Newbury Park, CA. The series went from cold to hot as the travelling circus that is the 2009 AMA Monster Energy Supercross series rambled from Indianapolis, Indiana, to the famous Dayton International Speedway in Daytona, Florida. In what is generally regarded as the toughest SX event of the year, it didn't disappoint as the MDK/Warthog Racing Academy and the Warthog Nation had both times of success and times of disappointment.
As always, the Daytona International Speedway presented a demanding track; one that would soon separate the best from the rest. The track was long and sandy and strength sapping. The weather was just perfect, a complete reversal from last year's deluge.
The pack of MDK/Warthog riders were there ready to strut their stuff. Riding for the Warthog Racing Academy (WRA) on big bikes was the lone #71 of Justin Sipes. Justin is sacking up and racing in the Premier Class, which is stacked to the gills with talent. He certainly isn't afraid of the steepest competition in the world. In the small engine class, WRA was represented by #336 Dennis Jonan, #374 Cody Gilmore, #96 Tyler Wharton, # 831 Ryan Smith, #198 Jacob Saylor, #566 Logan Martin, and #309 Spencer Dally. Joining WRA this week is the highly talented #811 Josh Lichtle, beginning what we believe will be a very successful comeback. Also, old WRA hand #80 Tyler Bright and his Arenacross teammate #445 Chad Wages joined the WRA Sounder for the rest of the year. Special guest and legend Barry Carsten also rode for MDK/Warthog Racing after DeCal Works turned around graphics in a jiffy (In case you're wondering, a jiffy is the time it takes for light to travel one fermi, which equals the size of a nucleon; One fermi is 10-15 m, so a jiffy is about 3 10-29 seconds). DeCal Works is that fast.
Plenty of recent and older Warthog Nation graduates were also on hand to do battle in the name of the Warthog and Power to the Privateer racer. As always, Warthog Racing Team Captain Heath Voss and Leader of the Privateer of the Year race was on hand, as well as our sister team and our #1 Warthog Nation partner MotoConcepts Racing, who represented the Warthog movement with graduates #979 Ben Coisy, #911 Tyler Bowes, #651 Daniel McCoy, and #719 Vince Friese.
A big Warthog hug and kiss to veteran #125 Daniel Blair, who has been an integral part of the Warthog Nation since its very inception. He was witness to the Warthog Racing equivalent of the Big Bang in 2003. And Daniel's perseverance, hard work, and talent have finally landed him a factory-supported ride on the Geico Powersports Honda. Daniel, it must feel great to prove all the naysayers wrong and that your supporters were indeed right.
Of the 18 riders of the Warthog Nation, 16 made it through timed qualifying, some just barely. It wasn't pretty, but we'll take it! Like last week in Indy, there was a deep field of over 60 riders in the Lites class; 10 of 12 riders qualified for the 40 man night show. For the second week in a row, the Warthog Nation made up 25% of the Lites class, which is mind-boggling in some respects. In the Supercross class, all five riders made it again to the big show; they ended up comprising 15% of the heat races. Top qualifying Warthogs included Tyler Bowers, Heath Voss, Josh Lichtle, Daniel Blair, Vince Friese, Spencer Dally, and Jacob Saylor.
Lites heat #1 saw Josh Lichtle lay wood to the tough Daytona track and qualified 4th in his first race back. Wow!! Dennis Jonon, working on his own comeback, just missed with a 10th. The Warthog himself predicts the main for Dennis in New Orleans. The rest of the gang struggled, thus punching their ticket to the toughest race of the night, the Lites LCQ.
The second Lites heat saw Daniel Blair score an excellent 4th place finish after battling for awhile with Vince Friese, who finished 7th. The rest of the guys from WRA would be relegated to the LCQ.
The first heat for the big bikes didn't go half bad for the Warthog Nation riders, as Heath Voss finished 6th and Ben Coisy, who placed 9th, grabbing the final transfer spot after holding off Timmy Ferry, Davi Millsaps, and Nick Wey. Justin Sipes didn't have his best race ever so he too was destined to the LCQ.
Heat #2 was stacked with talent, which made qualifying extremely difficult. 17 year-old vunderkind and recent WRA graduate (now on MotoConcepts Racing) Tyler Bowers was more than up to the challenge, as he held off the likes of Broc Hepler and Mike Brown to qualify 6th. The rest of the Warthog riders prepared for loaded LCQ.
It was on to the Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) for 12 of the modern-day Warthog-inspired Gladiators. The LCQs turned out to be the Warthog Nation equivalent of Napoleon's Waterloo, as the guys went 0 for 12. They'll have better results next week for sure.