When Joshua Varizze broke his wrist in late November, few would have thought he would be in line for Anaheim 1. Time rolled around for A1 and it showed, as he missed the main event. With the weekend off due to the postponement of Oakland, Varys could be one of the biggest beneficiaries, as he was able to recover some more and get more seat time as he prepares to go to San Diego. Was able He still had to fight his way into the main event through the Last Chance qualifiers but once he was in the main, he put in a steady run to finish P12. It’s not where he wants to be right now, but it was a big step towards getting back there. We caught up with him after the race to hear what he thought of it.
Racer X: Take me through my whole day. I think it probably got a bit rough with some of the qualifying and practice material, but you nailed it by the end.
Joshua Varize: Yes. Free practice was really cool. Qualifying was also really good. Then that second qualifier, I think was just making too many mistakes, trying too hard. I was really fighting the track. The sun was good in our eyes too. I qualified 24th in the night. He was not very angry. Heat Race, I did a lot of racing tonight. The heat race didn’t start well. I came into the turn really well, but I blew the turn, no brakes, and went over to the other side of the track. Its going on. I was in 12th and they red flagged the race because a rider fell. But we got off to a staggering start, which I’ve never had before in professional racing, so it was good to experience that. I started again. I went down in the last turn. I went over the Tuff Blocks. I was in 10th when I did this, so I was one short of the two. Then going to LCQ, I had the 18th gate pick. I was like, ‘This isn’t going to be great.’ Somehow the gate inside was open. I of course took advantage of it and took it. I had a good jump and I couldn’t get my elbows in front of the two riders next to me, so I had to brake. It really helped because I was literally eighth or tenth in the first turn and everyone squeezed inside and came in second. I was like, let’s go! We’re fine, be second. I have passed many times. I definitely dropped to fourth at one point in the race. The next corner came back into second, so we were jumping around. I stood second in LCQ. I was just stunned because of course that was my goal with A1. I really needed to capitalize on how I did there. When I went into the main this weekend, I was like, ‘Okay, we’re better.’ Overall a better day. We explored a lot on the bike. With Oakland cancelled, we had a little more time for testing and stuff. The main event was great. Wasn’t a great start but I kind of locked the brakes and cut through all that carnage. this was good. I had some really good battles throughout the night. There was a lot that I was doing and passing and passing back. Overall it was great. I had left after 12th in the night. Ready to bring this speed to A2.
