Friday at Hangtown

May 20, 2005

By Allison Kennedy

The Blackfoot fleet sits polished and ready to go.

I arrived in Rancho Cordova, California around 2 a.m. Friday morning. It's always disorienting arriving in a strange city in the middle of the night. Add a rental car and a three hour time change to the equation and it just keeps getting better. I checked into my hotel with no real concept of where I was. If I hadn't seen John Dowd on the airplane, I might have forgotten where I was headed. After a week of rainy weather, the sun was definitely shining in California on Friday morning.

I stepped outside the hotel and I was quickly reminded that I had landed in the middle of the preparations for the AMA season opener. Parked outside my hotel was Tim Ferry's motorhome, the Monster Energy Kawasaki rig and the ECC rig. Across the freeway, the Makita Suzuki rig and Pastrana's rig lined the parking lot of another hotel. A few blocks away, I found the Blackfoot Honda team had taken over their own parking lot and the mechanics and crew were busy prepping the bikes for Saturday.

Dusty's AMA number.

Dusty Klatt, Donnie McGourty, Jean Sebastien Roy and Mitch Cooke were relaxing on Friday, showing few signs of stress about the weekend's race. There was a sense that everyone had done their homework this winter, trained to their potential and knew what they had to do this weekend. So rather than ponder the race ahead, the crew spent the day at the driving range and later discovered the all-American joy of target shooting.

The '05 Blackfoot graphics.

After spending the week testing at Castillo Ranch and doing a photo shoot, the team seems to be gelling really well. That chemistry has made me even more excited to see what they can do here at Hangtown this weekend. Teammate Damon Huffman was around all week for testing and was planning to hook up with the team on Friday night.

Mitch Cooke's AMA number. Here's hoping he gets to use it.

There are still a few question marks surrounding Mitch Cooke and the weekend. While Cooke pre-entered for the event, he was later denied entry due to a lack of AMA experience. Klatt was originally denied entry as well but was later awarded a spot based on his Canadian 125 West title. Both Cooke and the team are frustrated but are heading into Saturday with a wait-and-see approach. The hope is that a spot opens up Saturday morning and that Cooke gets a chance to show his speed here at Hangtown.

It was amateur day at the track on Friday and the signs of the week's rain were quickly disappearing. The forecast is calling for a hot, dry weekend with a high of 90 degrees on Sunday. After praying for dry weather this week, the track crew will be wishing they had a little more moisture by Sunday afternoon.

I hear there's a live chat at www.mxnorth.ca tomorrow during practice and qualifiers for those who want to cheer the Blackfoot boys on. Any national pride or positive vibes are welcome...

The view from the fence is going to be good

See you at the races.