Hurst survives Fontana crash

From Slednecks Kawasaki

FONTANA, CA -- Slednecks teammates Misti Hurst and Josh Galster, both coaches with the California Superbike School, raced their Kawasaki ZX-6's to 23rd and 18th, respectively, in AMA Supersport action at Fontana.

Hurst overcame several challenges over the weekend in order to qualify in 29th position. On Friday morning she crashed going into the tight turn 3 after losing the front, and on Friday afternoon her team, headed this weekend by EDR Performance's Eric Dorn, replaced a blown shock with a completely new Ohlins.

The short 20-minute Saturday morning practice was spent trying to relearn and re-set up the bike on the unfamiliar track. Having only ridden at Fontana once before the race weekend, Hurst faced a high learning curve to figure out the difficult circuit, get her suspension sorted and get her times down enough to qualify.

"I started the weekend running high 36's which I knew wasn't going to cut it. We worked pretty hard to get down to a 1:33.5 in qualifying," she said. "Eric was awesome help and made excellent choices in regards to the Dunlop tires we chose to run. My Kawasaki ran great and was very fast."

Hurst got a good start after a red flag forced a re-start of the race. She worked her way up from 29th place to a solid 21st and was reeling in the rider in front of her when she tucked the front into turn 5 with only two laps remaining. Hurst finished 23rd and is currently 35th overall in the Supersport Championship with nine points.

One weekend earlier, Hurst raced AMA Supersport at Barber Motorsports and moved up an impressive 11 spots from her 41st place qualifying position to finish 30th, despite the fact that it was also the first time she had ever raced at that track.

Teammate Galster, a candidate for the Rookie of the Year this season, finished 18th at California Speedway. Working his times down from low 1:33's to a 1:31.15 he qualified 22nd and was able to move up four positions in the race.

The weekend earlier at Barber Motorsports Park, Galster moved up nine places from his qualifying position of 30th to finish 21st. He had his work cut out for him during the race, his first ever at the Barber circuit, after running of the track in turn 1 right off the start.