2020 Mini O's: A Few Things to Know After Sunday Kickoff

The 49th Annual Thor Mini Olympics (otherwise known as Mini O’s) is upon us once again in the Sunshine State. Gatorback is one of the most storied facilities in the country; it is the gift that keeps on giving and this year is no different. Once again there seems to be more people at these races with some 5,000(!) entries. Yes, a small town of dirtbike racers move into a nice little piece of property in central Florida for Thanksgiving. Gosh this sport is something else!

This year’s event has more buzz than usual. Kids graduating classes, new rides, and shoot some even leapfrogging an entire class right into A. So much to talk about in so little time. Let’s get to it because I need to get back to the track already.

Graduation, No Not the Kanye Album

Mini O’s was packed with fresh faces in some new classes. Sunday marked our first proper look at Max Vohland on a 250 (spoiler alert: he didn’t underwhelm), supermini shredder Casey Cochran on a GasGas, Haiden Deegan on a 125 in Schoolboy, Gavin Towers on a 250, Krystian Janik full-time onto Superminis, and Gage Linville with a huge switch to Rock River Yamaha 250… just to name a few that I noticed.

Speaking of Racing

We did actually dig into some SX heat races on Sunday evening which were full of battles as fiery as the sunset we were blessed with.

The Women’s class was a total brawl at the front with Jordan Jarvis, Tayler Allred and Hannah Hodges sending it every lap of the moto. Hodges would grab the early lead and try to check out, but Jarvis and Allred stuck right with her until about the half way point. It was then that Jarvis would sneak around and check out for the win. Hodges would come in second and Allred rounded out the podium.

The Pro Sport classes were a big topic of conversation coming into the weekend. It would feature Start Racing Yamaha’s Matt LeBlanc, Max Vohland, Ty Masterpool, Levi Kitchen, Nate Thrasher, Jack Chambers, Luke Kalaitzian, Cullin Park, just to name eight, however the list is damn near endless. Can you say STACKED?

It would be the Yamaha duo of LeBlanc and Kitchen taking the heat race wins. That said, Vohland looks very comfy on that 250. For those of you living under a rock, he won the Schoolboy titles at Loretta’s this year, and we found out last week he’ll be turning pro in 2021. It’ll be interesting to see how these classes play out through the week, especially going into MX on Thursday.