Redux Beverages/Brawndo/Team Solitaire/MB1 Honda Race Recap
Texas Stadium – Irving, TX

Irving, TX (April 5, 2008) - Round thirteen of the 2008 AMA Supercross Series, held in the storied Texas Stadium in front of 46,646 spectators, marked a new chapter for us at Team Solitaire/MB1 Racing. We have begun a new relationship with Redux Beverages, LLC, placing Redux and their newest offering ,Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator, as the primary sponsor of our Supercross and Motocross race team for the remainder of 2008 and 2009. For those of you who are not familiar with Brawndo, here is a little background about its creation and introduction to market courtesy of Steve Cox from Racer X Illustrated.

“A couple years ago, Mike Judge (of Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill and Office Space fame) made a brilliantly funny and poignant movie called Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. The premise of the movie was that really smart, successful couples tend to have a small number of children, if any at all, while dumb people tend to have extremely large family trees – not just having children with their wives, for example, but with the neighbor, etc. Then, the plot takes us 500 years into the future, where the very average Joe Bauers (Wilson) and Rita (Rudolph) wake up from an army experiment gone awry to find out that the world has basically come apart at the seams. Corporations have actually purchased the government, and all water for drinking or irrigation has been replaced by a drink called, Brawndo; “The Thirst Mutilator.” The only place where water is still in use is in the toilet, which has led to a dustbowl because the crops all died out from the use of Brawndo as irrigation. Even the people in the government bought into a marketing slogan, as they repeat, “But Brawndo has electrolytes. It’s what plants crave.” Everybody is stupid. In fact, Bauers is soon found out to be the smartest person on the planet by far and is employed to figure out all of the world’s problems, else he be put to death during the widely viewed TV event Monday Night Rehabilitation where the government uses monster trucks and flamethrowers to murder criminals.”

“Well, fiction has become reality, and Team Solitaire/MB1 is now sponsored by Brawndo; “The Thirst Mutilator.” The official team title will be Redux Beverages/Brawndo/Team Solitaire/MB1 Honda.”

Needless to say, leading up to the weekend we had the overwhelming task of changing over graphics on everything from the semi trailer to the motorcycle on down to new helmets and pit shirts. I could not have done it without the help of several people, including the entire crew at Factory Effex, Eddie Kloiber from DC Auto Wraps, Randy from Group D Mfg., Bob and Austin from USA Sport and Bob Smutz from Flyin’ Kolors. My sincere thanks to everyone who went above and beyond to ensure a smooth transition.

We had very big expectations for our on-track performance as well, since the hard-packed soil at Dallas is more like the Arizona and California terra firma we are used to. Both Kyle Partride (Honda CRF 250R Lites Rider) and myself (Honda CRF 450R Supercross Class rider) had solid qualification times and were on course for a great evening of racing.

Kyle Partridge rocketed out of the gate to a great start in Heat #2. Kyle was riding flawlessly, moving up into the top five and looking to be a great position for a transfer. On lap three, disaster struck “KP” in the rhythm section when the rider in fourth moved over into his line veering him into the course-marking “tuff-block” and down in a heap. Kyle was slow remounting and retired from the race to get ready for the all-important LCQ.

The Last Chance Qualifier in the “Lites” class advances four riders to the main event. With Kyle’s poor gate position as a result of his heat race problems, he would have to be aggressive on the start to emerge in good position. Although his initial jump was lackluster, he spared no time slicing his way toward the front. By the end of the first lap he was in the top ten and looking strong. Once again, however, Kyle would hit the ground, but this time on his own accord. In the technical whoop section, a place Kyle typically excels, he made a mistake and got kicked right over the bars and flat on his back. Fortunately, he received only a bruised tailbone in the incident, although his chances from a good run in the main event were dashed.

Ryan Clark: I worked with my mechanic, Jesse Black, during the last two-weeks to improve our bike set-up and give myself improved comfort and handling on the bike. These changes left me feeling great in practice and confident that I could improve on my previous season best finish.

When the gate fell on the second “Supercross Class” heat race (450cc motorcycles) I seemed to hook up well and was in good position heading toward turn one. In the turn, however, I got hung-up with another rider and was left nearly last. I struggled to find my rhythm in the heat race, having a difficult time moving through traffic. I would only climb to 14h position, leaving me only the “Last Chance Qualifier” to prove myself worthy of a main event transfer.

In the LCQ I decided to gate far outside in hopes of pulling a clean holeshot and avoiding the carnage of the first turn. I had a great gate, but I must have had my RPM’s a little too high for the extremely hard-packed soil, as I spun horribly out of the gate. Regardless, I charged down the outside in hopes of finding an opening to shoot through to salvage the start. The only thing I found was another rider, causing me yet another trip to the dirt. At an already huge deficit, I remounted and began to ride as aggressively as the track would allow. I moved back up into the top ten, but that was short lived as I would take another soil sample while trying to pick my way through two riders. With that, my evening would come to an end.

Summary: Although we were both riding well at Dallas, ultimately crashes would take us out of the equation. We are looking forward to getting redemption next weekend at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. In the pits, things were looking top-shelf. Everything turned out amazing, from the new bike graphics on down the line.

Until next week, keep on keepin’ on.

Ryan Clark

Redux Beverages/Brawndo/Team Solitaire/MB1 Honda is a privately owned professional Supercross and Motocross race team based in Phoenix, AZ. Our 2008 marketing partners include: Redux Beverages, Brawndo: The The Thirst Mutilator, MB1 Suspension, Kingdom Clothing, American Honda, FLY Racing, Dragon Optical, Pro Honda Oils and Chemicals, DRD Exhaust, Vortex, Factory Effex, ASV, Dunlop, WPS, Sidi, Rockwell Watches, DUS, OGIO, Applied, QTM/Brembo, RK Chain, EXCEL Rims, HoyFox.com, Boyesen, Hinson, Ready Filter, CoachSeiji.com, Cycra Plastic, Element Sports, Sano Systems, AIMMD, Pivot Works, Hot Cams, Hot Rods, Champion Tool Storage, Crank Works, CP Pistons, Cometic Gaskets, Ron Davis Racing Radiators, Mechanix Wear, NGK Spark Plugs, DC Auto Wraps, Leatt Brace, Dirt Pro, JM Collision, Team Hawg Racing and Group D Manufacturing.