2015 motocross season opens at Gopher Dunes
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Amateur Motocross Ontario launched its first race of the 2015 motocross season Sunday at Gopher Dunes, south of Courtland.
A cold and windy day at the Dunes, some riders raced with an extra jacket for warmth. Afternoon showers were expected, but it didn't rain.
"This is our third weekend of the season," said Gopher Dunes owner Frank Schuster. "When we opened the track (on Easter weekend) we still had quite a bit of frost in the ground. Weekend two, it started drying out quickly. The frost came out and last week it was pretty well mint conditions. And now, weekend three, we were watering to get moisture on the track. We had to do some heavy duty watering.
"It's kind of odd how it just dried up so quick. We didn't get as much moisture as other years, over the whole course of the winter. It got cold, it snowed, it stayed – we never had a thaw. So it's drier than I thought it was going to be."
Schuster said they kept the same track layout from 2014, mainly because they didn't have time over the last few weeks.
"We've been working on three events at once. The practice season opener, this race, and the mud bog next weekend. Everything is pretty much ready to go (for MudFest), now we just have to see how much water we need to add. And all the little tweaking."
Gopher Dunes' Spring 4x4 MudFest, for trucks and jeeps, is Sunday, April 26. See gopherdunes.com/mud-fest/ for details.
"We're probably going to be making some changes for the Walton qualifier (May 24 – National Qualifier). We kept it the same for this one, but now we're going to try to do some stuff."
Turnout for Sunday's AMO provincial motocross and ATV opener was good, said Schuster, with just under 300 racers.
"This is our first provincial of the season, so it's been a good overall start to the year."
For complete results, see http://www.cmrcracing.com/southwestern-ontario-results.
One of the highlights of Gopher Dunes' motocross season will be the CMRC Rockstar Energy Drink Canadian Pro Motocross Nationals. The Dunes will be hosting Round 5 of the national series on Sunday, July 5.