P92
BY STEVE BAUER
CN
III FRIENDLY FIRE
W
ith the 2015 Supercross
season about to kick
off in just over a month
from now, it is safe to assume
that all of the riders and their
teams are in a very serious mode
of preparation. The last outdoor
National was over three months
ago and it's been six weeks since
Trey Canard gave Davi Millsaps a
hundred grand at the Monster
Energy Cup. Riders have had a
chance to check out their new
bikes, and in some cases, new
teams. Mechanics are out at the
test tracks with their riders at least
three days a week, trying differ-
ent engine mapping, pipes and
suspension settings. They watch
carefully as their guy pounds out
lap after lap, stopwatch in one
hand and pit board in the other.
When he pulls in, they get some
feedback from him, check the
telemetry (if equipped for it), log
the data and try something else.
Lather, rinse, repeat. It's a grind,
maybe not as much of a grind as
some jobs, like yours and mine,
but a grind nonetheless…and the
season hasn't even started yet.
The average fan that shows
up at Anaheim Stadium on Janu-
ary 3 has no concept of what it
takes to put a rider on the start-
ing line of a Supercross race.
He walks around with his eyes
glazed over, mesmerized by how
sano the bikes look and how
BEHIND THE SCENES
