Houston: Team Suzuki City summary

Over 48,000 fans came out to Houston's Reliant Stadium Saturday night to catch Round 4 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, which was also the opening round for the Eastern Regional AMA Supercross Lites class. Nerves and adrenaline were at an all-time high for these young riders, and Suzuki City's night ended on a high note with both riders making it into the twenty-man Lites main event with team captain Matt Goerke cracking the top 10 on his Suzuki City RM-Z250. A top 10 is a respectable finish by many standards, but not Goerke's.

Matt Goerke:

"It didn't go as planned at all, I had kind of a bad night," says Goerke, who crashed in practice and injured his shoulder slightly. "After that crash I just got bad starts and didn't ride to the best of my abilities. I was definitely nervous because it was the first race and all, but I plan on changing that around in Atlanta. It's nice having a few weeks off to regroup, and I'm just going to work on my starts and my sprints and just trying to be more relaxed at the race. I'm sure the next race will be a lot better. If I ride like myself I feel I should be on the podium at Atlanta."

Steven Clarke:

"It was nothing I expected," begins Clarke, who finished 13th in his debut after crashing twice. "I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was and it turned out that it was pretty easy if I stayed up. I crashed twice in my qualifier and then made it through the LCQ then crashed twice in the main. I wasn't really nervous at all. I try not to let nerves get to me. I know my speed is there and as long as I get a good start and don't crash I'll be a front runner. I think my goal for Atlanta is top five now that I've been there and saw that I can do it. The bike was awesome; it was really fast, the tires were working great and my suspension was awesome. I can't really complain about anything except for my crashes!"

The next stop for the Suzuki City team is the Atlanta Supercross on February 21, 2009.

-credit: tsc