Here:
Chapter 13-
Mark typed in the words “Mark Peterson” into the Google search bar. The first result that came up was the USMXN website. Mark clicked on it. He saw that it was the points results. He scrolled down to 85A.
# ---Name --------------Round 1/ Round2/ Round 3/ Round 4/-points--Region
78--Chris Gillworth----1----------1----------1----------1------------80-----------SE
83--Mark Peterson -----2----------1----------1----------1------------76-----------SW
767-Charlie Walker-----1----------2----------1-----------2------------72----------NW
31--Chris Symons -----1----------2----------1-----------2------------72----------NE
24--Landon Styner -----2----------1----------3----------1-------------69---------NW
17--Blake Gopy---------1---------2----------3-----------2------------65----------SW
These were the top six people in the 85A results. Mark backspaced and looked at the other Google search results. Most of them were various race results of races that Mark had been in. It was 10:30. Everyone had gone to bed except Mark who couldn’t get to sleep, so he had gotten on the internet on the computer in his and Keenan’s room.
Finally at 11:15 Mark walked over to the bed and got in. It was Friday night. Mark was getting nervous about the race the next day. Landon had told Mark that the track wasn’t very difficult, but this didn’t calm down Mark. He was more nervous about racing with people he had never raced with before. He didn’t want to go out on the track and have people faster than him lapping him. Mark shook himself. He had won the last 3 rounds. Why would people here be any better than back in California?
People faster than Mark had always intimidated him. He was shocked when he moved up from B class to A. When he was in 80B he would go out in the race and he would always be the fastest person. It was very occasional that someone challenged him. But when he switched to 80A, everyone was fast, not just him. Mark finally drifted to sleep.
Mark got up the next morning. When he walked into the dining room for breakfast, Jordan, Jim, Kasey, Matt, Landon, and Mrs. Styner were sitting around the table.
“At least I’m not the last person to get up,” Mark mumbled as he sat down and helped himself to some cereal.
The team all walked out and got into the Mrs.Styner’s mini-van. Landon and Jim were going to take their trailer to the race, but since the TPA semi was already at the track the team was taken in the van. When they got to the track they saw the TPA semi and drove up next to it so the team could get out. All the bikes were up on stands. Mark ran to the track so he could walk it. He was about a quarter of the way around it when Bobby caught up with him.
“How’s the knee?” Mark asked Bobby since his knee had been hurt.
“It’s ok,” Bobby answered. “Doctor says I sprained it.”
“And you’re walking on it?” Mark asked.
“Yeah, it wasn’t that bad of a sprain,” Bobby said.
They continued to walk the track. It had big table tops and rutted turns. It had rained a little that morning so it would be a little slippery in the morning but looked like it would be perfect in the afternoon. After they had walked the whole track, they walked to the riders meeting. 85A was 5th, and Supermini was 8th. Mark walked back to the trailer and to his horror, he saw that the top end of his 85 was taken off.
“What the heck?” Mark said as he walked over to it. Then Lester walked over to the bike.
“The top end was blown,” Lester said, “I’ll have it rebuilt by the first moto.”
“What about practice?” Mark asked.
“You’ll have to ride the 150 in 85 and Supermini for practice.” He answered.
“How did I blow the top end?” Mark asked, “I haven’t ridden it since last Saturday.”
“I don’t know,” Lester answered, “I’m just getting it rebuilt,” Mark looked around. He saw Blake Gopy’s dad looking at them, grimacing.
“You haven’t left the bikes here alone have you?” Mark asked.
“Of course not,” Lester said. “Except yesterday morning when me and Les walked down to the store for half an hour, but there were only a couple people here.” Mark thought he knew what happened, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on this since his 85 practice was coming up in 10 minutes.
At practice Mark waited until everyone had started, then waited a minute then went so he would not be hit by Blake Gopy. His plan worked, but there would be no avoiding this in the actual race.
Mark was sitting at the gate for Heat 1 of 85A waiting for the card to go up. Mark had been relieved to see that the starts were dirt. Landon, Blake, and Bobby were all in Heat 2. The card went up, then sideways then the gate dropped. Mark took the holeshot. He led the whole qualifier and wasn’t challenged by anyone. When he came across the finish line, he did a big whip. When Mark got back to the trailer he took his helmet off and got some water.
“Can you sign this?”
Mark looked around and saw a little boy in riding gear was holding a piece of paper and a pen out to Mark. The boy was holding hands with what looked like his big sister. “Sure,” Mark answered. He took the piece of paper and signed it.
“Sorry about this,” His sister said. She had brownish blond hair and blue eyes. She was very pretty. Prettier than Stephanie in Marks opinion.
“No problem,” he said.
“He saw you win the heat and wanted your autograph,” she explained.
“I race 65 junior,” the boy said proudly.
“Cool,” Mark said. Then he looked back at the boy’s sister. She looked vaguely familiar. “Do I know you from someplace?”
“We go to school together,” she said. Mark remembered her now. She was popular, and most of the popular girls thought all the motocross fanatics were geeks.
“How come we’ve never spoken?” he asked.
“I don’t know, don’t all the dirt bike people sit together?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Well, we better go. Good luck in the main,” she said. Mark was left staring after her.
“What’s your name?” he called after her.
She turned around and said, “Payton,”
“I’m Peterson Mark. I mean Mark Peterson.” She laughed and walked away with her little brother.
“How many girlfriends do you need?” Matt said who had just walked up with Kasey and Keenan.
Mark fell twice in the Supermini qualifier but managed to scrape 3rd. He was not happy with his performance. He hoped he would do better in the main event of 85A. If he won then he would be the points leader of the NW and SW.
Mark got first gate pick. He picked a gate that was around the middle. Blake Gopy lined up next to him. Mark switched gates. Blake followed him. Mark knew what he was up to. Blake was gonna take him out on the start! Mark was too smart for that. He got a spot between two people so Blake couldn’t get next to him. Blake scratched his head, trying to figure out a way to get next to Mark. Finally he picked a spot 4 gates away from Mark’s.
The gate dropped. Mark got out of the gate and saw Blake heading for him. Right before he was about to hit Mark, he pinned the throttle and Blake hit someone else and fell. Mark laughed as he came through the first corner in 6th. Mark came across the first table top where he passed some people because it was very big and not everyone was clearing it. Mark spent the next 3 laps passing people until he was in 3rd. Bobby was in 2nd and Landon was in 1st. They were Mark’s friends, but he didn’t have any friends on the track. He passed Landon. Bobby was a little harder to pass, but he finally did coming across a double. Mark remained in first until the last lap when Blake Gopy passed him. Mark didn’t have any idea how he had caught up, but now Mark was in second. Blake increased his lead a little more. There was only one way to win. There was a huge triple that mostly only the pros were doing. Mark knew he could do it if he committed to it. It was a few corners away from the finish line. When they came up to it Blake was on the left side. Mark couldn’t believe what he was doing but he went for the triple. He soared across it, passing Blake. Blake tried to hit Mark across the last corner, but couldn’t. As Mark flew through the air on the finish line jump, he turned the upper half of his body around and pointed at Blake Gopy.