Jess Pettis's main goal for his second tour of duty on the Rockstar Energy Drink MX Pro National motocross series was to make it through the summer in one piece.
Eighteen broken bones and at least one concussion in the previous three years of racing added up to way too many days on the shelf.
Well not only did the 18-year-old second-year pro from Prince George stay healthy most of the season but he revved his way to a top-10 finish in the MX2 national points standings. Pettis ended up ninth overall out of 81 riders as the fifth-highest placing Canadian, helping him erase memories of a painful rookie season last year on the pro circuit.
"It was definitely a good year considering the last few years I've had with injuries and not being able to get through the year," said Pettis. "I feel the best I've ever felt and that helped a lot this year with my results. I worked my butt off in the off-season and went to California for a couple months in training to make sure I was 100 per cent ready and everything kind of fell into place."
Pettis reeled off two sixth-place results, June 7 in Nanaimo and July 26 in Deschambault, Que., and was seventh on Aug. 2 in Moncton, N.B. His results in Nanaimo, the same track where he broke his wrist in his first pro race, May 31, 2014, were among the highlights of his season. He got the hole shot his first moto to earn a cheque and recognition in the post-race awards ceremony and finished fifth in that race, followed by an eighth-place finish in the second moto.
Pettis didn't quite get through the season uninjured. In Calgary on June 12 he got off to a bad start and got bucked off his bike trying to make a pass for seventh on the last lap, which left him with a badly-bruised shoulder. He finished 16th in that moto and was unable to start the second race, which dropped him down to 21st, but he recovered in time to post a top-nine finish the following weekend in Regina.
In Deschambault, Pettis was in the top three in the second moto for nearly half the 30-minute race but got hung up trying to get past lapped riders and went off the track and had to settle for a seventh-place finish. The series wrapped up Aug. 16 in Walton, Ont., where he finished ninth overall.
"My goal at the beginning of the year was to be inside the top 10 pretty well every round and finish top 10 at the end of the series and a couple of the races bust into the top five and run with the front of the pack for a bit, and I fulfilled all my goals for the year, which I was pretty happy about," he said.
Pettis made the switch from Kawasaki to Yamaha in January. Prince George Motorsports, Vernon Motorsports and Yamaha Canada are the principal sponsors on a list of 22 mostly local businesses now helping him pay for a full racing season.
But he wouldn't have been able to cover the cost traveling across the country to each event without help from the bank of mom and dad, parents Doug and Betty, who spent eight weeks driving from race to race in their motorhome. They got back a week ago, just in time for the B.C. Motocross Association races on his home track at Blackwater Motocross Park.
Pettis is hoping his success this year will translate into a more lucrative deal with sponsors willing to supply him with more racing parts to make his bike faster.
"A lot of the guys have factory support so they have the best of the best and pretty much an unlimited budget for parts and motors and to try to jump to the series to go against those guys with a virtually stock bike, I was fighting an uphill battle there," said Pettis.
"But I just kept on pushing and we made the best with what we had. If it wasn't for those people behind me this year it wouldn't have been possible at all. It wasn't easy but we got it done."
Pettis still has a few BCMA events ahead of him before he makes the decision whether to race the B.C. arenacross circuit which starts in October. He's hoping to eventually make the jump to supercross racing and he and has father are contemplating building a supercross track on their property in Beaverly. Pettis also plans to return to Murrieta, Calif., to train outdoors over the winter with pro rider Brett Metcalfe.
