I70 Half-Mile – Odessa, MO
We were back in action this past weekend at the FAST Half Mile, I70 Motorsports Park, in Odessa, MO. We arrived Friday for practice to see another dry, dusty, and slick track. We were discouraged our first few rounds of practice. Ferran Cardus doesn’t have much experience on larger tracks coming from Spain, where their tracks are short, heavy tracks. Apparently, we were not the only ones very discourages as American Flat Track crew decided to cancel practice halfway through and work on the track to provide better racing for Saturdays headline event. So back to the hotel we went. Now the fun begins.
After a long night of food poisoning, I managed to muster up enough will to get out to the track and get rolling. The track conditions looked better but still was lacking moisture. Mother nature would help with this. After a few hours making some adjustments to the Honda 450, we got Ferran ready to hit the track only to have a light monsoon hit for about 20 minutes. What was initially a worry for a cancelled event turned into a blessing for the track. It was re-worked, tacky and bad fast for the races.
After the rain, the decision was made to shorten the race program. No Semis and only one round of qualifying. Top 16 make the main, the rest pack up and go home. The pressure was on. We got out in practice late and found some speed but needed to make a few more changes to get Ferran feeling better in the corners. He couldn’t get the bike to come through the middle smooth enough to get drive out of the corners, so me made some adjustments and hoped for the best in the qualifying. Again, we went out late which always makes it more difficult, but Ferrand got out and cleared himself of slower riders and got a 13th spot in qualifying, we were in the Main event!
We didn’t have much time to make any changes before the main, but we were comfortable with the bike we had and Ferran was feeling good. A 13th starting spot is tough, but our goal came down to make good, consistent fast laps and get into the Top 10. After a good start we got piled up in traffic in corner one and came out a few spots back from starting position. Ferran quickly made work of those riders and we were up to 8th before a slight bobble pushed us back to 13th again. With the shortened time, Ferran knew he needed to be on it to get back up to the Top 10. After some smooth laps, he found a fast line in 3 and 4 and made work of the next 4 riders coming home a solid 9th place finish.
After the first few rounds of struggles we are very happy with the progress we had and reminded ourselves we have the speed, we have the product to be competitive. With our heads high, we now wait for Kentucky to see what we can do at another new track for Ferran, a big RED MILE!
See everyone at the checkers,
