TUF Honda AX 2012 Opening Round‏

The opening round of the series is
always a challenge. There always seems to be some doubt if you are
100% ready or not. This year it seemed we were as prepared as we
have ever been, so we expected to do well. The day started out well
with Cole and Jeff qualifying 3^rd and 4^th in
the afternoon time practices. Both riders decided on a lower gear
change for the night show and that may have been a mistake.

Starts have been a strong point for us over the
last few seasons, but in Des Moines it was just not there. With the
short start into the whoop section they had, if you didn’t get
there with the first few riders a lot could go wrong.

Jeff was in the first heat and was caught up in
the first turn and came down the first whoop section in about eighth
and slowly picked off riders until he got up to fourth. He caught up
to third but need another lap to get by and he didn’t have one.
Cole was in the second heat and chose to start a little more to the
outside than Jeff thinking he could carry some more speed into the
whoop section. This was good in theory, but when someone on the
inside decides to go straight instead of turning it screws this
theory up. Cole ended up picking up his bike 10 feet off the track
and joined the race almost a lap down. This mistake forced Cole into
the LCQ and another tangle in the LCQ start combined with a tip over
during the race had Cole in the stands for the rest of the evening.
This was a little depressing as this was the first time in 16 years
one of our riders didn’t make the main on opening night.

In the main Jeff had eighth gate pick which was
not great but he did the best with it as he came out of the first
turn in seventh or eighth. He slowly picked off one rider at a time
until he was in fourth around the halfway point. The two leaders,
Chad Johnson and Zach Ames decided to take each other out just about
then and that moved Jeff into second. Bowers was now in front and
Jeff was a few seconds behind with Demuth right on his rear fender.
A bobble in the sand by Gibson let Demuth get a inside line in the
whoops and Jeff found himself in third at the finish line. The top
three riders had about a 10 second lead over 4^th and
actually lapped up to 7^th.

I want to thank all of our sponsors for making
it possible for us to go this year and we hope to see everyone in
Baltimore next weekend

TUF
Honda’s
full list of supporters for 2012 are as follows:

FMF
Power Beverage, Poynt, American Honda, Thor, Smith, NGK, Wiseco,
Renegade, Silkolene, Bazzaz, K&N, KG Clutches, Motion Pro, DP
Brakes, Hinson, RK/Excel, UFO, FMF Exhaust, Cernics, Hot Cams/Pivot
Works, Wow Tickets, Vortex, Factory Connection, Works Connection,
HBD, Motosport Products, Moto Tassanari, Dunlop, Sidi, and TUF
performance products.