CAT TAILS
Let's Play Checkers Trial
Let's Play Checkers was a clever name for a trial intended to drum up checkers for the Youth and Women's Regional Championship.
Recently, Central Arizona Trials Inc. hosted the AMA/NextGen Youth and Women’s Western Regional Championship Trials at the Mohave County Hualapai Mountain Park.
Carl Miller and Lee Pennington were the Trialsmasters. They and their extended families started making sections on Sunday, a week prior to the event. This included Deana Miller, Kelsey Pennington, and Robert and Mary Reese. Some others helped, but I didn’t get all the names.
A big CAT Thank You goes out to all of them for making this inaugural CAT event such an enjoyable success for so many youth and women riders.
In conjunction with that event, CAT put on a local trial. Carl Miller and Lee Pennington were the Trialsmasters for this also. Next time, CAT might have to give them some relief and use other trialsmasters for the local event.
With the youth and women riding in the morning, that left the afternoons on Saturday and Sunday available for CAT. The first two loops were ridden on Saturday and the final two loops were completed on Sunday. This format let the riders think all night about how they were going to do better the next day.
Let's Play Checkers was an incentive to bring our club riders up to check for the youth and women. It worked out so well that some of the visiting minders and parents got a chance to ride also.
A big CAT Thank You also goes out to all of the Checkers. Some of the out-of-state folks even helped out. The list includes Keith Myers, Denise Arneson, Rich Palmer, Stevie Jones, Devon Fieber, Joey Stanley, Zach Griswold, Todd Griswold, John Farrell, JT Thomas, Bill Montjar, Lorraine Meschede, Ben Dilcher, Kelley Dilcher, Mark Franklin, Tom Franklin, Jerry Hicks, Anna Obrochta, Robert Cline, Dwayne Elrod, Nik Domokos, Ron Chain, Kevin Lowney, Greg Jones, Trent Staley, Roland Molder, Andy Saum, and Mary Reese.
The Nofivesatall Clinical Trial at Alto Pit on 05/07/2023.
The weather was slightly cool to start the day which was just right for riding. Geoff Chain set the morning sections with help from Ron Chain, his dad. Bret Dooley took care of the Afternoon sections.
Sections 1-3 were on the trail past the Kiddy corral. He used some of the smaller obstacles to remake a couple of upper-class sections into lower-class lines. Sec. 3 had a tough down-and-up area that took a lot of points.
Sec.s 4 & 5 were new lines down in the creek area east of the main parking lot. They were mostly up the creek bed with a turn to the exit on 4 and a turn to start through some water in 5. Most riders caught their breath on these sections.
On around to the west side of the main pit was Sec. 6 on a big mounded rock formation that had riders going up and down and around the rock pile. This one tripped up a few riders and some on the third loop when they thought it was cake.
Finally, down the trail to behind the west side of the campground Sec. 7 & 8 were in another one of the creek beds that still were wet. Sec. 7 meandered through some water and made Elites go up a step dirt hill and around a big rock that was challenging. Section 8 was set at the base of an amphitheater rock outcropping. The Start went twisting in the trees and later the Elites went back up into the rocks and turned tight downhill to the exit.
For the Upper-class sections, Bret set Section 1 at the far end of the main stream bed east of the parking lot. Sand and water kept riders dabbing and a couple of newly fallen logs made it a lot brand new. Back up toward the parking area was Sec.2, the good old standard, never gets easier, up the creek bed ride.
Off to the east of the main pit, Sec.s 3 & 4 were in “Area 51”. This is a huge rock formation that hides in the pines like so many of the jewels of Alto Pit. The Forest Service probably thinks this OHV site is all about the trails for the fast bikes and quads. Ah, but we know of the many hidden gems like Area 51! Bret set some long, winding lines making us climb and then go back down before letting us exit.
Just off of the numbered trails to the north were Sec.s 5,6 & 7. Sec.5 was short but still took points with a super tight turn. Sec,6 had an off-camber rock down and up that needed hops or a big dab pivot. At the end the split for sportsman was not cleaned on this day. Sec. 7 had a dual exit. Most riders rode around the big rock through a jumble that was hard to clean, but some riders went straight up the big rock to the exit.
Sec.8 was way up to the north end of the pit and completely new. The Prescott Wednesday Riding Group found it and spent much effort prepping it for this event. Just the tip of the rock pile, ravine and hillside was presented for this event.
Only a handful of riders passed the clinical trial with Nofivesatall. Lee Pennington, Trent Caley, Daniel Hare in the afternoon and Bill Montjar, Cyndi Farrell, Roland Moelder, Finn Masten and Jefferey Duke did it in the morning.
