This past Saturday, Fanless and I drove up to Daytona for the annual Supercross event at the Daytona International Speedway. This is our second time attending this race as part of Daytona Bike Week. Last year we were faced with a monsoon. This year we both had the Black Plague (aka the worst f—king cold ever), and we blew a fuse in my car 15 minutes into the drive and had to stop at Lipton Toyota to have it replaced (btw, they rock!!) I’m thinking next year we might want to prepare for bioterrorism or an alien invasion.
Anyway, here are some pics from the trip. The nighttime ones are pretty terrible because I had to set my ISO really high, so consider that a “heads up.” (Just an FYI: There are two classes of bikes in Supercross. When I refer to the “Lites” races it means they are riding 250cc bikes. The “Main Event” bikes are 450cc.)
Fanless checks his Twitter page (post-fuse replacement) on the ride up.
Him: “Drive your car!”
Me: “I’m bored!”
Him: “Drive your car!”
Not really sure where this was but it was such a pretty day out, I wanted to capture it.
We made it! And not a cloud in the sky!
Trying to look not sick! The riders behind us were waiting for their turn at the qualifying race. Jason Lawrence is in this group. He turned out to have the fastest qualifying time of all the riders.
Still waiting.
Sighting lap.
This is the coolest thing to me: the jumps!
Daytona is the only racetrack that allows the fans to stand trackside.
Fanless checks the image on his camera. Yes, that’s my hair in the corner.
Bobby Garrison
Jacob Marsack
Ryan Sipes
Daniel McCoy (I think; I can’t really see his number.)
We got to see some of the riders in the pits. This is Andrew Short.
Ivan Tedesco
Kevin Windham, winner of last year’s Daytona Supercross.
The track after practice/qualifiers.
After we walked around the pits for a while, we grabbed some lunch, then walked around the display tents outside the stadium. This bike reminded me of a Transformer.
This display from Honda was my favorite. Very eye-catching.
Horrendous pic. We were so sick (and fairly exhausted) by this point, but I really wanted a “we were here” picture.
Nico Izzi in the Lites Main Event. I like him just because his last name is so fun! The whole time he’s racing we’re like “Izzi winning?” “What place Izzi in?”
Picked up this hot photographer at the track. 😉
I think this was the Main Event.
This might be James Stewart. I can’t tell because it’s hard to see the number on the bike. (I told you these pictures were terrible.)
Yeah, I’m pretty sure this was the Main Event.
Ivan Tedesco (#9), Tim Ferry (I think; is that #15 in the back?), and Ryan Villapoto (#2).
Chad Reed (in front) fights for first place.
Chad Reed passed Jason Lawrence in the 16th lap and managed to win.
Crossing the track to get to the prize podium.
Jason Lawrence (this was his first ever 450 race, and he took 2nd; not too shabby!), Chad Reed (1st), and Davi Millsaps (3rd) accepting their prize trophies.
And then my batteries died. Luckily they held out until the end!
By the time we got out of the stadium, we were both feeling like complete crap. So we picked up food at the Checkers drive-thru, checked into the hotel, popped some Zicam, and hit the sack. Good times.
If you want to see more pics from the races, check out Fanless’ flickr page.
Peace out, yo!