AFCEC restoration manager cleans up at MotoTrials competition

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Schneider
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  One environmental restoration manager is trying not to put her foot down. At least not when she's riding her off-road motorcycle.

The effort is paying off.

Laura Peters, who supports the Air Force Civil Engineer Center's installation support team at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., recently placed fourth overall in the women's class at the MotoTrials National Championship series. This year's series consisted of four separate weekends in Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and is a competition considered by many to be the pinnacle of off-road riding.

The goal of the competition is for riders to overcome 12 sections of severe terrain featuring natural and artificial obstacles such as streambeds, mud, logs, boulders and slopes - all while taking care not to fall off their motorcycles or touch their feet to the ground.

The competition takes place over the course of four weekends, for a total of eight rounds. During each day of competition, riders are given seven hours to complete their assigned sections. They are disqualified as "non-finishers" if they don't finish within a 30-minute grace period after the allotted time ends.

Trials are won by the person who touches her foot to the ground the least amount of times over the course of the event, Peters said.

The more advanced the competitor, the more severe the obstacles the rider must overcome. In the women's category, there are three levels: Club Woman, Woman and Woman Expert Sportsman.

Peters placed first in the "Club Woman" category in both 2012 and 2013, and advanced to the "Woman" category for the 2014 competition.

"I moved up to a harder class level this year," Peters said. "Now I'm competing against girls half my age."

Another challenge she faced this year was adjusting to a new motorcycle. The specialized off-road motorcycles are built to be lightweight and have a low center of gravity, with minimal fuel capacity and no seat.

After deciding that her 250cc cycle was too powerful prior to this year's nationals, she decided to change brands and use a 200cc model which needed to be custom-built in Italy.

"I only had four weeks to get used to a new motorcycle," she said.

The long competition can be grueling and requires a lot of stamina, Peters said.

"I have always been physically active and currently participate in a crossfit class at Cannon," Peters said. "I also train at a home obstacle course built using railroad ties, and spend weekends practicing on training courses in Roswell and Albuquerque."

Peters is not new to the sport. She has been riding for 11 years and began competing nationally in the MotoTrials seven years ago. She even met her husband, Ray, a 10-time champion in the MotoTrials Expert category, at a training event in Tennessee in 2009.

"My husband used to ride professionally and was ranked second in the country," Peters said. "He is a huge supporter and has been instrumental in helping me train."

To expand her achievements this summer, Peters will be participating in the MotoTrials Women's World Championship Series this September in Spain and Andorra.