State motocross sees increased numbers

Build a nice facility, and the riders will come.

Lacie Kelly, president of the Kenai Peninsula Racing Lions Motocross Division, said both the city races and state races have seen an uptick in racers this season.

The Alaska State Motocross Races 3 and 4 were held Saturday and Sunday at Twin City Raceway in Kenai.

“I think is has a lot to do with the organization and facility upkeep,” said Kelly, who has been on the board for 12 years. “A lot of people love this track. They love the facility itself.

“Kenai has always been one of the top numbers in all the state series.”

Kelly said the city series is almost up to 100 individual riders after being down at 45 riders just four years ago.

“We’ve had a lot of people come down from Anchorage for our races, which is just awesome,” Kelly said.

The state series also is up, with Kelly saying a lessening of last summer’s gas prices has helped. Last summer, there were 98 riders entered in 154 categories at the Kenai state event, while Saturday had 141 racers in 215 events.

Kelly said racers like the only major sand track in Alaska.

“It’s pretty technical,” she said. “There’s a lot of jumps and it can be cumbersome.

“We have to have a lot of flaggers just to cover it. Most track don’t need 15 or 16 flaggers, where we do that just to be safe. There’s so many jumps and blind sections.”

Another recent addition to the facilities at Twin City Raceway point to the family atmosphere that also makes racing so popular.

Kelly said Twin City Raceway recently received three playgrounds from an anonymous donor. The playgrounds are now at the motocross track, the circle track and the quarter midget track.

“It is very popular,” Kelly said. “I think they’d rather be playing on it than race.”

Kelly’s family is a strong presence at the track. Kelly’s husband, Jesse, no longer races after he was paralyzed in an accident at the track three years ago, but the Kellys have two daughters and a son set to race this season.

Conner, 6, is doing his first state races while Danica, 17, is jumping back into racing after some time off. Camryn Kelly, 4, is planning to make her racing debut at the city race next weekend.

Danica, an incoming senior at Soldotna High School, said she stopped racing at 12, but was pulled back in by seeing her sister and brother get into racing.

“I think it’s cool that girls do it, so I just thought, ‘Why not just go back out there?’” she said. “And my dad had a bad accident, so I was like, ‘I’ll show him I can go back out there still.’”

Danica also has a ready-made rival in the Womens category in her aunt, Anna Love, though the word rival may be a bit strong.

“She said that we were going to, but for the first couple of races, if I was behind, she would stop or slow down awhile until I caught up,” Danica said. “Then she was trying to battle me the rest of the way.

“She’s doing pretty good. I thought she was pretty slow when I was watching her when she wasn’t racing. And then when I got there, I was like, ‘OK. Maybe she’s actually fast.’”

Love said she has been riding for about 20 years. Her oldest son, Cole Crandall, and her youngest son, 14-year-old Draiden Mullican, both have multiple state and city titles to their credit.

Love said she’s won the last three city titles in the Womens category, but has yet to win a state title, finishing second last year. Love said she’s off to a slow start at the state level this season.

What keeps Love coming back?

“Being an adrenaline junky,” she said.

Both Love and Danica agreed they love racing in Kenai. Love said the jumps are not short and choppy, and the quality of the dirt is nice without rocks.

“They spray you with them,” Love said. “It’s bad. It hurts really bad, actually.”

Danica said the rocks can actually leave welts.

“And if you crash, it’s like you’re going onto pavement,” she said. “This is a little bit nicer, but the dirt definitely gets dusty.

“You take your helmet off, you definitely have a dirt mustache, but it’s better than landing on concrete.”

Both Danica and Love have no plans to stop riding. Danica said she plans to keep racing when she goes to college in Idaho next year.

“Until I can’t walk,” Love said when questioned about her race plans. “I’ll just go a lot slower.”