Irving, TX
3/31/07
The rain fell and fell hard on the open roofed stadium housing round 13 of the 2007 AMA Supercross Series. Despite being covered by plastic tarps, the water seeped through and saturated the soil below. Due to this, practice was postponed and shortened, allowing only one session before the start of the evening program. The sun beat down on the rain soaked track Saturday morning, drying it out slightly and giving the riders and teams a glimpse of hope that things would turn out okay for a good night of racing.
Practice: One 12-minute session to determine gate pick was given to all of the riders. The track was not nearly as bad as some of the bad mud races of the past, but it was still slick and rutted. I had a great go of things, ending up 12th fastest heading into the night show. Ricky also had a great practice and equaled my timed qualification finish of 12th. The sun continued to shine and the track was getting better by the lap.
"Lites" Heat Two: Ricky had a good start and came out around 7th at the exit of the first turn. Over the triple jump, disaster struck as he had to change lines at the last second to avoid landing on a rider that opted not to jump the triple. He got a little sideways and careened off the course, landing on a tuff-block and going down. He was back on track fairly quickly, but with only nine riders advancing from the heat the deficit would be to much to overcome. When the checkers flew, Ricky crossed the line in 11th position.
"Supercross" Heat Two: I had a decent jump and stayed low in the first corner. I was around 13th at the beginning of lap one, but made a few passes into ninth by the end of the first circuit. I cross-rutted in the turn before the finish double and was unable to jump it, getting passed back by about four riders. Over the next few laps I worked back up to 10th, but had to get by another rider to get the transfer. I made a few attempts but fell just short and would have to go to the LCQ.
"Lites" LCQ: This race ended before it even began for Ricky. Heading into the first corner Ricky got caught up in a huge crash and was down for about 25 seconds before getting back on track. At that point, he rode out the four lap LCQ and caught all the way up to 13th. He rode well all night, but just had some rotten luck.
"Supercross" LCQ: I had a good gate on the inside and was in it for the holeshot going into the first corner. Eric Sorby barely edged me out, but I stayed low and headed to the first obstacle hard. I slid in the mud and cased the double, causing Jeff Gibson to graze my left arm with his front wheel and get by me. I set off stalking the pair for the next six laps. On the final lap I was about second back on Gibson for the final transfer and knew I would have to go all or nothing to make it. Unfortunately, my bike had other ideas and began to cut out. I backed down and opted not to jump any obstacles. I barely made it across the finish line before it finally gave out completely. I lost two positions and finished fifth in the LCQ, forcing me to retire for the evening.
Summary: We have the next two weekend off from the Supercross Series, and we will use this time to begin our preparations for the Outdoor Nationals. It will also be nice to spend a weekend at home, as we have been racing for the last thirteen straight without a break. Although we have had a couple of weeks of frustrating results, we will continue to work hard, regroup and finish out the Supercross Series strong.
Other notes:
My flight into Dallas was all ready to land as we approached the runway at Love Field. The weather turned bad quickly so the pilot opted not to touch down and instead flew us to Austin, where we sat for about four hours. My flight finally arrived after midnight on Friday. Meanwhile, Ricky had been stuck in Houston and our flights arrived at roughly the same time. Needless to say, we were both a bit dreary-eyed come Saturday morning.
Although the track started out extremely wet, Dirt Wurx did a good job of working the soil and drying out some of the sections. The only really muddy area was the start straight-away, which is just too big to cover completely.
Ricky Renner, who was signed originally signed up with the team only to contest the East Region Supercross Series, will continue with Team Solitaire/Kingdom/FLY Racing Honda for the Outdoor National Series. We are extremely pleased with Ricky's performance thus far, and are looking for great things from him this summer.
Jiri Dostal is finally back on his bike. After over two months on the mend, he has been hitting the physical therapy hard and making great progress. He will be ready to go at the first round of the National Series at Hangtown in early May.
Thank you to everyone for your continued support!
Ryan Clark
Team Solitaire