October 11
By Rolfe Otterness
Spring Creek Park’s
2020 season came to an end on a cool October Sunday with a decent-sized attendance
of nearly 500 entries who were eager to get one last fling on the track before the
long winter lull. No Super
Series banquet this year so this was the last event on the schedule for the
Spring Creek gang. One
section of the track along the bottom of Mount Martin was changed up for the
event with the routing cutting down the hill and making a bit of a jog to the
right and over a built-up drop-away section then back to the right
hand turn at the base of the hill. Many riders had success winning multitple classes but only two reeled in three overall wins
- Luke Geis in Schoolboy 1 & 2 and 125 Two Stroke; and Milt Reimer in 45+A,
50+A and 55+A.
James Schaffer stormed
off the gate to lead as the 85cc 9-12 riders hit the track for moto one. Schaffer was running a strong pace but
Caleb Wagner and Ryder Malinoski could match it and
they ran in formation for the whole race with about a 2 second gap between each
rider and pulling out quite a gap over Braxton Williamson in fourth. Tanner Engesser
rounded out the top five.
Moto two featured
Williamson snaring the holeshot but Wagner was quickly by for the lead. Malinoski
staked a claim on second and held that over Schaffer for the first half of the
moto, but had a spot of trouble and dropped back to third and lost precious
time as he recovered forward progress.
Wagner ended up with about a ten-second advantage over Schaffer at the
checkered to claim the overall. Malinoski reprised his third-place finish of the first moto
while fourth went again to Williamson.
Jacob Peters improved from 7th to 5th which gave
him fifth overall.
Cameron Skaalerud took off to lead the Open B class as they revved
up for moto one. Skaalerud was running out in front of Casey Paider as they finished lap two and took the corner by the
announcer tower when Skaalerud washed out the front
end as he pounded into the berm.
Paider was quickly by while Skaalerud remounted and fired up his bike and took off
before third-place Zach Strecker could get by. Paider
held onto the lead for a lap but Skaalerud was
closing fast and slipped into the lead on the next lap then pulled away a bit
for the win. Strecker held down
third over Drew Paskey and Luke Vanlyssel.
Strecker found a bit
better pace in moto two and led lap after lap to take a win over Paider. Gage Krech had
a much stronger performance as he topped his first-moto eighth with a third,
enough to snare third overall.
Brandon Johnson took fourth with Gavin Janovsky
storming his way in for fifth.
Skaalerud was a DNS for moto two for reasons
unknown.
The 125 Two Stroke class
buzzed onto the track with Luke Geis jumping out front in short order. Beau Engstrom slotted into second with
Collin Lund in tow. Geis was
turning some quick laps and built quite a gap over Engstrom by the time the
checkered brought an end to the race.
Lund was back a bit for third with Brodie Boumeester
and Lance Geis going 4-5 not too far back.
Engstrom made a charge up
the start straight to lead through turn one as moto two was loosed upon the
world. Luke Geis once again had the
throttle to the stop and took over from Engstrom early on and started to edge
away. Lund passed Boumeester and then put pressure on Engstrom who then had a
bobble and dropped back, allowing Boumeester to take
third at the flag. Engstrom did
capture fourth over Brodie O’Connor to wrap up third overall.