BROC TICKLE COLLECTS THIRD TOP-10 FINISH OF THE SEASON
February 18, 2013
ARLINGTON, TX (February 16, 2013) - It was a productive night on the track for Dodge/RCH Racing as riders Broc Tickle and Josh Hill advanced to the Main Event on their Suzuki Z450s at Round 7 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series here at Cowboy Stadium.
Tickle led Dodge/RCH Racing with a 10th-place finish Saturday night while Hill had a season-best 15th in the 20-lap feature.
“I felt that my Main Event ride was the best that I’ve had all year,” Tickle said. “It stinks that I didn’t get the start that I wanted because I felt awesome in the Main. We’ll take it.”
Racing indoors for the first time this season was no easy feat as the world’s greatest Supercross riders took to the dirt at colossal Cowboy Stadium. They were challenged with a one groove circuit with heavily rutted corner sections. Finding speed on the surface was quite the balancing act for both riders and crew chiefs. Advantage – the race track.
“The one rhythm section just past the start-finish line was really tricky,” said Tickle. “It had a kicker in the triple at the end and a bunch of guys missed it. I had a little incident there in the middle of the race that threw me sideways. I think I lost a position and had to fight back. I’m happy with the way I rode. We’ll keep getting the bike better every week. I’ll take it.”
Hill was solid in earning his second consecutive Main Event start.
“I got a really bad jump out of the gate and got pinched between Broc (Tickle) and (Matt) Goerke. I tried to cut up the inside and came out okay. I made a couple mistakes and a few guys got around me and I had to pick them back off later in the race. It was an improvement from last week. We just need to keep working up the totem pole.”
Fellow Suzuki rider and point leader Davi Millsaps set the early pace in practice, ripping off a time of 44.651 seconds to lead all riders entering the evening session.
In Heat 1, Tickle advanced to his seventh consecutive Main Event appearance with a seventh-place finish. Hill was right behind in eighth. An explosive start had Hill running as high as third early in the Heat while Tickle was ninth out of the gate.
“I got a good start (in the Heat), tucked in around third and just tried to hang in with the lead guys,” said Hill. “I think I was up to third for two or three laps and then people just started running in on me. I just fell into a nice comfortable position because I knew that I had enough room behind me to make the Main.”
As the case in the first six SX events this season, race starts again proved to a major factor for both riders in the Main Event.
Ryan Villopoto raced to a wire-to-wire win, earning his third victory this season. Millsaps was the runner-up with Ryan Dungey third.
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