Supermoto USA 2016 Round 4, Buttonwillow

Evan was finally going to get the chance to try out the dirt sections with Supermoto USA at round 4. It turned out to be very . . . interesting. Suffice it to say that he spent some time on the ground as was getting just a tad frustrated learning to ride in the dirt on slicks. He only got one practice in the dirt since they were working on getting those sections dried out for a good portion of the morning. His first heat of the day was Youth Supermoto Combined, and he went down exiting the second dirt section on his first lap. He finished the rest of the heat without incident, but it took him a while to get his bike started up, so he finished pretty far back. His next heat was the all-asphault class Mini GP2. Evan got a great start and was holding his own in 3rd place. He lost his drive out of one of the corners when his back end stepped out, and Justin Hanna was able to get around him. Evan fought back immediately, but pushed it a little too hard off-line on a pretty dirty track. He low-sided, and once again, his crash put him pretty far back.

Evan regrouped and got ready for his mains after lunch. He was doing well catching up from the back, but he made a pass on a corner exit and ended up carrying too much speed into the dirt section. He hit the dirt and watched everyone go by as he tried to get his bike started. He finally got going again and finished the race, but needless to say, he was quite disappointed. His Mini GP2 main went much better. He got a decent start, but got held up in traffic a bit, letting the top 3 get away from him. He ended up finishing in 4th, but ran a consistent pace, and best of all stayed upright!

On Sunday Evan had his Youth Asphalt Combined race. Evan was the only 65, and he tried to keep up with the bigger guys, but just couldn’t quite make it happen. He put his head down and raced his own race, finishing the weekend on a good note. A big thank you goes out to Catalyst Reaction for this weekend. If they hadn’t fixed his suspension up before this round, it would have been an absolute nightmare! Their handiwork made Evan more comfortable on the bike and he was able to handle it so much better since it was lower (no more tip-toes). As frustrated as he was during the weekend Evan was excited to give it another go next time—he’s going to get this dirt thing down, yet!