The MiniMoto SX is my favorite race of the year. It is held in Las Vegas every year in the Orleans Arena and Hotel. It is the biggest mini-bike race on the planet. People come from all over the world to race their mini-bikes. Everyone there is riding air cooled, four stroke play bikes. – CRF50s, KLX110s, CRF70s, TTR125s, etc.
This race looks like a miniature version of a real Supercross and many of the big Supercross racers have raced it before. McGrath, Emig, Lawrence, Pastrana, Cooper, Cowboy Kenny, Renner, Tortelli, Huffman and Metzger have all raced, just to name a few. The race has sold out every year with 5,000 spectators and nearly 600 racer entries. The cool part is they have a class for everyone from beginners to pros. They even added a kids class a couple of years ago for the 9 - 12 year old crowd (that’s me). Since I spend most of my time riding 110's, this is a race I love.
If you have never raced MiniMoto before, it takes a couple of tries to really get it down. The first time I raced it I was 9 years old. It was a little scary lining up in front of 5,000 people and the track is really tight. Much tighter than anything else I have raced on. Also, the riders are going about twice as fast as they look from the stands.
This was my third year racing MiniMoto, so in my mind I was ready to race for the win. I was on the BBR Monster Energy Team with Derek Costella, Ryan Abrigo, Chris Gosselaar, Jimmy Lewis, and a bunch of other fast guys. The coolest part about being on the team was getting to practice with the best mini-bike riders in the world. I had a blast and learned so much from these guys. My dad always says that the guys that are the best in the world at something are wired a little different, so learn from them! Its hard not to when you have Chris Gosselaar bumping you up a notch all the way around the BBR test track!
The amount of testing that goes into the bikes is huge. The team tests everything from tires to pipes to bore sizes. The bikes really have to be set up different for the super tight MiniMoto track. By the time we got to Vegas I was ready to go. I crashed the week before during testing and banged up my shoulder and ribs, but I was going to hang it all out anyway.
Two of my buddies, Charlie and Devin, came along with me to race this year, so we all got a hold of some stuffed frogs and zip tied them onto our chest protectors. The crowd seemed to like it and I could hear the announcer talking about our passengers when we were lining up for the main event. If nothing else, it kept the race fun for us when it can be stressful sometimes. Also, with Costella telling his crazy Thrill-Billy stories and laughing all the time, it's hard to get to stressed out – after all, who is under more pressure to win than he is?
When it came main event time I knew what I had to do if I wanted to have any shot at winning this thing – GET THE HOLE SHOT. I watched the gate as good as I could and timed it perfectly to get the hole shot. I laid down the fastest three laps while I had no traffic in front of me and then put it on cruise control. Then came the part that seemed to throw everyone off all night, LAPPERS! When the white flag came out, I told myself I can do this, but at that moment I came up on a group of lappers that were more like a wall. I swerved left, I swerved right, it didn’t matter. They were going to run me off the track. I actually got spun around and did a 360, but kept it on two wheels anyway. Maybe I did have some Vegas luck! Robbie Wageman stayed close enough to me to slip by on the inside and take the win. I ended up second but had the most fun ride of my life. How can you not have fun racing in Vegas in front of 5,000 people with friends and family all cheering you on! Derek Costella won the big race, so it was a party in our pits after words and everyone else did great. So it was another good year.
If you haven't raced MiniMoto yet, you have to give it a try just to say you did it. You can sign up on-line for next years event at www.minimotosx.com and Becky will help you get signed up for the right class. Can't wait for next year!
See you there!!
-- Carson