Rising Supercross Star Barcia Looks for Birthday Win
March 26, 2010, 10:17am
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- GEICO Powerports Honda rider Justin Barcia turned 18 on Thursday and there's nothing he'd like more than to celebrate this milestone that with a victory at this Saturday's AMA Monster Energy Supercross race at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
In fact, Barcia decided to forgo a normal birthday party in favor of preparing himself for the best possible chance at achieving another podium finish in the suddenly tight Supercross Lites East championship chase.
"I'm going to train," Barcia said. "How's that for a wild party? I'm going to do some motos at the track and then head to the gym and work out. Pretty exciting, huh?"
Barcia has been riding a hot streak of late with a win and a third-place finish in the last two races. He's pulled into third in the season points and trails first place Christophe Pourcel by just 25 points and Austin Stroupe by only 20 with three races left in the Lites East season.
"Who knows what's going to happen but it sure is getting interesting," Barcia said. "Right now, after the race in Texas when the two guys in front of me crashed out, I'm right back in the points race. If we keep having weekends like that we'll stay in the thick of the championship fight. We'll see what happens."
Barcia avoided mistakes and overcame losing his front brake at Texas just after pulling I not third place. He managed to maintain that position for the remainder of the race.
"I was kind of bummed I didn't win but I made up a ton of points," Barcia said. "All in all, especially with no front brake, it was a really good weekend and I'm pumped on that.
"I had to be a lot more patient after I lost my brake. You can't charge into the corners like you normally do, which is why I couldn't quite gain on the front guys. I was happy with the ride despite losing my brake."
GEICO Powersports Honda teammate Trey Canard is looking for a fifth straight podium finish in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross side. A regular on the Lites tour, Canard is riding at the top level of the sport with Honda Red Bull filling in for the injured Andrew Short.
Canard finished less than two seconds behind last week's winner Ryan Dungey.
The GEICO Powersports teams' other 450cc rider, Kevin Windham, had a rough go of it in Texas. He crashed during his heat race and made it into the main event by winning the last chance qualifier. Windham rallied from his misfortune to finish eighth.
Also running on the Lites East circuit is team rider Brett Metcalfe, who has one podium finish this season.
In fact, Barcia decided to forgo a normal birthday party in favor of preparing himself for the best possible chance at achieving another podium finish in the suddenly tight Supercross Lites East championship chase.
"I'm going to train," Barcia said. "How's that for a wild party? I'm going to do some motos at the track and then head to the gym and work out. Pretty exciting, huh?"
Barcia has been riding a hot streak of late with a win and a third-place finish in the last two races. He's pulled into third in the season points and trails first place Christophe Pourcel by just 25 points and Austin Stroupe by only 20 with three races left in the Lites East season.
"Who knows what's going to happen but it sure is getting interesting," Barcia said. "Right now, after the race in Texas when the two guys in front of me crashed out, I'm right back in the points race. If we keep having weekends like that we'll stay in the thick of the championship fight. We'll see what happens."
Barcia avoided mistakes and overcame losing his front brake at Texas just after pulling I not third place. He managed to maintain that position for the remainder of the race.
"I was kind of bummed I didn't win but I made up a ton of points," Barcia said. "All in all, especially with no front brake, it was a really good weekend and I'm pumped on that.
"I had to be a lot more patient after I lost my brake. You can't charge into the corners like you normally do, which is why I couldn't quite gain on the front guys. I was happy with the ride despite losing my brake."
GEICO Powersports Honda teammate Trey Canard is looking for a fifth straight podium finish in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross side. A regular on the Lites tour, Canard is riding at the top level of the sport with Honda Red Bull filling in for the injured Andrew Short.
Canard finished less than two seconds behind last week's winner Ryan Dungey.
The GEICO Powersports teams' other 450cc rider, Kevin Windham, had a rough go of it in Texas. He crashed during his heat race and made it into the main event by winning the last chance qualifier. Windham rallied from his misfortune to finish eighth.
Also running on the Lites East circuit is team rider Brett Metcalfe, who has one podium finish this season.
