really seemed to make up ground on the motocross track section and the really tight singletrack sections of the course.

By the close of the race I had made my way into the top 10 in ninth and was seconds away from the eight place rider... if only I had another lap! As I crossed the line in ninth place, I must admit that I was really disappointed with my start and ultimately my results. I’ve been training really hard and was expecting a better result at this venue, however I’m encouraged with the way I dealt with the early race adversity.