Grande Prairie Arenacross Saturday Photo Report

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By James Lissimore

  Well, the Nex-Trax Canadian Arena Supercross series made it's first ever stop to the northern Alberta town of Grande Prairie this past weekend and though the mercury hit a frosty -23 outside, the action was plenty hot inside. We had plenty of crashes, bar banging racing and one rider would end up going on to sweep the weekend as former Canadian MX2 East champ, Michael Willard took all four main event wins. Here's a few photos from Saturday's racing...

It wasn't the best weekend for Kyle Beaton. Here he watches Saturday's practice after taking 25 stitches to close up the gash in his leg from Friday nights crash.

It's a good thing that the heat was on inside the Crystal Centre or these would have been needed on all the bikes.

You can tell that moto is really popular here in Grande Prairie. In amongst the other sponsored sports teams photos on the wall at the local Pita Pit was a thanks from a local MX team.

Urquhart gives his best Pastrana impression.

Between formerly living in Fort St. John and having family and friends in the area, Brock Hoyer was a fan favorite at GP.

There were plenty of crashes all weekend long on the tight Grande Prairie track. This one during the opening heat knocked Spencer Knowles out of the nights racing.

Shawn Maffenbeier runs a little DMX love on the #23 Yamaha.

Kohl Canaday has been steadily progressing in his rookie season of Arenacross. He finished up Saturday with a 5th and a 6th.

Shawn Maffenbeier put in a strong showing in his lone indoor apearance of the season, finishing 5th in Saturday's Open main.

Kyle McGlynn's dad, Kelly, was hard at work all weekend, flagging the race action. Kyle is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery so he was unable to race but he came out to show his support.

Kyle Keast(4) and Kohl Canaday(35) lead the pack into the first turn during the AX2 main event.

After a slow start to the season, last years number two, Brock Hoyer, rode much stronger this weekend. With a podium on Friday, he grabbed two fourths on Saturday but he was in the mix both races nearly missed out a couple more podium finishes.

There was great racing in the AX2 main with a four way battle between Keast(4), Urquhart(546), Willard(749) and Hoyer(2).

It was another clean sweep for the RTR Performance team with Willard taking the win over Urquhart and Keast.

More great battling in the Open main as Willard grabbed the lead over Keast and Urqhart.

Kyle Keast continued his strong showing in the series with a 3rd and a 2nd on Saturday night.

Tyler Chopyk was sore after a crash during qualifying but he managed to come back for the Open main, finishing 8th.

RTR's Craig Fortune(l) and Ryan Lockhart had to be happy with their teams double podium sweep.