Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, April 04, 2009
Another falls into the Races We Thought For Sure Would be Mudders But Were Not category. A week ago Monster Energy Supercross left a domed stadium for the last time in 2009, leaving nothing more than open stadiums for the rest of the season. The forecast, a week in advance, indicated rain in Jacksonville, and indeed the rain came, eight inches this week. But of course, the track was covered from all of that, and when the tarps came off, the rain stopped and the sun started shining and next thing you know, we have a hard, dry, dusty blue-grooved track. In fact, the Jacksonville course reminds me of something we would see in California or even Vegas—it’s that hard packed. The water truck has been working hard tonight, too. It’s all very unexpected.
With dirt this hard, and the potential for some watering, throttle control will be key. I could see someone losing the front or back end of their bike here and throwing away some spots.
The rest of the track is devoid of seriously tough obstacles. I have found nothing that anyone can do that anyone else can’t (unless it was me out there, because I’d be singling everything). There is a double-double-single into a corner that James Stewart and Chad Reed might try double-tripling. I saw Stewart size it up, but I don’t think it will matter or save much time, because wheel tapping or clipping that third jump is probably just as fast as trying to jump all the way over it.
Reed was looking fast early today, and when he finally found a clear track, he logged in the fastest time of the first qualifying session. But then James Stewart was not happy about that, and he went out and went over a second faster. Stewart backed that up with the fastest time in the second session, too. And yes, I realize we write this every week, but hey, it’s the news and I’m just reporting it.
Anyway, Ricky Carmichael is here to do a hot lap during opening ceremonies, and Jim Holley did an interview with him for www.supercrossonline.com Ricky was impressed with what Chad has done to lead the points, but he did admit he needs to find more speed at times. We’ll see…..
Posted by Jason Weigandt on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
