Kelly Smith's mechanic (Steve Matthes) gives VRM a run down on Kelly's excellent ride at Sacramento this past weekend.

“Yeah, Kelly had an awesome ride this past weekend at Sacramento. The KTM/Red Bull team all had a great day as we took 4 out of the top 7 places in the overall standings. Originally it didn't look like it was going to be so good for Kelly as we had to ride the LCQ on Sunday morning just to make the 40-man field for the afternoon.

We had a pretty poor gate pick for the first Moto, eventually we elected to start on the far left hand side of the gate and got a clean start and was in the top 10 on the opening lap. The remainder of the moto Kelly's speed was good and he picked some guys off and got a 5th place finish in the first Moto.

The 2nd Moto Kelly did not get a great jump out of the gate, but he came out in the first lap in top 20 somewhere. Kelly rode a solid race to get 8th in the second Moto for 4^th overall, just missing the podium.

I think he really benefited from being in shape as the temperatures were near 100 degrees. He passed more guys on the last 3 laps in both motos then anytime else during the motos. The bike worked great, but more then anything Kelly rode with a lot of heart and it showed.

Thanks guys!”

Steve Matthes

Kelly Smith’s KTM Mechanic