Three of Quesnel’s rider’s attended the Western Canadian Amateur Motocross Championships in Raymond, Alberta (just below Lethbridge) at the end of June.
The four day event started on Wednesday and continued through to the Saturday before the Canada Day long weekend. It was a long journey there for Colton Shepherd, Jordy Davis and Jackson Nickolet, trying to get around the flooding that was happening in Alberta at the time.
That didn’t stop riders from coming from as far away as California to compete in this championship, however.
Temple Hill Motocross track was not affected by the flooding in Alberta, so the annual event went forward as usual.
With temperatures rising rapidly up to 31 degree’s Jordy Davis, #109 had an excellent start in his first moto until the race was red flagged and was stopped due to complications on the track.
At that time, Davis came off and realized he also had complications with his 250F bike and was no longer able to compete, but fortunately brought a spare bike and made a mad scramble to quickly qualify during the last lap with the 450s to be able to continue racing.
Davis finished all his motos on the 450F successfully despite not having the experience in the larger bike class.
For Nickolet and Shepherd, the track was also a challenge to them as things are quite different racing in the championships.
“I didn’t like it one bit. They watered the track while we raced, and conditions changed each lap during the race” Shepherd said.
“You go around the track once and things are fine, then on the next lap, it was flooded.”
For Shepherd, that caused a bad wipe out after several other wipe outs, ending his racing on the last day of the event.
Nickolet also experienced some tough luck when he stalled his bike in a large amount of water that flooded the track, then later crashed in a corner and ended up in the hospital getting stitches in his finger on Thursday. But, he continued racing to take home a sixth place trophy in the Super Mini Class.
For Shepherd, racing will be put on hold for the next month due to an accident riding his bmx bicycle, which resulted in a concussion and a broken shoulder.
The next BCMA race is set for July 20 – 21 in Terrace, with Williams Lake, Prince George and Ashcroft to follow in August and September.
–Submitted by Gerri Shepherd
