Team Suzuki Press Office – January 8. New Ricky Carmichael/ Carey Hart Suzuki rider Broc Tickle talks about his debut on the team’s RM-Z450 at Anaheim and his mixed fortunes when he got tangled up with fallen defending champion Ryan Villopoto and crashed out of a top-five position.
I didn’t see much until I got right up on him. He must have hit the tough block when he landed because they were all across the track. I dodged one and then dodged his bike and then ran into ‘Villo’ and crashed. It’s a bummer for everyone on this No. 20 Dodge/ Sycuan Casino/ RCH Racing/ Bel-Ray/ Suzuki Z450 team, but we’re ‘outta here healthy and I’m looking forward and excited about next week in Phoenix. We’re making positive progress.”
Everything went pretty good. The speed is in the bike – our Suzuki is fast. The only thing that I need to work on is getting better starts. I think we have a top-five bike. We just can’t give away track position because of poor starts.
You have to be aggressive on the start. It’s so much easier to be up front and not around a bunch of guys. I just have to get better at putting myself in a position in the Heat race to get a better starting gate and have a better start in the Main.”
It’s a bit frustrating how the Main Event played out. Maybe I could have been a little better after I hit the deck, but you never know. I know our bike is really fast and tonight doesn’t reflect how good our team is. It was just one of those racing incidents that you couldn’t avoid.
