It was the first race in America for Bud Racing’s Maxime Desprey (#951) competing in the AMA SX 250 west coast championship against the best supercross riders on the planet !
For his first ever SX outing at the top level and in the home of Supercross, Maxime was faced with a completely new environment, track and fellow competitors.
Practice went well and Max started by learning the track and improved in each session during the afternoon to qualify for the night program.
The real pressure started at night time when the start gate dropped for the qualifying heat with only top 9 riders entering the main event following a 6 lap qualification race.
Maxime did not make a good start and was last at the first corner but on each lap he passed riders and, on the last lap, he was in a creditable 10th position. Pushing hard to catch the rider in front of him he made a pass for 9th only few meters before the finish line qualifying for the Main Event at his first attempt.
The last race of the night was the main event, a 15 lap race. Maxime did a little better at the start but was not aggressive enough during the first few corners and quickly dropped to the back of the pack. Focusing on his riding the French youngster moved back to 15th place after few laps but he made a small mistake in a corner and crashed and, after restarting, finished the main event in 20th.
Maxime and the team will regroup and assess before going to San Diego for the second round of the AMA SX championship with the goal to improve each race and get closer to the top riders.
