Brandon Robinson sent out this race report we thought we'd share. Brandon was in issue 1, way back in the way back, because he visited the UK and raced with us when he was still an amateur and the UK series, run by Peter Boast at the time, was still tiny. For that reason we've always kept an eye out for him.
Man it sure feels nice to be writing one of these race reports up, feels like its been an eternity. So we're back, American Flat Track, we had our first event last weekend at Volusia Speedway in DeLeon Springs, FL. Cool thing for me is I now live full time 20 minutes down the road, so I guess you can say it's my new home track! We usually race here every year during bike week, so it's a track I'm pretty familiar with. To say I was excited was an understatement, but also extremely nervous. Seven weeks prior I broke my left ankle & tore a ligament at a pro-am event in South Carolina. I flew out to see the infamous Doctor Henry Small, to have surgery to repair the ligament & put two screws in my ankle. Huge shout out to Jerry Stinchfield & Ben Evans, man these guys had my back through this curveball thrown at us the entire time. It's a good feeling knowing I have a team that is this supportive. So the first time I've rode since my injury was the Tuesday before the nationals at a local short track. I felt like my speed was still pretty good, but knew I was going to be in for a long weekend.
On to the weekend, we were fast right off the truck, which I found a little weird given my time off the bike, but I wasn't complaining! Heck on Friday night I even sat on pole for the main event! Adrenaline was definitely kicking in & honestly I was completely relaxed just having fun with my team. I went in to the weekend with no expectations because of my ankle so there wasn't that added pressure on my shoulders. The main event started off good for me, found myself in a podium position until well I just got fatigued. I knew my riding endurance wasn't where it needed to be coming into the weekend because of the injury. Ended up fading to a P6 finish, but I was still happy with that. Felt like it was a respectable salvaged finish all considering. On to Saturday and the track was insanely fast! So fast that we broke the 20 second barrier in timed qualify for the first time. To the teams delight we took P1 in qualifying! Ben had our Roof Systems Indian dialed in along with help from Mike Himmelsbach at Ohlins. Going into the main event I had a better idea of what was going to happen & on how to pace myself. Thankfully I was able to slot into P3 pretty early on & was able to find a nice consistent flow to bring her home on the podium! Man that felt good, sure didn't expect it coming into the weekend! Im pumped on how the beginning of our season has started & looking forward to this little break to get back healthy. Until the next one, thank you all for the support!
Thanks, B.
Photos: American Flat Track
