In motocross racing, the hole shot is critical.
Not only does a quick start increase the chances of winning a race but in muddy conditions like there were Sunday at Blackwater Motocross Park, getting around that initial corner first is the best way to avoid being blindsided by a rooster tail of mud.
Tackling a sloppy course which proved a nightmare to many riders in the Sunday morning session, Bailey Garrison got forced off course gunning his Suzuki 250cc bike for the start of the first moto of the schoolboy class and his face was right in the line of fire. The mud got through his goggles and into his eye, forcing the 16-year-old Prince George rider to squint his way through the rest of the nine-minute race.
Garrison worked his way up to third place but was unable to catch up to Daniel Ellmore of Telkwa and Jesse Lanterman of Terrace, who took first and second place respectively in the MCQMX motocross event.
"I couldn't see, I went outside and should have gone inside and got pushed off the track, and all that mud flew right into my face," said Garrison. "I had the hole shot and took a wider line and one of the guys came straight across and pushed me off the track.
"There's a little crack in my goggles and the mud got in there and every time you hit a jump the dirt flies up. I had to close my eye because every time I opened it, it was blurry. I gained a lot of time on my friend Jesse but just couldn't make it, I didn't have enough time in the moto."
The track dried significantly in the afternoon and Garrison used his knowledge of his home course to his advantage, finishing second overall in schoolboy and third in the intermediate class.
"I know this track pretty well but you can't practice mud, you're either good at it or you're not," said Garrison. "In mud races, it's who can stay up and who can get the start. Because if you get the start, you spray everyone in behind you and they have to take breaks and rip all the tear-offs (a protective film on visors)."
Garrison started racing when he was five, riding a 50cc bike. He took a couple years off after he broke his leg riding and resumed racing when he was 11 after his stepdad, Darrell Lewis, bought him an 85cc bike. Garrison has been racing his 250 for 2 1/2 years and this year made the jump from the junior class to intermediate MX-2.
He came into the weekend leading the schoolboy class standings but he's well down the list as an intermediate. He knew going into the season it would be tough keeping up to mostly older, more experienced riders.
"I'm the rookie in the class and it's a little bit difficult because I came from winning every race in juniors to coming close to the back of the pack in intermediate because they're a lot faster," said Garrison.
"I've been going to the gym, getting a little bit more muscle so I can move around more on the bike and hold on. I just have to keep pushing to do better."
Garrison raced in a pro-am national qualifier in June in Kamloops, which gave him his first real taste of racing with the pros. His best buddy, 15-year-old Hayden Wolff of Prince George, broke his arm racing an intermediate MX-2 event in Kamloops in early June. With Wolff, his travel companion, out of action, both families decided to scrap their plans to compete in late June at a CMRC national event in Raymond, Alta.
The wet conditions Sunday hid some of the hazards and there were a few times when Garrison was on the edge of disaster.
"I get scared sometimes," he said.
"The jumps, in these conditions, all the slippery ruts that were created (in the practice sessions Saturday) are all thickening and becoming hard dirt, and if you hit one it can shoot you a different way. You're already in the air and your back can swing out and if you can't bring it back or land properly you'll probably take a spill and it won't feel very good."
Garrison's younger sister Sydney also races. At 13, she's in her fourth season, competing in the ladies class, where she goes head-to-head with national-level riders like Sara King of Fort St. James and Kassie Morrison of Quesnel. The older women ride bigger bikes (King races a 450cc) and the younger Garrison can't keep up to them climbing the hills. But she would rather race with the fastest female riders than stick with her peers in the young ladies class.
Sydney popped a wheelie climbing the big hill at Blackwater in her first race Sunday and ended up flipping on her back. She was unhurt, but the wreck broke the clutch on her bike.
"It kind of scared me but I'm fine," said Sydney. "I guess I gave it too much power and catwalked and fell back. It's hard racing in the mud."
Sydney also does gymnastics and says the balance and body awareness skills she's learned in the gym help her stay on two wheels on her bike. She also crashed in her second race when her throttle stuck open in the last lap, but she got back on and finished seventh.
The races Sunday were the fifth in the MCQMX North series, a Kelowna-based organization which took over from the now-defunct B.C. Motocross Association as the race promoters. The series wraps up this weekend in Quesnel.
