Previously- "You betrayed us!" Kenny said angrily. "You're making us all look bad, coming out and winning nationals, on your nice factory team."
"How am I making you look bad?" Mark asked.
"You just are!" Kenny yelled. "And I'll tell you what, I'm gonna beat you this afternoon and it'll bring you back to your senses. You're not better than any of us back in Davis!" and he stormed away.
Chapter 17
Mark watched the 85 open main event. Kenny won. He looked dialed in on his bike. He was doing triples with ease that Mark had trouble landing perfect every time. Kenny had always been a good, safe, consistent rider, but never really fast. He had obviously been training very hard because he was looking FAST. Mark was getting a little nervous by now. Not only was Kenny looking fast, but Bobby had beat Mark in the qualifier. He would have to work extra hard to win.
Mark was waiting for his mechanic to come back to the trailer so they could go to the gate of 85A main. Before he came back Payton walked up to him.
“Good luck,” she said and kissed him on the cheek. Mark was dazed. The prettiest girl in school had just kissed him. As he walked to the gate Lester said, “What’s wrong?”
“huh?” Mark said.
“You’ve got this weird look on your face,” Lester said.
“Yeah I’m fine.” Mark was even more determined to win now. He lined up at the gate.
When the gate dropped, Kenny got the holeshot with Bobby and Mark behind him. By the 4th lap Mark was still having trouble staying in front of Bobby. Mark would pass him, then Bobby would pass him back. Finally in the ryhthm section Mark passed him. In the rythm section most kids doubled, doubled,tripled, but Mark changed it up-tripled, tripled, single- passing Bobby.
As Mark came around the pit board are, his read “5th lap”. Mark had 5 more laps to pass Kenny. He caught up to him in one. Mark passed, but didn’t stay in first for long. Mark and Kenny were battling hard until the last lap. Mark had just re-passed Kenny. Kenny had come into the next corner with so much speed that he slammed on his brakes and hit Mark, knocking them both down. Mark hurried to his bike up and tried to start it. It took 7 kicks before it started. By the time it did Bobby had passed them. Kenny looked like he had hurt his wrist and couldn’t pick up his bike.
Mark finished the race in second. He was mad. “I can’t believe this!” he said stomping his foot. He went over to congratulate Bobby.
At the gate of Supermini Mark was still mad. He was tired of people pushing him around and knocking him down. He was gonna win the Supermini main.
The gate dropped and Mark got the holeshot with Mike Steward behind him. Mark didn’t let him by.
He entered corners going so fast that no one could see how he did it without going over the berm. Mark put everything he had into that race- including his anger at being knocked down. He was rewarded with the win. Coming over the finish line jump, he put his fist into the air letting everyone know that he was number 1. As he came to a stop Mike Steward rode up next to him and said, “That was a good race, man. You’re looking so fast! I couldn’t catch up to you.” They high-fived and got off their bikes.
Back at the trailer Mark had taken his gear off and some girls had come up to ask for autographs. He signed them all with big hearts and the girls left giggling.
“Are you too busy signing autographs to talk to me?” a voice said. Mark spun around and saw Payton standing there. “Nice races,” she said.
“Supermini was. 85 wasn’t,” Mark told her.
“You still got second.” she said.
“Well second isn’t a good enough,” Mark said. “Right now Chris Gilworth could be winning and taking over the points lead.”
“Have you forgotten why you’re doing this?” asked Payton. “To have fun!”
“I can have fun after I have the 85A title,” Mark said. “Besides winning IS fun.”
“You didn’t win 85A today,” she said.
“Yeah well…” Mark said.
“It sounds to me like you need to rethink the difference between having fun and just winning. You’re not going to win every race, Mark. What happens when you move up a class? Do you expect to move to pros and just win every race? No. You’re going to finish in some bad spots- but you’re gonna start moving up. Most of the kids that are finishing behind you are having fun. You should be,too. Even if you don’t win.” And with that she turned on her heal and walked away.
Mark walked onto the plane and found his seat. He sat by the window and was soon joined by a mother and her son. The plane took off and Mark started reading his new magazine. After a while the lady said, “Are you traveling alone?”
“Wha-?” Mark said looking up from his magazine. “Oh. Yeah.”
“Where you headed?” she asked.
“Some place in Michigan,” Mark said.
“Visiting relatives?”
“Nah, to ride dirt bikes,” Mark said.
“I ride dirt bikes” said the boy she was with. “I have 2 KX65’s”
“Do you race?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, 65 10-13,” the boy answered.
“How are you going to ride if you don’t have a dirt bike with you?” the lady asked.
“I just switched teams. I’m going to the manager’s house to train and they’ll have my new bikes there,” he explained.
“What’s your name?” the kid asked.
“Mark Peterson,” Mark answered.
“Oh, I read about you in that interview,” he said.
“Ya, that was me,” Mark said.
Mark went back to his magazine. He was in this one, too. In the article about the results of the past 2 USMXN series races the paragraph said:
“This week in Colorado Springs, Bobby Andrews of California took the win in 85A. Last week’s winner, Mark Peterson, was hit by 3rd place Kenny Fisher and taken down. While Peterson started his bike, Andrews had already passed.
“In the Eastern region Chris Gillworth took the win. After leading for half the race, Gilworth fell. After 3 laps, Gillworth had taken back over the race, and the points lead.
“In Western Supermini, Mark Peterson took a well-earned victory. Peterson came into the corners on fire. He was just too fast for Mike Steward, who took second.”
Mark finished reading. ‘At least Bobby had gotten some recognition’ he thought. Mark read the rest of the magazine then leaned his chair back and fell asleep. When he woke up he asked how much longer it would be until they got to Michigan. They told him about 45 minutes. Mark looked at his watch. It was 3 PM. Just then the lady over the speaker reminded everyone that they needed to change their clock ahead 2 hours because of the time-zone change. Mark did. It was 5 PM.
