Andrew Short Earns Ninth at Oakland
Red Bull/KTM rider Andrew Short earned his fourth consecutive top ten finish with a 9th place result at round four of the AMA Supercross Series held in Oakland, CA.
The threat of rain lingered around all day and eventually made its way to the Oakland Coliseum as night began to fall. As Short lined up for his heat, the rain had seized for a moment giving the crowd a perfect view of Short as he pinned it down the start straight to come out 2nd off the gate in his heat race.
Short rode inside the top three for the first half of the race before dropping a few positions in the final laps. He eventually crossed the finish line in 6th position to put his KTM 350 SX-F in the main event.
The weather continued to get worse making the track tougher for the riders to tackle. The big whoop section got worse, the ruts got deeper and the top layer got slicker as the riders lined up for the start of the main.
Unfortunately, Short did not have the same start in the main as he had achieved in his heat. He came around the first corner in 18th. By the end of the first lap he had passed a couple riders and had moved into 16th. Short never got discouraged and continued to push throughout the entire main event. Around the halfway point, he turned on the gas while other riders were fading. He broke into the top fifteen and began to pick off riders. With only three laps to go he had moved into the top ten and was closing in on the 9th place ride of Ivan Tedesco. As the two riders crossed the finish line jump on lap eighteen, Short was able to sneak by Tedesco and steal the position. Short continued to pull ahead of Tedesco and went on to finish 9th overall.
“I’m definitely disappointed in my end result tonight. I had a terrible start and it took me a while to get going. Once I was moving, I felt good and my fitness helped me close in on some riders at the end of the race. I am glad I was able to gain some valuable positions at the end but there are definitely some areas I need to improve on and I will continue to work hard and progress as much as I can,” remarked Short.
Overall Results Supercross Class –
- James Stewart
- Chad Reed
- Ryan Dungey
- Ryan Villopoto
- Brett Metcalfe
- Trey Canard
- Kevin Windham
- Davi Millsaps
- Andrew Short – KTM
- Ivan Tedesco
- James Stewart – 92
- Ryan Villopoto – 90
- Ryan Dungey – 78
- Trey Canard – 71
- Chad Reed – 70
- Brett Metcalfe – 55
- Andrew Short – 49
- Kevin Windham – 46
- Justin Brayton – 39
- Kyle Chisholm – 39