Team Makita Suzuki Racing’s newly signed Mike Alessi made a
more-than-impressive debut at this weekend’s US Open of
Supercross at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The new Makita Suzuki rider raced the brand-new 2008 fuel-
injected RM-Z450 and won both of his heat races.
This marks the first-ever race victories for a fuel-injected
motocross bike.
Furthermore, Alessi made his new Makita Suzuki team even more
proud by bringing home a fifth-place finish overall in the two-night
event.
According to Alessi, one of his goals for the weekend had been to
improve his performance from Friday night’s fifth-place finish in
Saturday evening’s event.
The 19-year-old rider did just that – picking up his first podium
position on a Suzuki, thanks to a third-place finish.
Mike Alessi:
“This first weekend with the Makita Suzuki team has been really good. It was definitely a
learning experience, and I learned a lot about the new fuel-injected RM-Z450 – how it
handles the whoop sections, its turning ability and when I can be more aggressive. I also
discovered the things that we need to work on, so it was a good weekend for us. My
overall performance was pretty good, and my heat races were awesome. In the main
events, I wasn’t expecting to go out there and try to win or light the world on fire. I just
wanted to set a good pace and Roger (Team Manager DeCoster) told me that wherever I
finished was where I finished. Of course, I wanted to win, but realistically, I didn’t want
to ride over my head and crash in the first race. The new Makita Suzuki RM-Z450 is
awesome… though we’re still in the development stages. Up until now I’d only had four
days on the bike, so I’m really looking forward to the off-season where I’ll have the
chance to do a lot of testing before Anaheim 1 and the 2008 Supercross season. It’s just
a matter of getting time on the bike and getting comfortable on the RM-Z. The Makita
Suzuki team has been great, they’re so professional and work well together. It’s a good
atmosphere for me and it makes a difference to have people behind me like that, people
who want to win as bad as I do. It’s really nice to have a great team – Roger has so
much knowledge and it’s great to listen to him and what he has to say. My mechanic,
Mike Gosselaar, does an awesome job and puts in 110 percent. He’s a great guy and
works hard. This was my first race on a whole new bike, and fifth place isn’t too bad.
Plus, we had some great heat races – I really couldn’t ask for more.“
Roger DeCoster:
“In the US Open, things went more smoothly than we anticipated. We wanted Mike to be
conservative and his winning both heat races was better than we expected and it shows
that the new Makita Suzuki RM-Z450’s potential is really good. Overall, we achieved our
goal to put two race days together without mishaps and to learn what we need to focus
on with the new fuel-injected RM-Z. We also learned what Mike needs to work on before
the first Anaheim Supercross in January. We realize that we are on a learning curve as
we figure out what is best for Mike in regards to bike set-up.” supercrossking.com
pics from transworldmotocross.com