The Fly Racing Blog - Hello From X Games with Christian Craig
Author: Christian Craig	Andrew Campo | Wednesday, 05 August 2009 16:56

 

The Fly Racing Blog - Hello From X Games with Christian Craig

In roughly three hours I will make my official Pro debut here at X Games 15. This is for sure the nontraditional route in terms of wrapping up my am career and starting the long awaited next chapter. All of my peers are in Tennessee getting ready to wrap up their amateur careers at Loretta’s and I’m about to face off against some of the most talented athletes our sport has ever known. What is really cool is the fact that my dad raced against both McGrath and Windham during his career and today I get the chance to do the same at the X Games.

Being an X Games athlete is a pretty cool experience. When I was in line at athlete registration I was standing right next to Bucky Lasek and Dave Mirra and I have watched those guys my whole life. I felt proud to be in their company and that is when the real prestige of being at X Games set in. I have been able to go watch some of the other events and the environment is very different from a typical race weekend. Last night I watched Best trick and sat at the bottom of the mega ramp, it was super cool being that close to the action. The BMX guys are insane, big props to those guys.

Making the decision to skip Loretta’s was not as tough as one might think. I have only been to Loretta’s three times and I have never had good luck there. I broke my femur my first time there and have seemed to be jinxed at LL’s ever since. My agent Dan McGranahan lined out this X Games deal months ago and I have been focused solely on Supercross ever since and I’m feeling right at home. I had the sixth fastest lap time in practice and my 450 is working well on the track that X Games has put together. The finish line jump is a lot of fun and I’m having a blast throwing whips in front of the crowd. So far this experience is proving to be a good call and I can’t wait for the race. I’m not setting high goals, I just want to go out and truly have fun with this and get as much learning experience from it as I can.

Looking back on my amateur career I think that the ’09 GNC at OakHill is amongst my best memories. I had top three finishes in every class and I had a lot of success that week. My favorite amateur track was motocross track Mini O’s and I will miss racing there, but know I will enjoy the pro tracks. I have nothing in stone yet for 2010 but plan on hitting up Unadilla in the 450 class regardless. We are talking with a few teams right now and hope that after this weekend something will open up.

As far as Loretta’s goes I think that Baggett has the best chance of winning A. He knows how to race the track at LL’s and is going really fast right now. Lance Vincent is my favorite to win in the B class and he happens to be running number 44 so that is going to help him for sure. If I do well here at X Games hopefully I will go out to Loretta’s and get to be there for my friends and to enjoy the greatest motocross race in the world from a spectator’s view.

I will be riding West Coast Supercross and hope to see you all at Anahiem One. Until then I would like to thank everybody who has helped me over the years and especially Fly Racing. This Evolution gear is soooo rad, I love it!

Christian Craig #44