ARLINGTON, Texas (Feb. 15) — A challenging race course caused havoc for most of the riders in the 250SX East category Saturday night at AT&T Cowboy Stadium, and the GEICO Honda trio of Justin Bogle, Blake Wharton, and Matt Bisceglia were no exception.
Bogle did best on a crash-filled night, finishing fifth overall, followed by Wharton in seventh. Bisceglia got the worst of the night, damaging his rear brake on the parade lap and salvaging just a 19th-place result in the main event.
“It was a bit of a rough night for all of us,” Bogle said. “My heat race was horrible; probably one of my worst rides ever as a professional. But you know, it kind of turned into a blessing in disguise because I had to come back and race the LCQ, which allowed me to get some extra laps on this crazy track.
“I just rode so much better in the LCQ, got that win, and that lifted me up mentally. I ended up kind of having another bad start in the main, but I knew the lines I wanted to ride and I ended up in the top five, which was my goal at the start of the race.”
The first corner, where several riders went down throughout the day, cost Wharton some valuable positions in the main event and the deficit proved too much to overcome.
“It was really slick there, so getting a holeshot became so important into what angle you could take into the corner,” Wharton said. “It was a mad scramble at the start, and I reached a point where I either had to lift of crash. I didn’t want to go down and throw it all away at the start, so I just got in line.
“I raced up to fourth or fifth and then slid down in the second corner, which was another place where everyone was going down. I got right back up but could only manage a seventh-place finish. At least we got some solid points. I expected more and will get more at the next race.
Racing in his first-ever Supercross event, rookie sensation Bisceglia looked strong throughout practice, but when the action shifted to the evening program his troubles began. He crashed in his heat race before earning a transfer spot to the main. Then he lost his rear brake just before the main, which made navigating the tricky course nearly impossible.
“Today was definitely up and down,” Bisceglia said. “I was mostly happy in practice. I started a bit slow, maybe a little tight, but started feeling better as the day went along. I had a little fall in the heat race but got up and continued OK, then went out for the main, did a practice start in the parade lap, and totally over-shot the first corner because I had no brake. Just a little malfunction with the bike, unfortunately, so I couldn’t jump the big jumps with the other bikes.”
