“Leading up to the off-season, teams have to do a lot of testing to get their suspensions and engines working the way they want them to. They also have to get all their sponsors in order for the upcoming season. Before Anaheim 1, we went around to the team managers to find out what complications they ran into before the first race of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series."

“You go through testing and everything, and when you get to Anaheim , the suspension is usually soft. We went up to Castillo Ranch and did some testing there, and then we came back and we tested at Kevin Windham’s house, so hopefully we don’t have those problems at A1. The bike is good, and we can’t wait to get out there and see how close we were in the off-season testing.”

“I think a lot of the things that people overlook are just the nervousness of the athletes themselves. Everybody has put in a lot of work, and so has the rider. You come to the first race and all the media wants interviews, pictures of bikes, and so forth. It’s a lot to handle for the first race.”

“Definitely the suspension setup. There’s such a gray area there when you’re dealing with suspension. Every track is different, and that could throw your settings off too. So you’re never 100 percent on your suspension setups.”

“What don’t we run into at the first race? Everything logistical is a nightmare at the first race because of the holidays and off-season races, and everything is on a deadline to get ready for this race. I mean, the pit shirts, awning, the semi, autograph posters, jerseys, and the graphics. Everything is coordinating with sponsors, and nothing can move until the sponsors are done and approved. I guarantee there is at least one team here that just got their pit shirts or is putting that final decal on their rig. To me, that is the most stressful thing about the first race.”

“The main complications that we have before the first race is finalizing sponsors. We’re not one of the high-profile teams, so we have to wait until the sponsors are done with their contracts, and then they come to us. So sometimes we end up doing things at the track on Friday, like putting the new graphics on the truck. It’s hard to be ahead of the game sometimes, but we do the best we can.”

“With the two Canadian rounds going on, now the real difficulty comes before those rounds. So when Anaheim comes, we’re pretty sorted out! When we come to A1, we are just sorting out the last-minute things with the bikes’ final settings and the riders.”

“For us, every year we have to make sure all the testing is down and the bikes are good. We have to make sure the suspension and motors are good with the riders. Then this year, with the sound requirements being lower, we had to use a lot of our time making sure early enough that we had mufflers that would pass the AMA requirements. Then we had to get them on the bikes, because they do lose a little power. After that, the majority of my time was sponsor-related with graphics, shirts, awnings, and so forth. There is an 18-step process that you have to take in the off-season to tie it all together and to make sure nothing is late.”

“I think the biggest thing is that the dirt is so different than what we’re used to and the traction causes some problems. Sometimes the moisture comes up through the dirt and traction becomes harder, and you can’t test for those situations. It’s kind of like a crapshoot. So we have data from years past, but it’s hard to tell how the bike’s going to react in those situations.”