Ferrandis Charges to Fifth at Atlanta 1

“It was a very odd day. We had one practice session and then a five-hour break and then went straight into the heat race. It’s hard on the riders, and it’s hard on us to get the bike set up, but I think we did a good job. In the Main Event, Aaron pulled the holeshot and opened the gap to I think 5.8 seconds, but then had an unfortunate little tip-over. I think for him to run up front for as long as he did, it took a mental toll on him. Then once he crashed it kind of deflated him. It was just hard for him to get going again. I think now that he knows he belongs there, it’s going to be a lot better. Then, unfortunately, Dylan crashed in the first turn. He put on an exceptional ride and came through the pack from dead last. I couldn’t have been more proud of him. Malcolm was riding well before some arm pump issues. We will get back to work and be ready for Tuesday.”

“For sure, it was a good ride, but I’m a little disappointed because crashing at the start is never good. I was all the way back in last and came back through. I didn’t rush but just gave everything I had until the last lap. I passed some really strong guys, so that was a good feeling. I was really tired and had a little bit of arm pump, but it was good. It’s always good to be back in the top five, and with that kind of riding, it’s also good for your confidence. We made some small changes on the bike, and the team decided to go in one direction, and it was really good. The bike was much better today than the previous race, so we made one step in a good direction. I’m really happy.”

“I felt good coming into this race and had a really good week of riding. Even though I felt great, I was just kind of pumped up a little bit all day. It was just something about this track – big jumps, two sets of whoops, I think I held my breath a lot. It was a good day overall, and we’ll take the positives. I got some really good starts and led the heat race for a long time. Before that, I had my best qualifying result in third. I was leading the main for half the race, and then I tossed it in one of the tighter sections. I just tightened up and couldn’t really get a flow back after that. We’re going to come back Tuesday with a vengeance.”

“The weekend wasn’t that bad. We were riding really well. It was just a long day, sitting around and not really riding that much because of the rain. We had a really good Main Event going, but I had really bad arm pump and hit a wall. It was kind of devastating because we were fifth and then went all the way back to 11th. It’s a bummer, but part of racing, you’re not going to feel great every race. The only thing that we can do from here is build on it. We had a really good talk with the team and we have to look at the positives. We were riding so great except for the last few laps, so that’s a good starting point. I think we had the potential to fight for a podium if we had a better start. 

“I think this is the longest racetrack I’ve probably ever been on. They tried to replicate Daytona, but I think now I can say Atlanta has its own style. It’s set up like a Daytona track – fast and a lot of switchbacks and things like that, but it has the technical jumps like a regular supercross track, they’re really steep. The whoops are really cupped, so it definitely kind of threw a curveball for everybody, especially with the rain today. We’ve got Tuesday to come back out swinging, hopefully, the track will be a little bit different and the rain stays away. We’ll be ready and I’m excited for Tuesday, it will be here before you know it.”