Minimoto USA NorCal round 3 was at the Infineon Raceway during the West Coast Moto Jam. Evan got to share the facilities (though not the track!) with the big boys this weekend. We were planning on going to the AMA race at Infineon anyway, so it was pretty cool to have Evan there as a competitor.
It was a very busy weekend with Minimoto USA and Supermoto USA sharing the track, so Evan only had a few practice sessions to learn his lines. The day went quite smoothly and Evan’s bike was running great thanks to a new carburetor and intake manifold. Evan enjoyed the track—his favorite turn was the last one right before the front straight. That evening we reviewed track video from the GoPro and went over lines so Evan could carry a little more speed through the corners.
On race day Evan had one practice in the morning to get his new lines down. Things were going well until the last lap. Evan bobbled through one of the turns and ended up crashing and sliding off track. The bike and Evan were fine, but the turn worker ended up breaking the pull starter when he was trying to get the bike going again. It was a quick fix and Miles had the bike ready for Evan’s race in plenty of time.
Evan was gridded 5th—first one on the second row. He had a little trouble finding the flag man, so he had a pretty bad start. He had a consistent race, with his lines obviously improved over practice from the previous day. He ended up finishing in 4th, just one position from the podium. He can almost taste that first podium now!