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Vital MX Pit Bits: Ironman 1

Finally! A non-mud-filled edition of Pit Bits from the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.

64 GuyB https://p.vitalmx.com/photos/users/64/avatar/c50_110811guyb_redbud_1449985751.jpg?1449984985 https://www.vitalmx.com/community/GuyB,64/all 07/10/06 9415 3581 46002 877 2404 30733 39 1707 2 185

GuyB
9/1/2020 10:40 AM

Okay, mask up, and let's do this week's version of Pit Bits.

There was a little mechanic switching going on over at Monster Energy/Yamaha Factory Racing. Billy Hartle moved over to Justin Barcia's bike...

...while Travis Soules is now back with Broc Tickle. He had been doing Broc's practice bikes, after stints with JGR, RCH, and Tedder Racing.

Dialing in the morning setup for the Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha bikes.

Brandon Hartranft is on the bigger side for a 250, and might be just a smidge outside of the range for a Stacyc.

Craig Monty keeping his notes up to date.

The first practices were a bit sloppy, but still nowhere near as bad as the first two rounds at Loretta's.

How do you keep track of your exhaust plugs?

Joey Savatgy making his way in for the morning.

This was a return to home for Jared Keller. as he grew up not far from the Ironman track.

It was a busy week for the GEICO Honda crews. The mud at Loretta's was tough on them, but they had a much better weekend ahead in Indiana.

Anthony Vicencio making a delivery run.

Gared Steinke tucking it tight in one of the rutted corners.

Stankdog's helmet.

It's a lot busier under the SGB/Babbitt's/ Kawasaki rig this summer.

Mason Gonzales is one to keep an eye on this summer.

Hmm...that new Fox gear.

Hunter Falk waiting for practice to get rolling.

Last week people were asking, "Hey, where's John Short?" Here he is.

The Manluk crew was back in full force this week. Ryder Floyd apparently had a front hub problem in one of the motos.

Dylan Ferrandis' wife, Nastasia, shielded up during the motos.

Nope, that's definitely not how you want to start out practice.

Hmm...a switch to an auto clutch for Broc Tickle?

Here's hoping Jason Anderson is feeling more up to speed next week. He was apparently suffering an aggravation of an old injury.

Alex Ray had an, um...interesting day. Here he is in practice, using his bike as wearable art.

While lining up for the first moto, he noticed that his front tire was going flat. They didn't have quite enough time to get it done before the gate dropped, so he did a lap and came in for a replacement.

They're still working out a few new bike bugs on Benny Bloss' Husky.

Oversized tank? Not for the Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS (or Red Bull KTM) guys. They have a bigger carbon tank available, but for most races, they don't use it. That's not to say that they don't make sure that it's completely topped off before the gate drops.

This week featured a normal amount of scrubbing, buffing, and polishing. Not nearly what they'd had to go through over the last couple of rounds of mud racing.

Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM bike kit. Some assembly required.

Bits and pieces of Marvin Musquin's bike, drying in the Indiana sunshine after a thorough cleaning.

All that orange...

Lee McCollum getting busy with Alex Martin's bike.

Here's a better peek at the rapid prototype heat shield for the bottom of the radiators on the JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing bikes. This knocks off some of the heat that would get transferred from the close proximity to the exhaust

Man, that's a whole lot of wheels.

Want a sneak peek at JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing's Red Bud look? Yep, they'll be using a much brighter plastic kit. Because matching the background in the graphics to the dayglow plastic would be nearly impossible, every bit of graphics was cut out...including small stuff like the Toyota lettering.

Just about all the mechanics have a bag like this one to bring along their weekly stash of plastics, and replacement parts. They'll also bring back rebuilt assemblies, like this bar setup. That makes things much simpler and speedier in the event of a crash.

Rene Zapata elbows deep in the build for Joey Savatgy's bike the week.

Rene crimping up the Oetiker clamps on the radiator hoses for Joey Savatgy's bike. That tool puts a nice flat top on them.

We're almost done with this edition of Pit Bits, so we'll countdown with four...

Three...

Two...

...and won. Eli took back a chunk of the points that he lost at Loretta's, and we're heading into a doubleheader at RedBud. This is going to get interesting...