Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Hello again and welcome to another week in my life. Well this past weekend started out great as we left Friday morning for Kentucky. The kids were very excited for our trip to the Amsoil Arenacross and to stay in a hotel for a few nights. Although the GPS said the drive was only 8.5 hours, something told me it was going take us much longer. Both kids are getting used to the long car rides; as long as they have their iPads and DVD players they’re happy as can be. We arrived at our hotel around 9pm Friday night after the exhausting drive. Even though it was late and the kids were tired, the first thing they wanted to do was swim. After washing the last ounces of energy away in the pool, it was off to bed for all of us as the next day was race day.
Saturday morning came with the announcement from Preston that his throat was scratchy. I really didn’t think anything of it as sometimes we all have scratchy throats after sitting in the car for 10 hours. We drove over to the arena (Freedom Hall) to get signed in and start setting up our pits. As we were setting up Preston started saying he felt weird. Weird how? Weird nervous or weird sick? He doesn’t like to tell us if he feels sick because he knows how I feel about him riding when he‘s sick, if you’re not 100% you’re not racing. He ended up drinking a hot chocolate to warm up, got dressed and went out for practice. I knew when he came back he wasn’t feeling well as he looked pale and felt really warm. I knew he needed Tylenol and guess where mine was, in the hotel! Luckily a mom sitting nearby had some. He felt much better after the medicine and ended up winning his heat race and then he finished second in the main event by only 7 hundredths of a second! It was a great night of racing. By the end of the evening he was feeling okay, so we went back to our hotel to have dinner and retire for the night. With Preston feeling better we figured that the worst was over, boy were we wrong!
As the hotel clock struck 2am Preston woke me up to tell me that he was on fire. I didn’t have a thermometer so we weren’t sure how high his fever was, but the poor kid felt like he was burning up. I gave him some Advil but the fever wouldn’t go away. He was up again at 4am and then to make matters worse we had to be up by 6am for the race. When it was time to get up he couldn’t get out of bed and he looked dreadful. Preston then uttered the words I never thought I’d ever hear him say, “Mom, I can’t race today“. We decided to go to the arena, pick up our stuff and try and get our money back. We went in and sat down for a second to wait for the official to speak to us, it was 5 mins before practice was to begin. Preston’s class was first up and he decided he wanted to go look at the track. He came back and said he really wanted to try practice. I have never let him ride sick before, especially after being up all night with a fever, but when you drive ten hours to a race you start to wonder if you should just let him try. I told him to skip the first practice and wait until the next one.
Even with red cheeks and a fever, Preston was still happy to be at the races.
Practice went by fast and he was actually riding well so we decided to let him race. I went up to the stands to watch, I was feeling even more nervous than usual knowing he wasn’t feeling his best. He hadn’t even made it to the first corner and someone cut him off, he went down and his bike ended up on top of him. I felt like jumping down from the stands. My husband got to him fast and after standing off the track for a minute he got back on. I couldn’t believe it; I really thought his riding for the day would be over after that. It’s bad enough to watch him crash any other day, but to know he felt sick on top of it. I felt terrible; I should never have allowed him to go out there. I ran back to the pits and he came running towards me with blood on his face. I felt like the worst mom ever. As we cleaned him up he surprisingly seemed more motivated than ever to get back on the bike and race. Within minutes he was able to put all of his issues behind him and focus on his upcoming races.
He later went out and won both his heat races which again shocked both his dad and I. He got bad starts in both main events and ended up finishing 4th in the open and 2nd in 50cc 7-8. It was absolutely fantastic racing considering how he felt and we were really proud of him. However, as soon as the last race was over that was it, the adrenaline was gone. The fever came back with a vengeance and he was done. On the long drive home on Sunday night our little racer ended up sleeping the entire 10 hours and then another seven once we got home.
Thank you to Michael Vizer for this photo. As you can tell there was some pretty close racing in Kentucky.
The next day both my daughter and I came down with it too. I know I didn’t have it nearly as bad as the kids but I felt awful. I still don’t know how Preston raced his dirt bike as I could barely push the cart around the grocery store. Later we were lying on the couch, I turned to Preston and told him I was so proud of him for racing when he felt like that. He said “Mom, the track cured me! As soon as I saw it I knew I could go out there and try my best.” He truly loves what he does and never gives up. I still feel bad for letting him go out, he should have been snuggled in his bed, not racing. Luckily everything worked out and he came home happy. I know this was an extreme case, but sometimes our kids will have to perform in life even when they don’t feel well. If they prove to themselves at a young age that they can do it, I believe it will help as they get older. While we’re not sure what this weekend will bring, I’m sure there will be some sort of adventure to talk about. I hope everyone has a great weekend.
Stacey Masciangelo
