Tough Night for RCH in Daytona - Speedway Digest

RCH/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing soldiered through a tough night under demanding conditions in Saturday’s Daytona Supercross by Honda at Daytona International Speedway.

Broc Tickle, rider of the No. 20 Suzuki RM-Z450, finished 14th, while his RCH stablemate Justin Bogle endured a heart breaker by not qualifying the main event.

Tickle finished seventh in his heat and raced his way into the main event via a third-place finish in his semifinal.

After earning a career-best third-place finish in Round 9 at Toronto, Tickle was looking to back up that performance with another podium effort at the “World Center of Racing.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. The Holly, Mich., rider didn’t get the jump out of the starting gate he was looking for and had to race deep in the pack for much of the night.

“I’ve always enjoyed racing in Daytona,” explained Tickle who sits 10th in points. “The night came down to the start, more so than any race I’ve ever competed in. I got a good start in my heat race and came into the first corner second, but I got pushed wide. I got shuffled back to seventh and that’s where I finished. I had a good semi and ended up third. Headed to the main, I knew I needed a good start to back up my finish from last weekend but it didn’t happen. I struggled in the first three corners and came around in 16th. I wasn’t riding well in the beginning of the race and didn’t make passes quickly enough. I’m happy with my effort on the track but not with my start.”

Bogle missed transferring directly from his heat into the main event by one spot where he finished fifth. Things didn’t get much better for the Cushing, Okla., rider in his semifinal when he had misfortune while leading the race, leaving him sixth when the checkered flag waved. Trouble came in threes for the 2014 Eastern Regional 250SX Class Champion when he got tangled up with another rider in the first corner of the last-chance qualifier (LCQ). With only four laps to make up for lost ground and only four riders transferring to the main from the LCQ, Bogle’s sixth-place finish wasn’t enough to lock in a spot at the starting gate for Round 10.

“It’s definitely a tough pill to swallow,” commented Bogle. “I missed transferring from my heat by one spot, fell in the semi and then got together with someone in the LCQ. I don’t want to say I was a victim of circumstance or bad luck because I truly believe that you make your own luck. We had a lot of things working against us but it was still up to me to get it done. We’ll go to Indy this weekend, pick ourselves up and not look back.”

Monster Energy AMA Supercross rolls on this weekend when the series visits the “Racing Capital of the World” for its annual tilt at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The 11th of 17 races on the 2017 supercross championship campaign will be televised live on Fox Saturday, March 18 beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific.

Author
Recent Posts

Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.