Mike Schultz 2012 Extremity Games Champ
We made the trek down on Thursday to a practice track in Stanton, MI to meet up with a handful of the competitors and get a full day of practice and testing in. I was excited to have a couple of my Snocross buddies along with to help out and ride with us. They are two of the top pro riders, Darrin Meese and Robby Malinoski from the Scheuring speed sports Amsoil race team who are very quick on the bike as well.
Saturday morning the rain stopped just before practice and left a perfectly watered race track for us to tear up! The schedule had us racing two motos for the title and then a 3rd moto just for fun. As we lined up for the first moto, it was great to see a few new faces in our class. They ranged from leg amputees to arm amputees from all over the country. The one guy that was missing was Chris Ridgway, the guy that I had been battling with the last couple years was unable to make it. The gate dropped and I rounded the first corner in 4th place, it took me nearly a full lap to chase down the leader and make a move for the lead. I put down some smooth fast laps and had a decent lead over Jim Wazny ( a fellow Moto Knee user). The second Moto went real similar with a 3rd place start and I moved into the lead about half way through the first lap. The track was an absolute blast to ride, it had some huge jumps ranging from 8090ft. and some whooped out sand sections. I was having so much fun on my new 450cc Honda and the lap times were showing it. I crossed the finish line with a good lead and this gave me the overall win and the Extremity Games title once again!
When I get on the race track at this event or any other race, I dont think about beating the competition. I think about trying to be the fastest one legged guy on a dirtbike and show people what is possible with some determination and some really cool equipment. There was one jump on the track that I had never had the guts to hit in the last three years, it was a humongous 140 ft. down hill triple. I watched Robby and Darrin hit it while they were racing and talked to them to see how fast to hit it Robby said, take the berm in third gear and pin it all the way out of the corner and dont let off. Hmm, that sounds easy huh? We had another practice after the morning schedule and on the first lap I just pinned it out of the corner and hoped for the best. Holy cow! That was an adrenaline rush, I honestly think that was the farthest I ever flew on a dirtbike ever! That just made my day. So on the third moto I was launching that thing every lap and ended up sweeping all three motos (all 1st places) for the day. It was an outstanding Extremity Games weekend!! Stay tuned for some more big news coming soon.
Thank you everyone for all the support!
Mike Schultz #5
