Supercross Futures Oakland GoPros

Figured I would throw up my gopro videos from the weekend and give a short recap:

https://youtu.be/RoViYdrSBXI

Overall the day was insanely fun, it was great to finally be able to ride a track like this and see what it was like! For the record, I'm one of those "sketchy" C-class riders that Vital warriors are convinced have no business on a track like this, and somehow I miraculously survived and even had fun!

Seriously though, up until this weekend I had never ridden anything like this and I wasn't sure how it would go. Luckily I'm on my bmx bike a few times a week at the local park so timing jumps really isn't too big of a deal for me, and this was by far one of the most fun tracks I've ever ridden. I love the technical challenge and having to be precise without over-riding the track, it was a learning curve and I think it shows since I feel like I got better and felt more comfortable every time I went on the track. Being able to experiment and try different rhythms was really cool for me and brought me back to bmx racing as a kid, I get bored on regular motocross track sometimes just because it's the same jumps every lap with no options for variety. I wish I could ride a track like this more often, I felt like there were some other jumps I could do but with only 4 laps of practice then jumping right into the races it was hard to try things. You'll see that I sent a few different rhythms throughout the day, but doing them for the first time in a race is a little sketchy and risky.

I struggled with starts on the 125 all day. That bike is slow as hell and it shows on the starts, but I also don't ride it much so I know my technique is seriously lacking. Riding one on a track like this was challenging but also really fun, you had damn well better be in the right gear or you're gonna have a rough time getting over the nest jump. Major respect to the guys that could do it well back in the day, definitely not point and shoot like a 250! My starts on the 250 were a lot better, I pretty much just always lined up on the outside to avoid the inevitable carnage in the first turn (I gotta go to work on Monday, plus I'm a puss) and it seemed to work out alright.

Positives:
1. I think they did an awesome job with the track. Taking out the major triples but leaving the rhythm sections relatively intact was perfect. The whoops were slightly smaller than Saturday night as well, but still challenging for everyone, especially as the day went on. Finish like was also significantly smaller, which was also probably a good idea or nothing smaller than a 250 would have been hitting it.

2. Getting done at around 6pm was nice. I was home by 7 and was even able to race my final main event. After hearing that A2 got done at 9pm I was planning on just skipping my last race since I was the second to last moto, but they ran through everything really efficiently.

3. Racing in the stadium! This is pretty obvious but it was cool as hell, definitely something I won't forget. Plus being behind the same gate that the pros were on just 12 hours earlier was pretty awesome.

4. Track prep was great all day. Wasn't really muddy in the morning and never really got super dried out by the end of the day, very well managed.

Negatives:
1. Some of these kids in the 125 class were nuts! Bro coming in hot and smashing my pipe for a rousing 15th place in the heat race was a major highlight of my day. . . It's kind of funny, I literally only placed as well as I did in that class because I stayed upright the entire main event. Guys were just splatting themselves everywhere and I'd just ride right by at my less that stellar pace

2. Parking in the pits was an absolute shit show, as was coming in and out of the stadium. We seriously don't need to have people go through a F-ing metal detector and wait in line like it's a football game every time they go in and out to watch a race, it was a nightmare and people were pissed.


Overall, awesome day and I would highly recommend giving it a try!