Mark was getting ready for his first 85A moto. He had already switched to a set of red gear, and was now buckling his helmet. Eli patted him on the back as he walked out of the trailer towards Jeff who was warming up his 85.
“Lets get a win!” Bud encouraged him. Mark gave him the thumbs up and got onto his bike with Jeff on the back. They road through the pits to the starting line. The race before him was on the line, about to go. Each moto was about 15 minutes, so they had 15 minutes to wait on the line. Mark and Bobby were right next to each other on the line.
When the gate dropped, Mark tried his best to get to the inside and get the holeshot, but wasn’t successful, Bobby got out in front. Bobby went through the ruts in the corner with ease, while Mark had a bit more trouble and was almost passed by Chris Gillworth, but he managed to save it and got back ahead of Chris. Bobby was several bike lengths ahead of Mark as they went up horsepower hill. Mark attempted to pass him in the next corner, but Bobby was riding so good, that it was hard to go through any corner faster than him.
Bobby stayed a little bit ahead of Mark for a few corners, but then something happened entering the whoops. Bobby took the inside to double as usual, but he missed the rut. In the air he was totally sideways and couldn’t get it straight. His bike did a couple flips when it hit the ground, but bobby was just laying there, and he didn’t get up.
Mark wanted to stop and run to him to see if he was okay, but he knew he couldn’t. Mark rode the next lap, but when he came to the whoops, he could see Bobby still there surrounded by paramedics and his mom and dad. When he looked toward the finish line, they were waving the red flag, which meant the race was called off due to an ambulance getting on the track. This meant it was bad. First thing Mark got over the finish line, he pulled over to the side of the track and dropped his bike and started running towards the whoops and bobby. He saw his eyes were open, but he wasn’t moving. Bobby saw him and croaked “Mark”
Mark pushed a couple people to get to him. Bobby beckoned him in closer and Mark put his ear closer to his head and Bobby said, “win it for me”
But then the paramedics made him move away and he saw the ambulance. Mark saw Stephanie crying and he walked over to her and put his arm around her.
“He’s gonna be alright. He said something to me.” He told her.
“He did?”
“Yeah,” Mark said. Jeff had picked up his bike and was heading back to the pits, followed by Mark. The race was halfway done so they didn’t need to restart thankfully. “I hope Bobby’s okay.”
“Me to,” Jeff replied, “That was a bad crash.”
“He told me to win it for him.” Mark told Jeff, “When he was laying on the ground.”
“Well that’s what your going to do then,” Jeff said, “Win it.”
At 5:00 PM, Mark was pacing the trailer waiting for his cell phone to ring. Bobby’s mom had promised to call him when there was news. They thought it was in his lower leg, but couldn’t be sure until after the x-rays.
Jeff entered the trailer to get some tools. “Why don’t you and your friends go and watch the last race?” Jeff asked. Mark didn’t answer because his phone was now ringing.
“Hello?” Mark answered.
“Hi Mark. The doctor just looked at the X-rays.”
“And what did he say?”
“He fractured his tibula and fibula. He needs surgery tonight.”
“Dang. I hope the surgery goes okay.”
“I’ll call you tomorrow morning to tell you how it went.”
“Okay thanks.” Mark hung up the phone.
“What’s the deal?” Jeff asked.
“Tib fib fracture,” Mark answered. “He’s getting surgery tonight.”
“Ouch.” Jeff cringed.
“I’m gonna go see Chris Gillworth to tell him.” Mark announced. He headed off on his bike towards Gillworth’s trailer. When he got there he saw Chris and Payton standing together. Mark quickly hid behind a tree to listen.
“Wanna go get something to eat?” Payton asked.
“Alright lets go.” Chris replied, and they started walking up towards the track.
‘Well I rode all the way down here for nothing’ Mark thought to himself. ‘Oh well.’ So he started riding through the thousands of motor homes and trailers to see if he knew anyone. Pretty soon he came up to Josh, the kid he had stood behind in line during sign ups. Mark rode his bike up to their trailer where he had his two bikes out in front on stands.
“How’d the 85 moto go?” Mark asked him.
“I got 6th!” He replied excitedly.
“Nice!” Mark replied.
“I came out behind you in the start, then got passed until I was in sixth, then just held the position.” Josh replayed, “Do you know what happened to Bobby Andrews?”
“He landed sideways in the whoops and broke his leg.” Mark informed josh.
“Well at least now you’ll be the fastest person in 85 now.” Josh said optimistically.
“Yeah,” Mark said looking at the sky, “Well, I’ll talk to you later.” It was true. He was now the fastest person on the track, but that didn’t make him feel much better.
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Mark didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. He couldn’t fall asleep and then when he finally did, it seemed like he had just closed his eyes when he was awakened the next morning by the ringing of his cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi Mark.” It was Bobby’s mom.
“How’d the surgery go?”
“It went fine. He had 6 screws and a plate in put his leg though.”
Mark cringed, “Oww. Do they hurt?”
“I don’t know. He’s still pretty drugged up and doesn’t really know whats going on.”
“Oh. Well thanks for calling me and telling me.”
“No problem.”
They hung up and Mark went outside where his mom and dad were eating breakfast on lawn chairs.
“Was that Bobby’s mom?” Marks mother asked.
“Yeah,” Mark answered, “He has screws and a plate in his leg. Do you know when practice is.”
