Wow! is the best word I can think of to describe the trip that the Jet Jam Racing Crew and riders took to Daytona Beach, FL. Let’s start with our Red Shirt Crew that drove 36 hours each way to take the race equipment and the trailer full of skis for the West Coast riders. The Red Shirt Crew took 10-12 days out of their busy schedules to make this race a blast.
Fun in the Sun best explains Daytona Beach. This beach is most famous for it’s white sandy beaches and being able to drive your vehicle right on the sand right to your pit area! The beautiful blue-green waters and white sand did not disappoint.
The Plaza Resort and Spa treated us all like royalty. From the basement on-site parking to the registration right off the pool. The pool and the pool restaurant soon became the HUB for all of the riders and crew.
The four largest groups of riders were all battling for the two weekends for the AWSA Gold Surf Cup. This made every moto very exciting. The motos also became very exciting with Bill Austin adding a split in the ocean, something the riders had not seen before.
One of the most exciting races of the two weekends was of course the Runabout class. Cameron Frame from our sponsor Hidden Trails Motorsports jumped in to change it all up after Jorge Morejon and Troy Leseney had been swapping first and second back and forth. In the end, Jorge won the series and the gold cup.
The Sport Spec class was a blast to watch, with Nick Leseney coming in first after battling Deven Farthing, who took second. Deven Farthing put it out there 100-percent in every moto, racing in three classes, he gets the Ironman award for the week!!
Johnny Smith dominated the first weekend of the Sport Open Class, with Hayden Skillet dominating the second weekend, with Deven Farthing also mixing it up. Johnny Smith ended up taking the Gold Cup overall with Deven Farthing in second and Haden Skellett taking third place. Glen Jung, Jordan Carrol, Bobby Cardone and Nick Leseney also made this class a great race, but all of them ended up with boat issues.
After all of that racing, Deven Farthing jumped on his stand-up and won the overall Ski GP5 Stock Novice Cup. With great surf riding by Dominic Cannady taking the second overall, and another new rider, Auddy Leza taking the third. Matt Rollings and Dominic Cannady were our leaders for the Ski GP 2-stroke class.
Much to our surprise, after the first race, we got a message from Yukiko Kume, telling us it was her dream to race in Daytona Beach. We said we wish we would have known, we would have made sure she had a ski to race. She said if we could get her a ski, she would fly in from Japan.
Immediately, Bill and Brock Austin gave her Bill’s SX-R 1500 to race. She flew in and raced in the Veteran Open Class taking third overall and raced in the Ski GP4 Class running first and second against Stevie Bascom. Which gave Stevie Bascom the overall AWSA Gold Surf Cup.
With Yukiko Kume winning the third overall in Veteran Open Class, that put Travis Pepin, a brand new rider from moto cross on the opium in second, and Duane Bascom taking the overall for the AWSA Gold Surf cup. The father/daughter duo of Duane and Stevie Bascom took home two AWSA Gold Surf Cups.
Attrition was a bad word for several of our riders and their boats. But it was amazing to watch our race family start sharing boats with each other to make sure everyone got to ride laps and get into a class that they could have some fun racing. Thanks to Matt “Happy” Rawlings” and Bill and Brock Austin for sharing their boat and helping with all of the boats to keep everyone on the water!
Huge thanks to Hidden Trails Motorsports’ Trey and Cameron Frame for bringing the amazing Electric Mountain Bike to give away to our racers. Troy Leseney Sr. had a great time, saying, “So our trip to Daytona Beach was great! We raced in the surf for the first time,crashed,jumped,laughed,cussed,blew stuff up,fixed stuff, ate lots of food, saw an alligator, an armadillo, huge grasshoppers, drove through and stood in crazy storms, hung out with friends and met some outstanding people! Got some trophies and won a super cool mountain bike!”
Closing out the weekend, the pool party for the Awards turned into a great time for us all to catch up with old friends and say good-bye to all of our new friends. Please log into jetjam.racing for all of the results! Coming up next Jet Jam Racing’s last two races of the season, Mossdale on August 3-4 and Lake Ming on August 24-25. See you there!
