VSI Products is proud of the way its sponsored riders performed at the UCI Supercross World Cup Finals, as well as the ABA U.S. Nationals in Southern California last weekend. Among the results were Arielle Martin's win in the Supercross race and third in the time trial, David Herman's third in Supercross and back-to-back wins by the Intense Factory Team.
Arielle dominated the completion at her home track, taking wins every lap, finally blowing away a field of the fastest women in the world in the main.
In the main, Arielle chose lane 8 and got a decent snap out of the gate. Although she was a little off the pace at the bottom of the hill, her skills down the first straight showed through when she handily took the lead over the second jump. Out of the first corner she had a several-bikes length lead that she never relinquished.
Following Arielle in second was Brooke Crain, who also won Friday's time trial. Brooke rides Sinz Elite Carbon CFC forks and THE number plates. In third, was World Champion Mariana Pajon, who rides for Speed and uses Sinz Elite, THE and ITS products. Fourth and fifth places went to Australian High Performance riders Melinda McLeod and Caroline Buchanan, both of whom were riding new custom painted Intense Podium XLT frames with Sinz Elite Carbon CFC forks. Sarah Walker rounded out the top five, also on the lightweight Sinz Elite forks. In all, six of the women in the main were on Sinz Elite Carbon CFC forks while half were on Intense Podium or Speed M-Series frames.
On the men's side, David Herman narrowly escaped a massive pile-up in the first turn to take third behind a raging Connor Fields. Although he has been one of the fastest riders all year, this was David's first podium spot this season. Maris Strombergs, who rides Sinz Elite Carbon CFC forks and THE helmets, also rode impressively all day, but his run ended in the first-turn crash.
One other highlights for Speed was Felicia Stancil's pro Supercross debut. The Factory Speed rider held her own against Sarah Walker and Magalie Pottier, in her qualifiers, beating both once. A bad lane choice in the semi-final resulted in her getting pinched then crashing spectacularly over the first jump. Felicia, hopped right to her feet and was relatively uninjured, though visibly upset her stellar debut was at an end.
On the bad-news front, Marc Willers crashed heavily over the first jump during practice on Thursday. Marc badly bruised his right shoulder and was unable to compete. Marc did, however, win Best Rider at the annual awards ceremony following the race. Marc has been treating his shoulder and should return to racing in Boulder City.
Over at the ABA track, Factory Intense was putting it to the other teams. Led by riders like Sean Gaian, Brodie Spott and Christopher Blevins, the team won Factory Team both days. Factory Speed narrowly missed second place on Saturday after Kyle Stockbridge crashed in the main, injuring his knee. The team finished fourth on Sunday.
Lee Lewis picked up the A Pro win on Saturday. The victory was enough to push him up to the AA Pro ranks. Lee started his weekend on the Supercross track. In the time trial, he was holding on to one of the fastest times of the day coming out of the third corner. Unfortunately, he got a little too far forward and bonked the second double. The mistake was enough to take him out of the top 64. Lee plans to right that wrong in March when Supercross racing returns to Southern California.
J&R/Speed won Shop Team on Sunday after a strong third place finish on Saturday.
VSI Products thanks all the riders who choose to race on Intense, Speed, Sinz Elite, Sinz, THE and ITS products.
