Race report

Race Report AMA rR 1 at Daytona! Better late than never!

by Rocco Horvath on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 10:52am ·

The AMA season is finally here and it all started at Daytona! This was my first time ever riding on the steep banks of Daytona and what a sight it was. Driving through the paddock and seeing the 30+ degree banking for the first time, I immediately got excited. Getting to the team truck got me even more excited ,seeing the new Kneedraggers.com Motul Fly Racing liveries on the bike and a brand new set of Spyke leathers. I knew I would be looking fresh on the track!
Practice 1 kicked off the start of the season with 2 red flags in 2 laps. I was getting frustrated because the session had begun 20 minutes prior with me getting my first flying lap around Daytona. After the crashes were out of the way, we got another 30 minutes out on track. I was making steady progress, dropping my laptimes every lap, despite the banking spooking me the first few laps. It became so much fun after I got use to it, especially in a draft! At the end of the session I was just 4 seconds off 1st putting me in 18th.
Qualifying 1 came just a few hours later. I knew that dropping my times would simply be a matter of getting in as many laps as possible, so thats what I did. After another 15 laps I dropped 3 more seconds, putting me provisionally in 14th on the grid. I knew I improve that time in Q2, the next morning. The 2 nd qualifying session began at 8 A.M. and within 2 laps I pitted in and sat out for 15 minutes, while the track warmed up. It was to cold and damp to put in a fast time and it wasn’t worth crashing the bike early in the morning. While I waited, Jason Pridmore gave me a few pointers that really helped me relax and I put in a faster lap time of a 1:54.9, 1 second quicker than Q1, putting me 13th on the grid.
In Race 1, I knew I had to focus on getting a good clean start and not push it too hard in the infield and ruin my chances to catch the draft from the guys in front of me. I got a decent start going into T1 in 13th. The first lap went by surprisingly clean, but throughout the race I was battling with Travis Ohge and Miles Thorton, losing touch of the draft up front. We had a great battle all the way to the last lap, but I came out on top finishing 12 th !
During warm up for Race 2, we made a few changes to the bike that I knew, come race time, would get me into the 53′s, so I was feeling really confident for race 2. When the green flag dropped for the race, I got a great start, coming out of T1 in 11th. By the end of lap 1 the top 4 guys pulled away, so it was a train of bikes 5th to 12 th , switching positions every lap. Within 5 laps I hit the front of the 2 nd pack of bikes and I was in trying my best to pull away. But 1 lap later, I lost a position, but I knew the battling would last to the finish. Then, on the 6th lap, coming out T2 in 6th place, my bike lost all power. Apparently, I was running off of pure battery for a few laps and the battery just ran out of power. It instantly felt surreal: being so close to my first AMA top 5 and having it ruined by an unpreventable bike failure. I was feeling down after the race but the support of my team, parents and fans made me feel great about my performance, so I have to thank them for that!
All in all, it was a great experience and an awesome way to get some momentum going for the rest of the season. I can’t thank Dave Anthony enough for asking me to join the Kneedraggers.com Motul Fly Racing team for the 2012 AMA season. I know its going to be a great year with them! Thank you to my head mechanic Jamison for all his hard work, also Shaun, Jeff and Lenny for getting my suspension feeling comfortable on the high banks. Thank you to Evo Sport Ultra Fit for getting me in shape over the off season, rode all day and didn’t break a sweat! Thank you to Jason Pridmore and his STAR school for helping me with my riding, it’s really paying off! Thank you to Kneedragger.com, Lance at Maverick Moto Media, Motul, Fly Racing,, Zips Energy Seeds, Sidi Boots, Arai, Spyke and of course my lovely Mom and Dad for all their support to get me to Daytona!
See everyone at Road Atlanta!!