What up? This is Ricky Dietrich and this is my first story for a magazine written by myself. So, critics please go easy on me!
Our journey begins Friday June 12th 6:30am to the sound of my phone's alarm clock. About 20 minutes later (after a quick shower) I'm on the road to meet the team at John Wayne airport in Orange County. So-Cal traffic is amazingly a breeze this Friday morning, I make it to the airport on time and Mike Fisher and I board the plane together to start one of the wildest weekends of racing of my career.
After a short layover in Denver, our plane finally arrives in Pittsburgh at about 6:00pm. My mechanic for the weekend, Mike Williamson, picks up myself and the team including Mike Fisher (manager), Kaipo Chung (suspension) and Derek Brush (motor tech) and head out to the track. About an hour drive and we arrive in Morgantown WV. We eat some dinner at this Beanery place and then get to bed at the hotel. About 12 hours of traveling and I am beat, I have no troubles falling asleep that night!
Once again it is 6:30am and I am waking to sound of my phone's alarm clock! Except it's actually 4:30am California time. I meet the team outside and it's only a small 15 minute drive to the track. It is now Saturday morning the day of the High Point national and I am seeing the track for the very first time. The Saturday schedule of racing is jam packed and does not allow for much casual time. 20 minutes before my first practice I stand on top the Kawasaki semi to take a quick glance at the track before I fire up my scoot to turn some laps.
Practice from High Point national 2009 is now in the books and I was able to record 10th fastest time in the premier 450 class. My better time coming out of my second session of practice, I rode tight in the first session and spent most of the time on the track just learning the new course. Second practice the track dried out some and had better lines. I told the team I felt comfortable on the new track and actually enjoyed it more over last weekends track in Texas. I made no changes to the bike after practice so Williamson went to work getting it cleaned up while I went to the Monster tower to sign autographs for the High Point fans. After meeting some of Pennsylvania's finest I make it back to the Kawi rig where truck driver / cook Brian Barnhart (Big B) makes me a lunch before the moto's begin.
One of the luxuries of being under the factory tent is being able to watch the races while relaxing inside the semi. As I am putting on my gear for moto 1 I am watching the live feed on the internet of the 250 moto 1 race. This helps tremendously to see what lines the leaders are taking in their race. After some quick words with team manager Mike Fisher I head to the line for moto 1. Gate drops I get a descent start and the racing has officially begun. A few laps into the race and I start to realize I am not riding like myself. I crash while making a pass on Josh Hill but it was just a small slide out; I get up and keep going. Now it's a little over half way through the moto and I am really riding like sh*t! And I start to get mad at myself. I think I was feeling the pressure of everything I had on my plate at that time; Racing both days in one weekend, backing up my 5th place score from last weekend, performing at a level that satisfies a factory team. I had all this pressure on me and I was choking. But that is not me and I have never choked under any pressure any race! I pulled my head out of my butt and started racing. I was able to make some passes, find good lines and put on one of my best late race charges to get all the way up to 7th. Passing Josh after crashing early in the race battling with him. That first moto was a big step for my confidence competing against the best motocross racers in America.
Moto 1 is in the books and everyone on the team is stoked on my late race charge and getting another top 10 finish. Though I am a little disappointed in my performance, it was still a good race and getting 7th is still a top ten where I set my goal at the beginning of the season. Big B makes me another snack and I talk with Fisher to go over sections of the track. I head up into the riders lounge shut off the lights and try to get a quick nap before moto 2.
My hour of down time went by fast and seemed more like 10 minutes. I got up to the sound of the 250 moto taking off out of the gate. Again I watched the 250 moto live feed while putting on my gear. Trey Canard and Christophe Pourcel had an awesome battle going for the lead till Trey had a gnarly crash! I think at that moment it hit me that I had an important race the next day and going out and doing something dumb would be really bad. I didn't let it bug me, but I think it did play into my race strategy. I met Williamson down stairs and he had the bike ready to go and we take off to the line. After the parade lap we had about 10 minutes of down time waiting for the live TV. All I could think about was getting a good start and making this moto easy on myself. When the gate dropped for that 2nd moto my mind must have been on another planet because I got the worst jump possible! Only 10 feet out of the gate I was so mad I was cursing in my helmet at myself. Coming into the first turn dead last I dodge Josh Grant who is getting tangled with someone, but was not able to get out of the way of his swinging leg that basically drop kicked me giving me a good dead leg. But I did leave the first turn on 2 wheels about 3rd from last! (laughs) So now I got my work cut out for me to get back into the top ten. And go to work I did! I came around the first lap in 19th and lap 2 in 14th. I charged really hard those first couple laps and took a lot of chances but was able to get inside top 15. Now behind Justin Brayton we were both moving through traffic quite well until his bike picked up a big rock that hit my right hand. My hand went numb for a lap and at this point is when I started thinking of next days WORCS race. I didn't want to do anything dumb at the motocross race to jeopardize my WORCS race and now I had a hurting hand. I backed off and settled into a good pace to finish the moto scoring 9th. I was pleased with 9th after my horrible start and my combined moto's gave me an overall of 6th!