A bad landing coming off a jump on his dirt bike last fall left Jess Pettis with two broken legs, which put him in a wheelchair for a month.
You'd never know it, watching him race now.
The 17-year-old Kawasaki rider was a quick healer and on Sunday he was clearly in class of his own, the only pro in a field of 96 riders Sunday at the B.C. Motocross Association Prince George Yamaha races at Blackwater Motocross Park.
Pettis was untouchable both days in the pro MX3 and youth classes on the new and improved Blackwater course, a final tuneup before he starts tangling with the big boys as a first-year pro in the Canadian Motorsport Racing Corporation Rockstar Energy Drink Motocross National series.
"I've been struggling with my starts because there's a cement start [gate] and I'm a light guy so it's kind of more difficult and I didn't get off to the best starts [Saturday]" said Pettis. "But I worked my way through the pack and passed a few guys and got out into the lead in all four motos and kind of walked away with it.
"The track is a lot like the track for the first round of nationals next weekend in Nanaimo, so it will be good prep for that. I feel really good right now. I've been riding a lot."
The CMRC national series also stops in Kamloops, Calgary and Regina, and there are six events in the Eastern Canada series, all of which Pettis intends to enter. His busy racing calendar will keep him on the road for nine weeks until mid-August.
Pettis was racing in Chilliwack in October on the arenacross circuit when he went too fast over a triple jump and landed too hard on his feet. The impact cracked both tibias and both fibulas just above the ankle, but the bones weren't displaced and no surgery was required.
"I didn't crash or anything, I just landed hard," said Pettis, who was sidelined for most of the outdoor season in 2013 with a broken foot he suffered in May.
"It all healed up good and I don't have any issues with that now,'" he said. "I've been riding a lot, just getting ready for nationals. I feel I'm ready and up to speed and we'll see at nationals. They pay out for pro and with all your sponsors you can make some pretty good money if you do good. But I have to prove myself because I've been hurt the last few years and hopefully I can do that and start making a living."
In March, Pettis went to Lake Elsinore, Calif., where he lived and trained with Australian pro rider Brett Metcalfe for a month. He returned to California at the start of May for testing with the Kawasaki team to practice again with Metcalfe.
Seventeen-year-old Honda rider Sara King of Fort St. James, who finished fifth overall in the national series, dominated the ladies class at Blackwater and also raced in the junior MX2 class. She's also preparing for this weekend's races in Nanaimo but won't be going to the Eastern series events.
"We've had a full gate of ladies racing and it's so much fun, it's completely different than racing that many guys," said King, one of seven female riders Sunday at Blackwater. "Women are all very aggressive with each other but you no one will take you out and hurt you. That doesn't happen so much now, but when I first started they didn't seem to like that a girl was out with them."
Now in her ninth season, King raced the BCMA events in Kamloops and Quesnel and the Prince George races gave her another chance to test her bike before she turns it loose in national series.
"Right now I'm quite happy with my riding, I've fixed what I needed to fix from last year and now I just have to put everything together and race," said King. "My starts were pretty awful last year, so I've been working on them. I rode my clutch too much, which I've been fixing."
King is a Grade 12 student at Fort St. James secondary school and it's going to be a challenge fir her getting to the Kamloops national race, which starts June 7, less than a day after her graduation ceremony.
"Hopefully we'll make good time and make it there by midnight," said King.
