Geico Honda - Tampa SX Race Report

Courtesy of Geico Honda

Tampa, FL (February 24, 2018) – GEICO Honda’s RJ Hampshire was in position for a dream run. First by simply getting the chance to compete in his home stadium, and then by leading portions of his heat race and the main event in Monster Energy Supercross’ 250SX East Region event. But the native of Hudson, Florida, raised 30 minutes from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, made too many mistakes to complete the dream run. He ended up second in his heat race and fourth in the main event.

 

“Was so excited to race in my city,” said Hampshire. “Felt decent all day. One mistake in the heat race cost me the win. I got another holeshot in the main and did not ride well at all those opening laps! Same thing as last weekend. Made so many mistakes and couldn’t mentally put it together. It took me a couple laps to settle down and then I kind of found a groove. It’s frustrating to holeshot both weekends and end up with two fourths. I need to prove that I can be a threat in this championship. I’m not the same rider as years’ past and I have the bike to put me out front! I’ll continue to plug away and work on those opening laps for next weekend.”

 

Hampshire now sits third in the 250SX East standings.

 

While Cameron McAdoo’s eighth-place result doesn’t sound amazing on paper, it was a strong ride considering he was competing with a fracture in his hand. He suffered the injury when Kyle Peters landed on him last week in Dallas.

 

“Tampa has lots of positives for me,” said McAdoo. “The first being I was able to race after suffering a broken hand last weekend. We worked really hard all week long getting rid of swelling and trying to get the hand useable, so I was happy to even be able to be out there! I was happy with my start in the heat race but felt like I rode tight, and I want to race those front guys harder because that’s where I feel I belong. All in all we ended up eighth on the night so it’s something that we will build off of.”

 

Coming into Tampa Jeremy Martin’s hopes might have been highest of anyone, and he was competitive, speed-wise, in practice. Bad starts ruined his chance of a good finish, though. After some crashes in the main event, he finished a disappointing 12th.

 

“Rough weekend in Tampa,” said Martin. “Speed felt solid all day to be there for a podium finish. Pretty sure I was sleeping on the gate in the main which put me in a poor position and exposed me to some people I shouldn’t have been around. Just need to move on. Looking forward to round three.”

 

GEICO Honda Results

Tampa Supercross

250SX

 

4. RJ Hampshire

8. Cameron McAdoo

12. Jeremy Martin

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