Ricky Graham Challenge * Salinas, CA TT * 4/11/09
Photos by: Karen Gould – Checkered Flag Photography
After getting second at the last event I rode, which was the San Jose Legends indoor concrete short track race, I was very motivated to train hard during the week and come back to Cali ready to win. I was really excited about this race as my friend Chad Lindsay was going to let me ride his very fast Honda dirt squirter.
We met up with Oregon racer Tim Rickets and drove all night long to make it in time for a practice session on Friday. I felt fast right out of the truck so I just practiced a couple times to get the feel for the track, and my competition. They did an excellent job on the track, it was fast & fun and the jump was near perfect as it had the fast guys just about landing in the corner.
Friday night we stayed in King City with the Nunes family whom were nice enough to put us up and even help us get our bikes ready for the race. Saturday morning we had a nice cloud cover that we hoped would stay to help keep the moisture in the track. I practiced a couple times then came in and put on my brand new maxxis tire to prepare for the days events.
I was in the fourth and final heat race with Jimmy Wood among others. I got a decent start and then won the drag race to the first turn. I put my head down trying to set the pole for the main event but I came up about a tenth of a second short to my brother Jethro who had the quickest heat race time and would sit on the pole for the Dash and Main event.
They took the top two finishers from the four Pro heat races and put them in a 12 lap dash for cash. Stevie Bonsey was the first to drop the clutch and had a wheel ahead of me off the line but my Honda just pulled right past him entering the wide sweeping first turn. As I set up to turn into the infield Bonsey came blitzing up the inside to take the lead so I sat back and followed for a couple laps then going thru the final turn that leads back onto the big half mile straight-away he made a bobble that left the door open so I picked up the throttle to try and get under him but that made me get all slapped out killing my drive onto the straight-away but as we hit turn one I just held it to the pin in 5th gear and just drove around the outside in the cushion taking over the lead I kept my head down for the remainder of the race and as they gave me the white flag they held out a wad of cash that made me try to stretch the throttle cable a little more on that final lap. A big thanks to Jim Beck and all the fans who kicked in to make sure we had Dash money to race for.
Before the 20 lap pro main event the track crew did their very best to give us a brand new track I was excited as it looked like it was going to be a deep cushion which would definitely play into my hands, but the sun broke through the clouds and it took too long to get the tractor off the track so we were going to have some dry slick conditions to deal with.
On the line all revved up and ready to go, the starter runs off the track and throws the green and I just launched off the line immediately ahead of everyone else, I knew I just had to protect the bottom so Bonsey couldn’t do another block pass on me but of course as soon as I left off to make the sharp turn into the infield Stevie was still on the gas and blasted into the inside of me nearly taking the bars from my hand, so I was all fired up and about to stuff him in the following right hander, then at the last second I backed out of it and decided to just wait as I had 20 laps to get it done. They ended up having to throw the red flag for a fallen rider. My brother Jethro was shaking his head after watching Bonsey just Bonzai into me in the first turn and told me to quit playing around….
I had just figured out a technique that was working really well on the starts here so I was pretty sure that with the power of the bike I was riding I would pull the holeshot every time, and sure enough I had the lead into turn one and this time I protected the bottom so Stevie couldn’t stuff me but then he was able to pull alongside of me thru the right hand turn, and the red flag was out again, so we would have one more re-start and it was the same thing I would pull the holeshot but couldn’t keep him behind me thru the first couple turns. So I was following him around trying my high line thru the sweeper the first couple times but that was simply not going to work. It was way too dry up there so I had to change up my lines a little and started to try to set-up the pass. He was going so fast thru the right hander I would do everything I could to keep up and I was definitely on the ragged edge, and in a two wheel drift thru that fast right hand corner before the jump. I finally passed him at the end of the front straight-away but he wasn’t done and was able to re-pass me as we hit the infield. This was turning into a real dog fight as we started to lap riders. A couple laps later he ran it a little wide coming into the infield so I gunned it and let my bike drift right in front of him to show him an aggressive block pass of my own. From then on it was smooth sailing. I think I was able to gap him before he had to pull off the track with bike problems making it a one two finish for the Halbert Bros. With Jimmy Wood third, then came Michael Avila and Mikey Rush rounding out the top five.
A special thanks to all my sponsors for their continued support:
Kings Kustoms / Fredericktown Yamaha / Scott Powersports / F&S H-D / AGV / Dainese / Woody Kyle Racing / Deluxe H-D / A&A Racing / Top One / Barnett / Maxxis / Micah Racing / Grandpa Bill / Kibblewhite / Fluid Suspension / K&N / Bryan Trippe / Tucker Rocky / Tsubaki / Aqua Flo / Nymo Plates / Cometic / Utopia / Web Cam / Peiroli Racing / MSD / G2 Ergonomics / Saddlemen / Kalapus Chiropractic / CP Pistons / Thumbs-Up / J&M / Durelle Racing / Gene & Gail Cummings / West Coast Hotshoes / Racing Optics / Royal Publishing / Team K-POW / Chicken Hawk / Oury Grips
