Martin Motocross

Man what a trip!  We finally made a national race.  The weather was great, track was great, and there were tons of bikes.  Unfortunately for us we got off to a horrible start.  We didn't hit the track until Thursday morning, and it was wet and muddy.  Kiefer had never been on Gatorback before so we really needed some practice time on it.  On the first lap he cased a jump on the backside of the track and went down.  There wasn't a flagger right in the area and he couldn't the bike off of him.  Finally I was able to get one of the medics to go and find him.  By this time practice was over.  

He was ok, so now we were just going to be using our first moto for practice time.  He was in Race 10 Division 2 and he lined up to race around 3:30 that afternoon.  Out of the gates and down through the gator pit ok, up and over the gator's back all good.  Kiefer reappeared out of the sweepers by the road and started back through the hill section.  He disappeared with another rider and the flag's were waving in the air.  After what seemed like forever Kiefer reappeared on the top of a tabletop and started his bike up.  The leaders were already getting close to lapping him at this point.  He got going and when he came up the hill to the finish line the bike sounded really bad, but considering how long it lay on the ground after the wreck at least it was running.

He was able to finish the race and when he came off the track I went to tell him good job, but he was in tears.  Complaining with his head and telling me how bad the crash was.  We got him to the trailer, and he was complaining that he nauseous and needed to throw up.  After throwing up we took him back to the track medics.  They checked him over and suggested we visit the local ER.  The doctors at the ER in Gainesville were great, they got right to us and had Kiefer doing a battery of test, answering questions, basically the whole Days of Thunder deal.  They turned us over to the head ER doctor and he gave us the lowdown, "No Racing Tomorrow".  Upon hearing this Kiefer asked, "What about Saturday"?  Well at least he was in good spirits about it.  It was really tough loading everything up on Friday while his buddies were getting ready to race.  Kiefer just couldn't understand that even though he felt fine it was in his best interest not to race.

From the looks of his helmet I really believe he might have hit a rock, but who knows.  Kiefer said when they dropped off out of the corner doing down to the table top someone hit his bike tire.  He went over the bars and into the ground.  He said it was a hard hit, first his head and then his shoulder.  We are just very thankful that all his gear did its job and he actually rode away and finished the race.  He told me later that he knew how Chad Reed felt cause he almost threw up in his helmet to.  When I asked him why he didn't come off the track he said, "dad I didn't want to get a DNF".  

We will visit the doctor on Thursday and get him checked out again and everything is ok we will be hitting the AX Tour and Alabama Arena Cross Series in a couple of weeks.

We wanted to say thanks to all of our sponsors that have helped us throughout this first year of racing.  You have provided us with some great gear and discounts and for that we are truly thankful in these hard economic times.

Special Thanks to:

Oneal, ProTaper, EVS, Smith, Choice Hotels, ASV, EBR Performance, Vortex, mxmegastore.com, EZ-Up, Rob Rusk (for making us the best looking graphics everytime) and Chris Pond, Bill Rose, and Dan Beebe (for helping us keep our bikes running), Roger & Mandy Igo (your camper bathroom was a lifesaver), and Chris & Rebecca Fortenberry (we could never repay you for the hospitality you have shown us), and Lawmanmx.com for providing us with a great place to practice each and every week (thanks Jody it means a lot).