MAIN PHOTO: Hannah Cole soars through the air. (Submitted photo/family sent to us)
ELMSDALE: A local motocross rider has had a successful 2021 race season—although COVID-19 did impact how much racing outside of Eastern Canada she did.
Hannah Cole competed at many events across Nova Scotia and at the E-Can nationals in Quebec.
The Elmsdale product has been riding dirt bikes since she was five years old. She began racing a few years later.
“I had always been around the sport where my brother had been racing before me so of course I kind of fell into the ways of him,” she said when asked how she became involved in the sport that doesn’t get quite the attention of other motorsports.
The Grade 10 student spoke of her 2021 summer season and how she fared.
“I’ve made good results in both of my classes and made a few first places in the ladies class and reached a couple new goals in the supermini class,’ she said.
Cole, who rides a bike emblazoned with the no. 18, said she travelled to Quebec for the E-Can nationals, where she won the girls 9-16-years-old class.
“Overall, it’s been a great season so far with a couple races left,” she said in early September.
In Quebec she came away with some special hardware. Cole was selected for the “Courage award.” That piece of hardware left an impression on Cole.
“Winning that really made me realize that motocross is not always about winning because they didn’t give me that award cause I won,” said Cole, “they gave me that award because they could see how hard I was working and how much I wanted to be a better rider.
“It made me realize that my hard work is paying off and I’m that much closer to being where I want to be.”
What are her plans for 2022? Well that all depends on the COVID-19 situation.
“Plans always changing due to COVID and not being able to travel,” she said. “We are planning to go to Florida and race minio’s which is a very big race. We would also like to get some training done at WW motocross in Florida as well.
“Hopefully we will have a good season again here in Nova Scotia like we did this year and have an opportunity to get to a couple more bigger races in Ontario and Quebec.”
