As the MEC approached this year I was really pumped for it to be here. After last years event/race and how it turned out and what we learned last year, I knew that it was going to be a much better event.

In my opinion we had a lot to improve from last year, from track design and consistency of the dirt to a few other little things. This year we, and when I say we I’m talking myself, Dirt Werks and the guys at Feld, were much more prepared. We had the design of the track completed much earlier and it was a way better design built for racing, TV and of course the fans. I do have to say that I cannot take credit for all of the cool and new stuff on the track, it was a collaboration of all parties involved. Although I will take full credit of the Tallevega turn going up in to the stands. I actually wanted that in the track last year but just couldn’t make it happen.

As I got to the stadium and had the chance to see the track in person I must say that the wow factor of the Talladega turn was second to none. I was really happy with not only how it looked but also how it raced. I was so pumped on how it just gave the track a cool look, it was defiantly the first thing you noticed when you walked in the stadium. The joker lane also looked good in person. I did a lot of one eighty turns in the track because I believe that it creates more options to pass and doesn’t get so one lined like ninety degree turns. The one eighty bowl turns also were much bigger than what they are in a normal Supercross. I did like the split start and how it turned out and raced but I think if we do this next year there clearly needs to be a better way to merge them together mainly for safety because that is my main focus.

Once the myself and everyone else got the chance to ride the track I was really pumped, it was pretty high speed and had some really fun jumps and Dirt Werks did a great job with the jump face transitions. I knew that after riding it myself and watching everyone practice on it that the racing would be good.

Pre race I thought that Villopoto would be the guy to beat for sure but I thought that it wouldn’t come as easy for him this year as it did last year. Everyone reading this listen closely and watch, because I believe within the next two years you are going to see a new generation with the Barcias and Tomacs of the world coming into the premier class. These young guys are extremely fast and aren’t scarred of the big guys and they believe they can beat them, and if you believe it in your heart its amazing what can happen. We saw a dose of this at the MEC from the two guys I mentioned and its only going to get better for them. So with all that said, that’s why I thought that it wouldn’t come as easy this year for Villo, with an out of character mistake in the second race while leading and looking really comfortable he would lose his front end go over a berm would result in him sitting out of the rest of the race for of the night. Dungey was the same guy he always is, upfront riding comfortably in his zone and giving him a shot at the win but bad luck with bending his shift lever in the first and second segments of the race would make it much harder for that to happen.

I have to say that I was really impressed with Bam Bam and Tomac, they took advantage of everyone else’s misfortunes and put themselves in great positions to win races and have a shot at the overall. I think they learned a lot being able to race against Villo and Dungey for the small amount of time that they did.

After it was all said and done Barcia came out as our MEC champion this year. I think the track was a success, the split starts turned out pretty fair and the joker lane was simply awesome, especially the last segment. I must say that if we didn’t improve the track from the first year then we wouldn’t have been doing our job right but we did and it was awesome. It was a true privilege to be a huge part of this track design and look forward to doing again next year. Also I want to thank all my fans for the kind words and compliments on the track.