Napa BMX 4/1/2017

It's been a slow start to 2017. It's now the first weekend of April and we've only been able to get about five races in, including a Wednesday night right after the time change a couple of weeks ago. We were even planning on going to a State Race in Southern California in late January and that got rained out too!

Anthony took up pretty much where he left off at the end of last year as the youngest Intermediate trying to get on pace with the older and faster boys. We were a little worried that he was starting to get discouraged as he was struggling to even keep in contact with Devin, Tyler, Isaac and others. In the first few races of this year he finished last in every race, and didn't even technically make it to the main (he raced just for the extra start and lap).Donny and I talked about it a little, and we acknowledged that this was a tough, but necessary and inevitable, transition for any rider. Transitioning into new classes and age groups can be really tough, and perhaps especially so when you're beginning  a major transition before being even five years old.

But now he's five, he has a few races under his belt in the last couple of months, Donnie is giving him a lot of encouragement, and he's beginning to come alive again! He has been able to mix it up with a few riders in the last few weeks since Devin has moved on to Expert. He came within a wheel's length of beating a 7I rider at the line for third place, and then last time we were out he actually beat Elena in a couple of the motos.

So yesterday was a beautiful spring day and we were really looking forward to going to the races, and we also had Nonno join us, which was of course pretty exciting for Anthony. Practice went well, but when the races were posted Anthony was missing. Ray just forgot to write his name down and based on what we saw posted we just assumed that he'd be added to the 7I grid of about 6. But instead when Anthony was entered it created a three rider 6I class and moved the older riders into the 8-9 classes. So it was a total points race with Boden, Tyler, and Anthony.

Take a look at the two videos below. The first is the first race of 2017 from January 28th. Anthony is racing Boden and Tyler in that race too, but Isaac and McNulty are in the 1 and 2 spots. Then watch the last race from yesterday; you may see a little improvement. Anthony ended up second overall yesterday because Boden crashed out of the first moto, and didn't race the second moto.


Nonno made a good observation that Anthony gets into the ready position much too early before the gate drops and expends way too much precious energy. It's very apparent in the first video. We'll have to work on that.

Celebrating with Nonno

Happy and tired little man!