What a year seven-year-old Sawyer Saunders of Sechelt had racing motocross in 2023.
Sawyer started the year off racing IronHorse Arenacross in Alberta and took home the championship. Next was the Western Canadian outdoor series, Future West Outdoor series. This is an eight-round series that travels all across B.C. racing at numerous outdoor tracks. Sawyer was very successful and landed himself on the podium every weekend including first place in seven out of eight of those races. All of those finishes brought home enough points to win the Outdoor Championship. Within those months, they hold the largest outdoor race in Western Canada, bringing in kids from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is a three-race format and Sawyer was able to beat out all 30+ gates and take first in all three races, which of course landed him the title, Fastest Kid in the West, Wescan Champion. This win qualified Sawyer to take part in the largest and most competitive race in Canada, Transcan, or the Canadian Nationals. Prior to racing in the Canadian Nationals, Sawyer made his way to Quebec and competed in the Eastern Canadian Nationals. These were all the same kids he would be facing at the Canadian Nationals. Unfortunately, he had a knarly crash, which brought his points down to a fourth overall finish. The nationals was Sawyer’s first time racing in Ontario and there are some huge tracks out there and some fast kids! He had a very serious crash in race one and it definitely made the rest of the races a bit tougher. Sawyer came 10th overall, which gave him the title of the 10th fastest kid in Canada.
Sawyer finished off the year racing the largest Arenacross series in Canada, AMO Reloaded AX. It’s a huge event with tons of spectators and a huge following. It brought in some stiff competition from across Canada but once again Sawyer pushed his limits and in the last race was able to inch the points leader out with an impressive pass and win, earning him the AMO AX championship.
Sawyer is a leader in the pits and has many friends constantly hanging out with him or coming and asking where he is so they can ride bikes or play dirt bikes. He is still a young kid having fun and the adults of his life make sure that he is able to combine competition with fun.