“In 15 minutes,” jeff said, “Get your gear on,”
Mark picked out a set of red gear and white boots. After he got everything on he went outside to his bikes.
“Did you see what I put on your supermini?” Jeff asked.
“Mark looked at it. There was a set of red rims on it. “Nice.” He said as Jeff started it. After it was all warmed up, Mark got on it with Jeff behind him and headed off toward the track to take his practice.
The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The temperature was already starting to creep up to above 75 degrees as Mark headed out on the track. Around a corner of soft brown dirt, that already had small ruts grooved into it, over a table top and through another turn. The track was the same as it had been the past day, so Mark just checked out the lines and tripled through the whoops like usual until the last lap when he put in his fast lap. When he made his way back to the trailer and gave his bike to Jeff, he said, “That was your fastest lap yet!”
“It was?” Mark asked excitedly.
“Yeah, you look like you’re riding really good today.” Marks dad said, who had just walked back from the track.
“Thanks.” Mark replied, “Jeff when’s my first moto?”
“Its 85, and its race number 6.” Carson replied for Jeff. He had just gotten up.
“OK.” Mark said, “I hardly saw you yesterday Carson, where were you?”
“I was hanging out with Keenan at the TPA trailer.”
“Did you talk to Blake Gopy at all?” Mark wanted to know.
“Yeah actually, he told me to tell you, that you better stay out of his way on the track.” Carson delivered Blakes message.
Mark snorted. “I better stay out of his way? Yeah right he cant even keep up with me anymore.”
The 20 riders in moto 2 of 85A all popped their clutches as the gates dropped. Mark did his best to get to the corner first, but he had wheelied a little out of the gate so he got about a 4th place start. Chris Gillworth was in first, Blake Gopy in second, and Josh, the boy from the line, was in third. Mark passed Josh by scrubbing a small table top, and then getting on the gas. Blake was quite a bit harder to pass, considering that he was trying to take Mark out. In a corner before the big downhill, Blake went for Marks front wheel, but Mark hit the brakes, and Blake flew off the track. Chuckling, Mark started working on thinning out the small gap that Chris had made.
By the next lap, Mark was right on Chris’s tail, but couldn’t seem to get by him. He was hogging the inside lines so he couldn’t pass him. And things just got worse when he triple-tripled through the whoops. ‘Dang, that was the only place I was gaining any ground.’ Mark thought. Two laps later, they had slowed down there pace quite a bit due to the fact that they both realized they had 7 laps to go. Lap after lap, they would pass each other then get passed back and so on. The last lap was the most intense of all. Side by side up horsepower hill, then Mark on the inside and Chris on the outside through the next corner. Mark got the position, but then got it taken away as Chris launched off a single. These two riders had pulled 15 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack. Mark railed the outside of the corner, then got sprayed with roost from Chris’s muddy back wheel. Mark pulled a tear off as he came down a hill. It was his last one. The next corner was a tight one full of deep ruts. Once again, Mark got roosted and had to throw his goggles. Mark took different lines for the rest of the lap.
Coming into the whoops, Mark was right on his tail, but couldn’t get ahead. Chris punched the air happily as he won the race. Mark shook his head. Chris stopped and patted Mark on the back. Mark did the same, then rode off.
Back at the trailer, Mark changed out of his muddy gear and took a shower.
“Good race Mark!” Marks dad said.
“Thanks.” He answered, “I almost had it.”
“You can get him next time,” His mom encouraged, “You have a couple hours until supermini.”
Mark hopped on his bike and started riding toward Payton’s trailer. When he got there he was instantly high fived by Cody, Payton’s brother.
“Good job man, you almost beat that dude.” Cody exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Mark said, “Almost.”
Payton then walked out of her motor home and said, “Hey, good job in your race. You and Chris were battling!”
“Thanks.” Mark said. “Did you hear about Bobby?”
“Yeah,” She replied glumly, “I talked to Stephanie on the phone, it doesn’t sound good.”
“I wish he could come watch me race,” Mark said.
“Yeah me to, but Steph is coming to watch tomorrow,” Payton informed him.
“Sweet,” Mark replied, “Well I better get going,” He started riding up toward the Suzuki trailer, but was stopped halway there by a camera man and another guy.
“Mark Peterson,” Said the man, ‘I’m Jason Weigendt, and were doing video updates for racerx films.com. We were wondering if you would do an interview with us?”
“Oh yeah,” Mark nodded, “Sure.” He followed them to where the camera stuff was set up and sat down at a table with Jason.
The camera guy said “five, four, three,” And held up fingers for the last two numbers.
“It’s Jason Weigendt here with Mark Peterson,” Jason said, “Mark, why don’t you fill us in on what’s happened in your motos so far.”
“Well in the fist moto of supermini, I was battling with Mike Steward and I fell and messed up my handle bars, but then Steward fell and I won,” Mark said, “Then in 85A, Bobby and me were kinda battling when he fell in the whoops and broke his leg, so I won that.
“Then in the second moto of 85A today, I got about a fifth place start and I passed until I was battling with Chris Gillworth for the lead, but he just got the better of me, but I’ve got supermini in a couple of hours and I plan on winning that.”
19 other supermini riders followed Mark around the first turn. Mark came over a table top and railed the outside off the next corner. In the next corner, Mark glanced back. Steward was no where in sight.