In Memory of Scott Kinnier.
It is with great sadness that we must announce the passing of our longtime friend and fellow rider, Scott Kinnier. He was an avid dirt bike rider and a long-time member of the trials community. He was known to promote trials riding to all his enduro buddies and really enjoyed riding in the CAT events.
Scott fell ill recently with a rare form of leukemia and passed away on April, 18 2023. He is survived by his wife Linda, daughter Amber and son Cole. His children grew up riding in the club. His participation at the events was on and off throughout the years according to the needs of his family and the demands of being self-employed.
In February of 2021, Scott was riding at the Wildcat location. We had loaded up our bikes when a young rider, maybe 10 or 12 years old, came racing up to us, crying that his father had crashed on the trail and needed help.
Scott did not hesitate to unload his bike and off we went to find him. We got to him and he didn’t have a cell phone with him. So, Scott gave him his phone to call his wife to come meet us at the pavement. We flagged down a couple of forest service guys in a pickup truck. They gave the guy a mask and put him in their truck. Scott helped load up the guy’s bike in the forest service truck with Scott’s extra tiedowns and off they went to the road.
Scott texted out the next day. “I got my tiedowns back and the wife said Thanks for helping, her husband has a broken scapula, collarbone and ribs”.
Scott was that kind of nice guy, we will miss seeing him in the future, but always remember his kind spirit.
Arrangement details will be posted as soon as they become available.
The Redemption Trial at The Hualapai Mountain Park 04/02/2023
The day started out cool and breezy with patches of snow still on the ground in the shadows. There was runoff from the snowmelt running through a few of the sections. The north side of the big mountain was still mostly white.
Lee and Baylee Pennington set 6 Kid’s sections in the shallow draw that is right by the usual pit area. Kelsey Pennington ran that part of the trial with some other parents to help.
Rich Palmer set his sections with fairly wide lines mostly on gentle hillsides. He said the Beginner lines were mostly straight in and straight back out with a few exceptions.
Section #1 was down into the water for Novice and Elite just upstream from the dike portion of the road. Beginners rode along the bank. All riders had a tight uphill turn to the exit. This was the biggest point getter for the Beginners. Cooper Croy took 6 of his 8 points there for 2nd place. Bill Montjar took 4 of his 5 total points there for the win.
Section #2 was on the hillside above #1. It was an off-camber ride that produced a lot of tire spinning. #3 was in a draw across from the scoring table. #4 was a ride in the rock garden where the water was crossing the road.
Section #5 had tight downhill Elite and Novice splits. Roland Moelder was the only rider with 2 cleans there on 17 total for the Novice 40 win. Ed Lynch had 18 points for 2nd place.
Section #8 had a tight approach to the exit corner. Baylee Pennington was the only rider on the Novice line to clean it on her way to the win with 26 dabs. Zayne Steely was 2nd on 43 total.
Kevin Lowney ran away in Elite 40 with 11 on the day and Bryon Jones did likewise in Elite on 14 points.
Steve Dickson came back to section setting for the Upper classes. His son-in-law, Ted Beck, got his first taste of Trialsmaster work also. Steve used some of the familiar areas in new, creative ways including run backwards. A couple of the lines went in the water and #5 had icy snow all around.
Bob Pennington took 50 to best his son Lee with 61 in Master Clubman.
The Clubman class had 5 riders separated by 16 points and the top 3 by 1 point each. Zachery Griswold on 52 for 3rd , Devon Fieber on 51in 2nd and Bryan Cline used 50 dabs to get the win.
Section #4 was the hardest line for the Sportsman classes. None of them cleaned it. It could have been a double section for all the twists and turns in it. David Pyle came over from California and won on 17 points. Daniel Hare was 2nd on 25 dabs. Sportsman 40 1st place went to Michael Meschede on 35 points. Mark Franklin was 2nd on 40 total.
Fritz Croy took 56 for 1st place in Expert Sportsman.
Dan Larson brought his Vertigo from Montana to take the win in Expert class. He was the only clean rider in #4 other than the Pros and he did it twice to win on 30 points. Geoff Chain was 2nd on 41 dabs.
The Pro Class was an exhibition as Josh Roper, fresh off his first ever National Pro Class Championship event win, took only 2 points all day. He seemed to ride on one tire as effortlessly as the rest of us on two. Cole Cullins from California took 2nd on 22 dabs. Joey Stanley was 3rd with 65.