Madison Heights
Trialsmasters Gary Heyer and Mark Barnette’s opening event of the CVOTC 2023 season was pretty much the perfect day. Our land owner hosts for the day were Ed and Jo Ann Beehler. Ed and Jo Ann have been constantly developing their property for many years now and all of their efforts really show. The new pavilion is a welcoming place to gather riders before and after the meet. Anytime you stopped by, there was a generous offering of drinks and snacks to keep everybody energized throughout day. Since this day was on the chilly side, the new fire pit was in use providing a quick warm up. The smoke from the fire kept mosquitos and deer fly away all day.
We were treated to eight sections, some new and some a bit familiar with new lines. Thirty-four (34) riders were encouraged by nicely laid out sections to go for a clean ride and pretty much every rider was successful at some point on one of their three loops. Careful though, the wide and generous sections offered options for lines; get off your intended line and the section could get gnarly quick.
Class winners often had scores in the single digits or just over; other riders’ scores drifted into the 20s, 30s and beyond. Staying on the pegs during the off-season might have been part of a success strategy. There was no rain for a week before the event resulting in surprisingly good traction just like you would expect in the huge rock sections but this was also true for the stream section which had a quick transition for the upper classes into and out of the creek. Traction was good enough for a few riders to get light in the front end challenging their intended line. Personally, I always try to take the line that I’m on. Did Yogi say that?
Our Trialsmasters should be proud of achieving their aim to present each class with a reasonable challenge and some well-deserved rewards. Allowing every rider to clean at least one section and class champs in the single digits was so very kind.
CVOTC continues to see new faces at our events, our future is bright. I hope you enjoyed yourself, tell your friends what they are missing, tell them to go to CVOTC.org and be sure to come to our next event in April.
Rick Schill
Results:
EXPERT (two loops)
Maddie Hoover 5
Gary Hoover 27
ADVANCED
Martin Sturla 8
Josh Hendricks 34
Paul Fuelling 35
Keith Bell 67
Kevin Bobal DNF
Joe Palrang DNS
SPORTSMAN
John French 6
Berndie Lunsford 19
Bob Poetzsch 22
Leslie Matheson DNF
VINTAGE SPORTSMAN
Rick Schill 45
Kenny Gwyn 46
INTERMEDIATE
Ash Harrison 16
Matt Simpson 20
Pawel Bistram 22
Rusty Lacy 27
Robert McKee 49
Bumper McKee 52
Allen Shaffer DNF
VINTAGE INTERMEDIATE
Jim Ellis 11
Scott Porter 18
Michael Friesen 36
Thad Laughlin 64
NOVICE
Kim Fuelling 29
Colton Fitzpatrick 42 (no cleans, ones or twos, 9-3’s and 3-5’s. Section 1, first ride = 3)
Aria Fitzpatrick 42 (no cleans, ones or twos, 9-3’s and 3-5’s. Section 1, first ride = 5)
EXHIBITION
Gary Heyer/Mark Barnette
Randy Herndon
Mark Simpson
Bryce Lunsford
John Hendricks
Will Salter
Joe Walters