With sunny skies and a stiff breeze that helped clear the air throughout the day, Round 6 of the 2020 Future West Moto Canadian Arenacross Championships took place at Chilliwack Heritage Park in Chilliwack, BC.
With the new COVID-19 restrictions put in place the night before, we were concerned about getting the racing in at all, but we were able to get through a full schedule of racing with qualifiers and mains.
We’ll look at the amateur racing later in the week and will focus our attention on the two Pro classes that were raced here in this column.
Pro Open was raced before the Pro Am Lights class for this round, so that’s the order we’ll look at them.
Please keep in mind, we were running the live broadcast for the races, so I wasn’t able to move around the track very much during the races.
Pro Open
DNS 81 Tyler Gibbs KTM
After a couple pretty solid crashes on Saturday, we didn’t see Tyler on the track for Round 6.
7. #167 Dylan Hansen HON
Dylan was back in action and he had some good buddies helping him out. He was a little off the pace of the riders in the class who’ve been racing regularly but looked like he was having some fun…until a mechanical sent him to the pits at around the halfway point.
6. 36 Parker Eales HON
Parker was back this weekend after hurting his back at the first one. He got off to a 6th place start and ended up 6th at the flag.
5. 381 Jake Piccolo KTM
Jake grabbed the holeshot and then got punted off the track and into last place in the 2nd corner. He remounted and pushed back to 5th.
4. 170 Julien Benek YAM
Julien was 4th on lap 1 and tried to hang onto the great battle at the front. He finished 4th and is going to be a champion in the future.
3. 77 Casey Keast HQV
Casey was in the nice battle at the front to decide the podium. He was right there the whole time but ended up 3rd behind the two 450 machines at the front.
2. 10 Keylan Meston HQV
Keylan got out to the front, after dispersing of Piccolo on lap 1. He and Brock Hoyer put on a great show at the front.
2 Brock Hoyer YAM
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised Brock took the win because he’s great at AX, but for him to hold off Casey and actually pass and pull away from Keylan was definitely unexpected. Great ride for the Williams Lake, BC rider.
Pro Am Lights
DNS 381 Jake Piccolo KTM
Jake didn’t line up for the Main in this class after they couldn’t get his race bike started, we’re told. He’d already lent out a bike to Tyler Gibbs and he had a top end go on him during Saturday night’s racing. This kid is due for some luck that will mean wins.
8. 12 Luke Svensson YAM
Luke was in the best battle on the track. He and Devyn Smith went bar to bar every time the gate dropped. He finished 8th.
7. 30 Devyn Smith KAW
Devyn is learning a ton racing against these top guys. He’s a new Intermediate and looks like he belongs out there. He was 7th.
6. 819 Dawson Gravelle YAM
Dawson was in the battle with Svensson and Smith at the midway point and managed to get his 2-stroke by them and take 6th at the flag.
5. Tyler Yates KTM
Tyler rode alone in 5th in this one, for the most part. He’s one of a good group of Intermediate riders moving their way up through the ranks in BC.
4. 234 Zach Ufimzef KTM
I was very impressed with the smooth and fast riding of Zach. He was the class of the field in the Intermediate races and his buttery style should pay off on the indoor side of our sport. He was 4th.
3. 36 Parker Eales HON
Parker got out to 3rd place off the start but slowly lost touch with the top 2 in this one. He finished 3rd and took a podium spot.
2. 170 Julien Benek YAM
Again, young Julien was great in this one. He’s got the kind of speed and style that should see him slowly move to the top of the Pro ranks in years to come. He kept Casey Keast honest in this one for 2nd.
77 Casey Keast HQV
Casey wasn’t going to be beaten in the Pro Am class today. With Jake out of action, Casey had the rest of the riders covered, but Julien wasn’t far off his rear fender. Casey holds the points lead in both classes heading into the final weekend of racing.
With a little uncertainty surrounding events in BC because of increased coronavirus cases, we’ll keep an eye on the situation and let you know what the final decision is on racing the final weekend as soon as we know the story.
