Monster Energy Supercross has finally come all the way east, and with this trip comes the kind of dirt and traction the riders have been looking for. It's not old school mega soft rutted track red clay here in the Georgia Dome, but it's still much softer than last week's race in Dallas, which became the standard "goat trail" with one main, baked in race line. Here, by the end of the first group in practice, ruts had formed in a few turns. Other spots, though, are dry and look pretty slick, but as a whole it's tackier than most of the tracks so far this year.
The track is pretty technical and tight, James Stewart had the fastest lap time of the first 450 seeded session and it was a 53, a few seconds longer than last week in Dallas or the week before in San Diego, where riders were dipping into the 40s. There are two whoop sections and they slow the bikes quite a bit because they're so far apart--the spacing is at such a distance where it's hard to stay on top. But all of those bikes slamming into the whoops will definitely do some damage--expect them to get cupped out as the day goes on.r
There's also a unique double that goes across the start straight--it's about the distance of a regular SX triple but there isn't a jump in the middle. It was tough to jump early in practice but eventually most of the riders got it down. Now that the first practice sessions are over, they're knocking the landing of that big double down a bit to make it more forgiving. So far the whoops are holding up, though.
Timed qualifying practice is coming up next, we'll have all the info on the @racerxonline Twitter and Instragram accounts, as well as a practice report right here when it's all over. See you then.
