Photo Credit: Jake Souder (@hbmotoco)
The 47th Annual Winter Olympics kicked off this past week at Gatorback Cycle Park, Florida. In 2017, this event was plagued with downpouring rain, flooding, and delays. This year was quite the opposite. Riders and spectators were greeted with beautiful weather all week long. The Mini-O’s feature a unique competitive format: riders compete on both Supercross and Motocross tracks, champions are crowned in both disciplines, and SX and MX scores are combined to give highest honors to the overall “Olympiad” of the event.
Hailing from Chile, Hardy Munoz was running red hot during the Supercross portion of the week, proving to be a podium threat each moto and leading him to a 450 A SX title. Texan, Grant Harlan, also in the 450 Pro Sport class, caught and passed all but one rider in the final moto to lock in the championship on the outdoor MX track. The B class was stacked with talent this year, putting Stilez Robertson to work after recently coming back from injury. In the end, Stilez claimed some moto wins, yet had to settle for a handful of podium finishes aboard his KX250f. South African Dirco van der Westhuizen charged to an MX victory in the 450 B Limited, and put together a combined SX/MX effort in the CollegeBoy for a silver medal Overall Olympiad. In the Women’s 12+ class, Jordan Jarvis (J.J.) was on fire, as usual. She won on the outdoor track, but unfortunately was taken out hard by her competition in supercross, leaving her with a 2nd overall Olympiad score. From the West Coast, Jeremy Ryan lined up with his East Coast Fox teammate Gage Linville. They traded motos on their 125cc machines, with consistent podium finishes all week long. Also making the trip from California, Hunter Yoder threw down a 2-1 moto score in MX to earn the SuperMini 2 (13-16) title. 85cc pilot Casey Cochran tallied a staggering 8 podium moto finishes. Thor Powell capped off his last 65cc race with a controversial win for the title in the SX 65cc (7-11). Michigan’s John Grewe was on his normal path of success, as he hammered out 5 titles, 3 Olympiads, and earning him the Vet Masters Special Award at the end of the week!
Congratulations to all who lined up at this iconic venue. Links below lead to full event results, and a list of podium performances and champions by the Fox team.
1st PLACE – CHAMPION
- Hardy Munoz – 450 A (SX)
- Grant Harlan – 450 Pro Sport (MX)
- Jordan Jarvis – Women 12+ (MX)
- Dirco van der Westhuizen – 450 B Limited (MX)
- Gage Linville – SchoolBoy 1 (12/17) (SX)
- Hunter Yoder – SuperMini 2 (13-16) (MX)
- Thor Powell – 65cc (7-11) (SX)
- John Grewe – 40+ (SX/MX Olympiad)
- John Grewe – 45+ (SX/MX Olympiad)
- John Grewe – 50+ (SX/MX Olympiad)
***John Grewe – Vet Masters Special Award ***
2nd PLACE
- Grant Harlan – 450 A / Pro Sport (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Hardy Munoz – 250 A / Pro Sport (SX/MX Olympiad) Stilez Robertson – 250 B (SX
- Stilez Robertson – 250 B (MX) Dirco van der Westhuizen – CollegeBoy (16-24) (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Jordan Jarvis – Women 12+ (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Gage Linville – 125 / SchoolBoy 1 (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Jeremy Ryan – SchoolBoy 1 (12-17) (SX)
- Jeremy Ryan – 125cc (12-17) (MX)
- Casey Cochran – 85cc (9-11) (MX)
- Casey Cochran – 85cc (9-13) (SX)
3rd PLACE
- Hardy Munoz – 250 Pro Sport (SX)
- Dirco van der Westhuizen – 450 B / Limited (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Stilez Robertson – SchoolBoy 2 (13-17) (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Gage Linville – 125cc (12-17) (SX)
- Jeremy Ryan – 125 / SchoolBoy 1 (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Jeremy Ryan – 250 B Limited (SX)
- Hunter Yoder – SuperMini 1 & 2 (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Casey Cochran – 85cc (9-11) (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Casey Cochran – 85cc (9-13) (SX/MX Olympiad)
- Beckett Ferry – 51cc (4-6) Shaft Drive Limited (SX)
- John Grewe – 35+ (MX) Earl May – 45+ (SX/MX Olympiad)
Defending UCI World Champion, Loic Bruni, put on a magnificent performance to claim his 3rd UCI MTB DH World Champs title in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. In the closest of contests, Bruni edged out his nearest competitor by 0.2 seconds to take his 2nd consecutive World Champs title.
MTB
