Our friend, and our fellow Racer X journalist, Phil Nicoletti came back to racing this past weekend at High Point Raceway in the 450 Class on his Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha. To say his return was eventful doesn’t really do it justice. Phillip went 12-21 on the day and reported that his wrist, which he broke way back at the Oakland Supercross in February, was sore but otherwise okay. The motos, though, aren’t the real story. Phil’s black cloud unleashed on him about one minute into the first practice of the day.
We hope that Phil’s other races go much better than High Point but then again, maybe not because he gives us so much to talk about when he has days like this.
Here's Phil talking about his return to racing on the PulpMX Show Monday.
Racer X: So you go out for your first practice, back from injury, on the track where everybody is getting the fastest times, and your bike blows up on the first lap? This only happens to you, buddy. Only you.
Phil Nicoletti: [Laughs] To be honest, the whole day was kind of a disaster! I don’t even understand. The worst part was, [where my bike broke] I was the farthest point of the property at High Point, in the farthest corner where nobody could see me. I’m like, You know what? I don’t even know what to do right now. The funny part is, I didn’t even have signal at the track, because there’s no signal at High Point. So, when I got back the service I had about 69 text messages from people. “Hey, are you not racing High Point?” Because my transponder didn’t even register. I didn’t even make it to the finish line. So, it started out pretty rough. I’m like, you have got to be kidding me. The problem with that, the red cross is out so the first lap I don’t get to jump anything. So you’re like rolling these ten-foot doubles into these mud pits. So, I’m just trying to stay up on the first lap, because the track is a complete yard sale. So then my bike blows up or whatever happened. I don’t even know.
“Electrical.” Quote unquote.
Yeah, whatever happened. So I missed the entire first practice. So then, I hooked my bike up to a [tow] quad and I go through amateur pits. Everyone is screaming my name, “Philthy!” Then I go through Venders Row and they’re like, “Philthy!” And I’m like, yeah, f**k my life. So, I get back to the truck and they do their thing. Swap an engine, whatever. Then I’m waiting and I’m trying to figure out if the 250 guys are going faster. I’m like, hopefully they did some track work and the track is going to be faster second practice. Well sure enough, with my luck, I didn’t get to ride the first practice so why would they go through and work on the track? So then I’m looking at the times and I’m looking at guys that were like eighth first practice or whatever, and they’re now like 3-4 second a lap slower. I’m like, I am so f**ked.
