Personal History
My name is Connor Gaarenstroom; I was born in Reno, NV on May 31st 2006. I have an older sister named Nicole and 2 Cattle dogs, Koda and Indie. I am currently in Third grade. I get good grades and especially like math and recess.
I have been going to races since I can remember with my family. My dad also races and is on the Board of the OTHG, a racing club for old guys. My mom spends a lot of time helping at the track, score keeping and taking money for racing and practices.
I got my first bike 2 years ago but did not ride much until I started meeting friends at the track. They got me excited about racing so I started in the fall series of the SMRA in September of last year. I like to ride with my friends and my dad every chance I get, from the desert to the track. I got my new 2014 KTM 50sx after my DNF at Hawthorne and love this bike, it's so fast. i have now started riding my KTM 65 it's so much different than my 50 but i like the power and suspension it makes jumping eaiser.
Riding Goals
My riding goals are to get faster and more confident with my riding. I want to bump up into the JR. class sometime in the next series. My dad says I make it look easy, but it still makes me nervous when I get up to the line or try a new jump for the first time. I really just want to improve my riding overall and make more podiums. I will be racing in Arenocross on 11/15; I would also like to do well in that.
Competitive Highlights
For my first race series, I went 5th overall with my best finish a second overall at Honey Lake MX in California. It was a very hilly difficult track and I almost had my first hole shot!
I had no idea that the Jumps in ArenOcross were that big it took a couple practices to get the hang of the track dropping my lap times almost 30 seconds by race time, i finished 9th over all.