Daytona

Hey everybody! A couple days ago I got back home from a trip to Florida with my family. What do you think I did there? You guessed it! I rode my dirtbike. :D On Wednesday March 3rd we arrived at Southern Raceway near Tallahassee, Florida. The weather was surprisingly not that warm, but it sure was better than the snow in Illinois! I rode there with Shane Cobb and a couple other people for two days. The main track was fast and diverse. On the second day I had the opportunity to ride the amateur supercross track there. Right away I jumped everything, surprisingly, including the triple. That thing was scary for me! Every lap I was always wondering how that one jump was going to go for me. Luckily it went well every time!

After soaking up the sun there for two days, we went to Waldo, Florida to soak up some more sun. Yep, we went to the Waldo MX track! I had been there two years ago, and it was almost exactly the same as I remembered it. This time there were quite a few quads there, though. There were no inside lines on the track at all that day, just flat, slick insides and sandy berms on the outsides. That meant pretty much everybody was taking the same lines everywhere. Oh well, it was good practice for railing berms. :D I rode with Cody Vanbuskirk, Lukas Cobian, Zack Masch, as well as a bunch of other riders there. I guess you could say it was preparing me for racing at Daytona.

The next day we were at Daytona. But no riding! That day, our goal was to get in and watch the pro supercross race. Luckily, My dad and Dan Cobb got in line right away for checking in for the amateur supercross, which is where we got our tickets to get into the pro one as well. We were one of the first ones done and in the speedway. The check-in procedure wasn't very well done, which caused people to have to stay out there all day. Not good! Anyway, we got good parking spots and began watching the pro practice. Some of those guys sure do fly! After a couple hours of taking in all those UV rays, my family and a couple friends went to eat at Ruby Tuesday's. It was really good! Afterward, we went back to the speedway and arrived just in time for the racing action. The races were great. My mom looked like a rainbow sherbet popsicle with her blanket on. Like I said earlier, it wasn't the warmest of weeks!

The next day was the day that my family has been anticipating for months: The Daytona Amateur Supercross! There were almost 800 racers there. That combined with an awesome track was bound to cause some great racing. My practices were so-so; I was getting used to the track. The practices were only two and a half laps each and I had two of them because I was signed up in two classes.

In my first race there was a big pile up after the first turn, which caused the race to be red flagged. On the restart I got a bad start and was fighting my way through the pack. I actually went off the track accidentally on the first lap, which didn't help me much! I caught back up to 17th out of 28 in that race, which I thought was okay. In my second race I got a pretty good start. I was happy about that. I was even in 10th on the last lap! But then I crashed on one of the last turns, which made me get 26th place. That was not the kind of gate pick I wanted for the main!

My first main didn't go as well as I would have liked it to go. I had a bad start and was stuck behind a couple of guys for almost the whole race. I just couldn't get past them. I guess I wasn't aggressive enough. 16th was the place I got in that race. My last main was pretty eventful to say the least. I had to start all the way from the outside because of the bad finish I got in the heat race. My plan was to pretty much go as fast as I could through the berm in the first turn and hopefully be somewhere in the front of the pack. About 3/4 down the straight I saw a bike go flipping out of the corner of my eye. Uh oh! I still went for the turn hard and was thinking about whether I was going to make it through before the catapulted bike got there. I didn't. The bike hit my side number plate causing me to all of a sudden go into the tuff blocks, which then in turn through me off my bike. A good thing did come out of it, though. There's a sweet picture of my bike and a little of me in the air on vitalmx.com. :D Anyway, my bike was still running when I got back to it, so all I did was push it off the tuff block and went! Some of the other guys weren't so lucky... Anyway, I caught back up to other riders in about two laps and then started to pass some people. I rode pretty aggressively that race, I thought. I even made a pass right before the last turn. That race actually got me my best finish of the weekend: 15th.

What a great racing day! Then on Monday we did the Ricky Carmichael University. I don't feel like I learned many new things there and the groups were quite large. Oh well. It was cool to talk to Jeff Emig, Jeff Stanton, Ricky Carmichael, and Clark Stiles. It was also a sweet experience. They claimed that they could drop your lap times by two seconds a lap. And guess what? Mine did actually somehow drop two seconds! So the school overall was pretty good. The goodie bags weren't so bad either. :P

That wrapped it up for my adventure in Florida. I'm pretty sure everyone in my family got tan and sunburned. That was because the weather was awesome every single day. All that was left was a long drive home. Getting home wasn't that great, but I am happy about one thing: the snow's all gone! :D

Here are some videos of the Daytona track.