Article By Randy Toy:
Talk about a cool series, as this was my first trip to a BooKoo series event and I was really impressed by how they were running this race. From everyone on staff that night to how they prepared the track. Even though I was 450 miles from home, I really felt at home here with all the BooKoo event staff. I even saw Mike Kidd talking to some of the riders about the track. It's not all that often in racing at this level that you see someone like Mike Kidd really taking part in every aspect of the event. I was granted a media pass for the weekend but unfortunatly I had to cut out early, I had to leave even before day qualifiers had begun. But the short time I was there I was super impressed with this organization. I would love to attend more of their events in the coming months and defiantly follow this series allot more next year. So to Becky, Mike and the rest of the crew I say great Job and I wish your series continued success.

With last weekends local Arenacross in Brooking's South Dakota race in the books, heading to Guthrie, Ok for the BooKoo Arenacross round 8 was looking to be a great weekend of racing for local up and comer Ricky Draper. Coming off of a 4th place main event finish in the lights class in Brooking's, Ricky was heading into this weekend with confidence and the realistic goal of just making it to the night program to start with, anything after that would be a bonus.
The Guthrie round is known for their woop section, after all this is the the largest arena in the circuit. When you walk in to this arena you are expecting it to be like all the other Arenacross races, short and not allot of room to really wind it out. But this arena is huge, I'm not talking a little bigger than the normal Arenacross track this one can almost be compared to a Supercross track, a little wider and it could be a full out SX track. So in the friday morning track walk with Travis Hodges, Jared Robey, Carl Fritz and Ricky Draper and the rest of the field, everyone was expecting to see the nasty woop section this round is recognized for, instead they saw the longest start in the BooKoo Arenacross rounds this season, stretching nearly the entire length of the arena with a small angled bump at the end.So where were Woop's everyone was expecting to see? In perspective on a track this size and with the history this track has with their woop's, everyone was surprised to see the woop section was no longer than 6 woops long. So instead of more nasty woops they built 2 rhythm sections with at least 2 triples in each section. During practice Darcy Lange had found a combination no one else was trying he took the normal triple, triple,double, double, and turned it into a triple, triple, quad.He was the only one doing it in practice on friday. The riders were defiantly in for a great weekend with the fastest speeds in arenacross this year Round 8 could be anyone's race to win.
Travis Hodges had won top honors in both the 250 and 450 class last weekend in the Local event Brooking's SX, so he was heading into this weekend with confidence. As fast and talented as Travis Hodges is he knows you can be the fastest guy on the track at any given time and still loose the race. I asked him what he thought of the track after the track walk and he said "It looks technical but the rhythm sections will really make this track allot of fun."
With the track walk over and practice drawing near, every one was making those last minute adjustments to their bikes, adjusting the chain, cleaning the air filter, changing the oil and what ever else needed a once over. You could hear an occasional bike start up and rip down the side of the arena. and smell the burning exhaust on a cold morning. It takes me back to when I was a kid and how I love everything about racing. It's so much more than a race it's a way of life.

Rookie Ricky Draper has had his share of bad luck and this weekend was no different, on the checkered flag of his last 450 practice Ricky over jumped the Catapult finish line jump and went to jump the triple after and his wrist dislocated. I was shooting photos in the rhythm section just after the first turn when I saw Ricky hop off his bike and hold his wrist. I ran up to the flager and had him radio the finish line flager and the medics. When I got over to him I asked if he was ok and he lifted his wrist, at this point I could see it was dislocated. The medics came took him to the Ambulance, I began to walk it back to the pits and met his dad, Matt about halfway. When I arrived at the ambulance ricky was in bad shape. They suggested he have it X-Rayed right away. We packed everything up and headed to the hospital.
Between the time we were packing and the time we arrived at the hospital, as frustrated as this was for both Ricky and his dad Matt, the two of them defined to me, through the next few hours I spent with them, what a team really is. In my book a leader drives his riders to excel by displaying the positive even through all the negative and through Matt's support, Ricky was able to accept his unfortunate accident and is looking forward to his next race with a positive outlook instead of dwelling on what had happened.
The X-Ray result showed Ricky had broken his wrist in 3 places. He will see his doctor on monday to see what the next step is, weather he will need surgery or just a cast. We will keep you posted with his results when we know more.

The final results for our local guys from the weekend are as follows.

Travis Hodges CLICK HERE FOR TRAVIS HODGES PICTURES Friday 1-26-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main   10th 5th Not Qualified Arenaccross Class (450F) Heat 1 Semi Main 8th 4th 16th Saturday 1-27-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main 5th - 14th Arenaccross Class (450F)   Heat 1 Semi Main 7th - 18th Carl Fritz CLICK HERE FOR CARL FRITZ PICTURES Friday 1-26-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main   12th 7th Not Qualified Arenaccross Class (450F) Heat 1 Semi Main 11th 8th Not Qualified Saturday 1-27-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main DNS DNS Not Qualified Arenaccross Class (450F)   Heat 1 Semi Main DNS DNS Not Qualified Jared Robey CLICK HERE FOR JARED ROBEY PICTURES   Jared only entered the Lites (250F) Class this weekend Friday 1-26-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main   14th 8th Not Qualified Saturday 1-27-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main 9th 7th Not Qualified Ricky Draper CLICK HERE FOR RICKY DRAPER PICTURES   Ricky broke his wrist in practice..... Friday 1-26-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main   DNS DNS Not Qualified Saturday 1-27-07:         Lites Class (250F)   Heat 1 Semi Main DNS DNS Not Qualified