Holidays were great, but way too long. The month off made it feel like we were starting a new season. The only problem with that is I was perfectly happy with the old one. I guess if you?re having a bad season to start out, you look forward to the break to regroup, but if you are rolling along good the last thing you want is a break.

In addition to the long break, the weather turned bad in NC for a couple weeks during the Holidays, so the team didn?t get to ride as much as we would have liked. Unfortunately, extra time in the gym does not make up for a lack of riding. We will most definitely be finding a place to ride in the bad weather.

On Thursday night we had a promotional event with WKLQ at Craig?s Cruisers. Tyler and I raced a bunch of people on The Fast and The Furious Superbikes. The turnout was solid and people enjoyed the t-shirts and free Arenacross tickets. After finishing a few hours of racing we headed over to the go-karts for some real racing. That was a blast. If you are ever in Grand Rapids, make sure to stop by Craig?s Cruisers, you will be glad you did.

I was more than anxious to get back to AX, maybe a little too anxious, riding tight all weekend and hitting the ground on several occasions. On Friday night it was crashes and mechanical problems that hampered the team?s results. Both Tyler and I went down a couple of times. We were not alone, in fact the Lites Main Event was red flagged after a number of riders went down and blocked the track. In the Main Event, Tyler?s rear sprocket came loose and caused him to lose power making it difficult to get over the catapult jump.

Too say the least it was a rough weekend in Grand Rapids for the Foremost Insurance team, with crashes and mechanical problems. There were a few bright spots, like when I won the Holeshot Award on Friday night and winning my heat race on Saturday. The Foremost team was one-two in that race until Tyler gave up a position to finish third. It was good to see Tyler hit the podium on Saturday in the Lites class.

The results are not exactly what I had planned for the weekend, but that is racing. I wanted to put on a better show for our title sponsor in their hometown. Overall the weekend went well, local media coverage for the team was strong and we spent time with the employees of Foremost Insurance. Foremost Insurance is a first-rate sponsor and the support for the team from the company and employees is outstanding. They made us feel like family and even hosted us in the corporate suite all weekend long at the Van Andel Arena, which was a great place to hang out during the breaks.

We still have more than half of the season left and the Foremost Insurance Suzuki Carolina Xpress team will be in the mix fighting for wins