Supercross Futures Oakland Recap

Had a great time racing on Sunday and figured I would give a "brief" overview of how the day went, especially for those interested in racing one later on in the schedule. I also had some interesting findings when I looked over my lap times from the day, but more on that later. Overall I had a great day and finished better than I expected, I raced in 250C and 125B/C, however I really only cared about my finish in 250 since I wanted to qualify for the national championship again this year. Here is a breakdown of each class:

250C: I started off on this bike, and because we had around 40 guys in the class they split us into two practice sessions and two heats. After track walk I was pretty nervous about the triple they left in place, it was cut down quite a bit in height but it was still right after the whoops section and didn't seem to be too much shorter in length than Saturday night. In fact, I'd say they left the track about 95% intact, which I thought was awesome! Ironically enough I actually ended up jumping the damn thing first lap of practice and it was no big deal, so all that worrying was for nothing haha.

Heat race went well, I almost pulled the holeshot which was awesome, and I believe I ended up 4th. The track was very dry due to the high winds we had all day, but still not terrible. The important thing was I transfered right to the main event, and after looking at lap times I found that I actually would have had the fastest lap in the other heat so I was feeling pretty good going into the main. I didn't get the best of starts in the main but I did make some great moves in the first few corners and worked my way up to 3rd for a bit. Unfortunately, I absolutely gassed myself trying to stay with the leaders and threw out the anchor on the last lap or two, dropping to 5th. The track was a lot better at this point since they did some track maintenance and the moisture started to come back out of the dirt as the sun went down, and I had my fastest laps of the day by far in the main. SX is a strange beast, you absolutely cannot afford to get lazy because mistakes will just keep compounding, almost like endurocross, and you'll just end up wearing yourself out even more. Overall I was happy with my finish though, I did much better than last year and felt great on the track all day.

125B/C: With this class being a combined B/C and me being on my trusty but oh so slow 04 cr125, I raced this purely for fun and bragging rights against my friend. I don't even remember where I ended up in the heat race but it wasn't great, didn't matter though because everyone transfered to the main. As you can see in the video I'd need to start about halfway down the start straight to have any chance of a holeshot on this bike, so I employed the tried and true method of cutting underneath everyone in the first corner and trying to salvage position. I don't know what the hell happened the first few corners but there was just carnage everywhere, luckily I stayed out of all that mess. I ended up having some fun battles and an epic case over the finish line double due to a poorly timed false neutral due to a loose shifter . Final position was P8, which was much better than expected, so no complaints there.

A couple of notes:

1. I found it very interesting that my lap times on the 125 and 250 were extremely close, within 1 second if I remember correctly. I have to think this is due to the Honda having a much steeper rake and lighter weight, allowing me to turn a lot easier. Power also doesn't necessarily equal speed here either, it's not like I was ever really using the whole power range of the 250 besides on the start straight, so it's not surprising to me at all now that the 250 class often runs the same or even quicker lap times than the 450 class for the pros. I also seemed to get through the whoops a lot better, so I think the 250 may have needed a bit more rebound damping.

2. You really need to be aware of where people are, especially coming into corners. It seemed like everyone rode MUCH more calmly this year compared to last year, but just due to the tight nature of the track you really had to pay attention to when someone was going to make a block pass and give them some room. Once you're commited to a pass it's pretty much impossible to check up, so if you don't give them at least a little room you're both likely going to go down.

3. I can't believe how much more comfortable I get every time I'm on one of these track. This is exactly the third time I've ridden anything resembling a SX track in my life and I feel soooo much more confident than even the last time I rode one in Vegas. I really wish this was more excessible to amateurs because I think with some time and practice I could really get the hang of it and get a good flow going. It's tough because you want to push to go faster, but there's a finite speed you can carry through some jump sections and it's very easy to override the track, patience is key and it's a little counter-intuitive at first.

If you've made it this far, congratulations, here are the main even videos and hope you enjoy: