The Arlington round of Monster Energy AMA Supercross was one for the storybooks, a true Cinderella story. Just over a year ago at the 250SX East opener in Tampa, Pierce Brown, on his first race with the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team, was out front looking for his first ever supercross win, when disaster struck. Brown went down in a scary crash in the whoops and broke his T5 vertebra. Pierce did try to come back towards the end of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, only to crash hard again at his first race back at Ironman.
Arlington marked Pierce Brown’s first time finishing a race in well over a year, and what a finish it was! Brown started in second and was able to get into the lead on lap six and withstood a charge from Jo Shimoda. Afterwards Pierce spoke on his win in the post-race press conference:
“No, no, it hasn't sunk in yet, but I've been feeling really good this off-season," he said on the win. "I mean, I've been able to ride with Cole [Davies] and Nate [Thrasher] and even Caden [Dudney] and the speed that we've been riding at the test track is winning pace, so I knew coming in that we have the speed, I just have to put it together and, like I told you, if a win was there, I'm going to take it. But if not, I mean I'm thinking long game right now. I mean, I just wanted to maximize points and that's my goal from here on out too. Shake things out in the next couple of races and clean some things up because I do think I had a sloppy main for sure. It definitely wasn't up to my standard, so we're just going to clean some things up and just try to keep getting better.”
Brown’s day started off great with being the fastest qualifier and it ended great with a win. But in the middle, he had some hurdles to overcome including race day nerves.
“Yeah, I mean it was a learning day for me," he said. "It's been a while since I've raced a supercross, a full year. So, it took me a little bit to get those nerves out of the way. Yeah, I started off really good in qualifying and then Q2 I was struggling with the whoops, and it kind of compounded, I couldn't really get a clean track and then struggled. I think I ended up sixth and then heat race, terrible start, restart, another bad start and then I was kind of just like playing it safe. There was chaos everywhere. I just wanted to make it through the first couple laps and then make my passes, pick my points. But I was struggling with the whoops. It was really like it came down to that all night long. Once I figured out the whoops and the main, I think I was able to put the rest of the track together.”
One year after suffering a near career-ending injury in the whoops, and it was Brown’s whoop speed that helped him to the win in Arlington. The mental fortitude that takes is not something you see everyday. Pierce Brown could literally hang up his boots tomorrow and his racing career and come back story would be a success. But of course, there’s more to come for Pierce.
“It's the first race of ten and we still have a long ways to go," he said. "And red plate's nice right now, but we still have nine races to go, and I want to keep on building. I mean I'm sure everyone else is too, so I'm excited for the rest of the year.”
In the past Brown’s downfall has always been his starts. But we all know the Star Yamaha can get off the gate just fine. Sure, it is only the first race of the year, but if Brown can back up his speed with good starts, how many more of these wins are in his future?
