GEICO Powersports Honda Team Struggles in Broiling Texas Heat

WORTHAM, Texas -- Eli Tomac rode his GEICO Powersports Honda to a second-place finish Saturday in the first moto of the Flagstar Bank Freestone National, but a fading 11th-place result in Moto 2 left him sixth on the day and dropped him to second place overall in the Lucas Oil AMA Motocross 250cc class points.

Like many riders in attendance, Tomac, who led 11 laps in Moto 1 and seven more in Moto 2, struggled with the soaring Texas heat, that topped out in triple digits.

"The heat took it's toll on the guys today," team co-owner Jeff Majkrzak. "Everyone struggled with it. I don't know how you can prepare for conditions like they encountered out there. Going all out for 30-plus minutes in two different heats is tough, no matter how fit you may be."

Despite the temperatures, Australian Brett Metcalfe had another solid showing on the GEICO Powersports Honda team's lone 450cc entry, earning the holeshot in both motos and eventually finishing the two races in seventh and fourth position, which placed him fourth in the day's overall rankings.

"It was cool to get both holeshots," said Metcalfe, who also stayed fourth in the season rankings. "I've never done that before, so that's a great accomplishment, but the end results could have been much better. They certainly weren't what I was hoping for.

"Even though I'm from Australia and it gets plenty hot down there, the heat still got me, plain and simple. I hit a wall. There's just no escaping it when it's over 100 degrees and the humidity is so high. It was brutal, mate."

As was the case with Tomac, Trey Canard also slipped one spot to fourth in the 250cc class after a fourth and seventh place result at Freestone allowed Dean Wilson to slip past him by one point in the rankings. Canard qualified second and had good starts in both races, taking the first turn in sixth and fifth place, respectively. He just didn't quite have enough to catch the frontrunners as the races wore on, and actually collapsed with heat exhaustion just after finishing Moto 2.

A victim of crowded starts, Justin Barcia continues to search for his Motocross groove this season with a 10th and an eighth-place finish to show for his work in Texas. Like the rest of the team, he'll look for better results next Saturday at High Point Raceway in Mount Morris, Pa.

For the second event in a row, Blake Wharton suffered a crash in the day's second moto. His 34th-place finish in Moto 2 knocked the shine off a decent seventh-place finish from Moto 1. The bright spots for the weekend were his fourth and third place starts, and his ascension from 16th to 13th in the season points.

Saturday's race will be shown in primetime on SPEED TV.