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 7^th to 5^th 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.