We’re extremely proud of our youngest Zac Speed team Rider Zach Smith, two rounds down in the WA Junior Enduro Series and two wins under his belt!
After every race we get wrap up of Zach’s efforts at the event form his Dad and they are always a pleasure to read.
So we thought we’d start sharing them…..
“Round two of the WA Junior Enduro series was on the weekend the “Nth Bolgart Cross Country Sprint”, was a single lap, 14.5km loop with a Le Mans start x 4 motos.
After coming in only 6 seconds in front of 2nd in the round 1 Sprint, we knew the longer cross country format was going to be tough against the 250fs, luckily (or good management) we got our tyre selection and gearing right for the mix of bush sections and boggy salt flats & Zach was able to get the job done.
Zach was the most nervous I’ve seen him before each start to be honest, I think knowing he is in the championship lead added some pressure, but our catch fraise for the weekend was “Points is King”, meaning just finish in a good spot as it’s a long season ahead, the last thing we needed was for him to push too hard and drop a round due to a crash or injury. Moto’s 1 through 3 were a repeat of themselves, with Zach heading into the first corner in the top 3 and pushing his way to the top spot in a commanding fashion. Even catching older class that left 2 minutes before him and working his way through to 4th in that class as well. It wasn’t without a little drama with him crashing in the rock section in moto #1 and taking a bit of shin off and the bike lost power for a few seconds in moto #3 witch we believe may have been something in the jet or maybe the plug (which we swapped out after) but even though the bike stalled and wouldn’t start he managed to get it going and still maintain his lead. moto #4 in my opinion was the biggest win for us as a team, even though he came in 2nd for the first time all day he show a level of maturity that I haven’t seen from him before. after getting a terrible start and coming into turn one almost last, he hit the back of a stalled rider and got held up even further, once he got going he past the majority of the field of riders within the first kilometer and disappeared into the bush running around 3rd.
Being a concerned parent all I could think is he was going to be upset with himself and be pushing to get that clean sweep that he’s always wanted (1st, 1st, 1st, 1st), when the bikes started to appear out of the bush towards the finish line I saw the first bike from his class wasn’t Zach and I got that cold feeling that something had gone wrong, within a couple seconds it went away with him popping out and crossing the finish line pumping his fist and revving the bike supercross style (obviously he doesn’t pay for his own pistons yet, ha ha).. after a bunch of high fives with the boys in his class he rode over to me and said “I knew I had it in the bag, so I just got into a good spot and stayed there! there was no point pushing and taking the risk of crashing and ruining my day”….
Absolutely stoked for him, now having a 10 point lead in the championship 2 rounds in.. now we prep for Hattah
Dave & Zach Smith”
