After grappling with serious injuries ranging from a broken arm to a concussion, Cochrane offroad motorcycle racer Jillian Kings is back in the saddle.
And she’s in the groove, winning the women’s class July 19 at the MRSI Challenge hare scramble at Fallen Timber in Ghost Public Land Use Zone.
The 27-year-old Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders Association racer completed three laps of the 17-kilometre course under the two-hour time limit on her KTM 250 XC.
“It was technical and fast,” she said of the course set out by the Second Gear Club for the Canadian Motorcycle Association event. She was in a class with eight other riders. “There were quite a few new trails so you had to really focus on reading the flags and trusting your bike and your skill with the bike to go over the obstacles you couldn’t necessarily see.
“It got a little bit harder as the race went on, but it was still super fun and quite a fast course.”
It was Kings’s second race of the season after missing the last two seasons with serious injuries taken in riding mishaps.
“I got fairly badly hurt in 2012. I got a major concussion in Kamloops,” she recalled. “The year before I had broken my arm twice.”
A lot of hard work, rehab and riding has put her back in racing trim. She was third at the Coleman Shale Shaker cross-country race July 5, her first race back from injury. Cochrane’s Suzanne Pelletier finished second in Coleman at the World Enduro Canada event.
“I’ve been training quite a bit to get back into race shape,” Kings said. “Then riding as much as I can to get back to where I was and then proceed to get better. It (Coleman) was a tough race. It was really hard for me. This one (MRSI Challenge) I felt that much better. It was my second race and my head game was a lot better this time.
“It was nice to ride in my back yard. All my hard work is definitely paying off.”