When the flight landed Mark got off the plane and went to get his luggage. He wouldn’t need much of it since most of his clothes said TPA Racing on them. After he got his suitcase he walked out of the baggage claim area and got a soda at a restaurant. His flight was 15 minutes early so he didn’t expect the person who was going to pick him up to be there, yet.
He had been sitting on a bench for a while drinking his soda when someone said, “Mark Peterson?” He turned around and saw a muscular man standing there.
“Uh, hi,” Mark said uncertainly.
“I’m Clint Jones, Team Suzuki’s weight trainer. I was sent to pick you up,” the man said.
“Oh, OK,” Mark said. Clint picked up Mark’s suitcase and they started walking toward the doors.
“Bud’s house is about an hour and a half away from here,” said Clint as they got into his truck.
After they had been driving a while, Clint said, “I heard about you’re second place this weekend. What happened?”
“Well I was battling with the kid in first place and I passed him and he tried to pass me back. But he hit the corner with too much speed and hit my back tire, and then Bobby Andrews passed me so I came in second,” Mark said.
“But you won Supermini?” Clint asked.
“Yeah, I was really mad about what happened in 85. I knew I had to win Supermini and I did win. I led for the whole race. But now I’m second in points to Chris Gillworth.”
“I’ve seen him race,” Clint said. “He’s really good at jumps and whoops and stuff, but he’s slow in the corners. But he can hit any jump out there that the pros can.”
They were silent for a while until Mark said, “So you’re the weight trainer?”
“Yeah. Kinda like a personal trainer to all of you kids,” he said.
“So we have to do like push-ups and stuff?” asked Mark.
“Yep. You get up at 6:30 in the morning and come work out for 2 or 3 hours. Then you eat breakfast. Then you head out to the track for 4 or 5 hours. Then come back in, eat some lunch and then do something else for the rest of the day,” Clint said, “I think on the track for the first couple of days, you just ride. Later in the week the riding trainer comes to help you guys.”
“Awesome,” Mark said. They talked for a little while until they turned off at gravel rode. They drove down this rode for about 10 minutes, then pulled into a driveway of a VERY nice house. Mark followed Clint onto the front deck where Bud was sitting looking out over his land. Mark looked out, too.
“Whoa!” exclaimed Mark. There was a large Motocross track that stretched over what looked like more than 30 acres. Off to the left there was also a Supercross track. On the track there were people riding. All 85’s by the look of it.
“How’s it going Mark?” Bud asked as they shook hands.
“Pretty good,” Mark said.
“Wanna go see your bikes?” Bud asked.
“Sure,” Mark said excitedly.
“Follow me,” said Bud. They walked off the deck over to a large garage. Bud opened the door and turned the lights on. It was a very nice shop. There were checkered tiles on the ground, big toolboxes, and about 20 Suzuki’s sitting on stands. Bud led Mark over to 4 of the motorcycles and said, “There you go Mark,”
Mark’s eyes were wide. The 3 85’s all had FMF pipes on them, Pro-Taper handle Bars, Schmidt suspension, engine mods, Rockstar Energy Drink graphic kits. Everything any kid riding an 85 could ever ask for.
The Supermini bike looked the same, except it was taller and the engine was bigger.
“They’re all tuned different for different tracks,” Bud said. “Want to ride one?”
“Of course I do,” Mark said.
“There’s a box of gear for you,” Bud said pointing to a large box, and walked out.
Mark pulled out a jersey from the box. It said “Peterson, 83” on the back of it. He took off his shirt and put on the jersey. Next he pulled out some knee pads and riding socks and put those on. Then he put on his pants. Now Mark pulled out a helmet. It had his name and number painted on it. He pulled out a pair of Alpinestar boots and put those on. He pulled the supermini bike off the stand and pushed it out of the garage. He kick started it and let it warm up.
“We had one of the other kids break in the motor. No need to break it in,” Bud said. Mark nodded, put it into gear, slipped the clutch out and was off. Mark took it slow for the first couple of laps, but then sped up and started riding with the other kids. After a few more laps Mark knew that this bike had a lot more top end than his 150. Mark started racing a boy with the number 119. He was fast! Mark was doing all he could to keep up with him. One nineteen looked like he wasn’t even trying very hard. Mark must have finally worn him out because he passed him and started trying to keep up with the next kid, number 312. Mark followed him for a while. On a huge jump number 312 threw the biggest whip that Mark had ever seen on an 85.
They rode a little while longer, but it started to get dark. They all pulled off the track and headed toward the garage. The big door was open so they all headed inside it.
Mark pulled off his helmet and lifted his bike onto the stand. Everyone else did the same. Bud walked in and said, “Everyone, this is Mark Peterson. You’ve all heard of him racing the US series. Mark this is Jason Anderson, Eli Tomac Austin Politelli, Ian Trettel,…” Bud continued on, introducing the rest of the team that was there (9 kids).
After they got done taking their gear off, they went inside Bud’s house. It was even nicer from the inside. It wasn’t that big, but it was fancy.
The boys showed Mark where they would be sleeping. It was a room with 2 bunk beds. The rest would sleep on the floor in sleeping bags.
“Do you like the supermini bike?” Jason asked.
“Yeah,” Mark said. “It’s awesome.”
“Just wait ‘til you ride your 85’s. They’re so much faster than a non-factory bike,” Austin said.
Someone said, “Let’s go swimming.”
“He has a swimming pool?” asked Mark.
“Yeah. It’s sweet.”
They got into swimming shorts and ran out to the pool. It was big and had a diving board. Four new motorcycles, 9 other kids to play with, a pool, 2 tracks. Mark knew he was in for a fun week.