Cycle News

Cycle News 2013 Issue 42 October 22

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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CN III RIDERS WRITE P118 SLAMMIN'SAMMY BY SAMMY HALBERT A BAD YEAR T he Chinese refer to 2013 as the Year of the Water Snake. I call it the Year I Wanna Forget. After finishing second in the championship last year, followed by off-season shoulder surgery, I planned to make a run for the AMA Grand National Championship this year. But it just wasn't meant to be. I should have known it was going to be a rough year when I caught my foot on a berm at a local race in Washington in February, my first race back after shoulder surgery, and tore my ACL. After knee surgery on Valentine's Day, I had to miss the Daytona Short Track season-opening doubleheader - one of my favorite events of the year. And if that was the only lowlight of the year, I still might have been in the hunt for the championship. But things continued to not go my way. First came a rainout at the Lima, Ohio half-mile in June - a race I've won the past two years; then it was the cancellation of the Elma, Washington, half-mile - a Twins race in my home state. Then came a disappointing eight-place finish at the Castle Rock, TT, a race I'd won the last three times it ran. And if all that wasn't enough I then had a big crash over the jump at the Peoria TT in August, during which I hit my head pretty hard, causing me to miss four subsequent races. And finally there was the rainout at the Santa Rosa, California mile - a race I won last year. All of these events turned my dream season into a snake-bitten one. Ouch! Somehow, ending things with a crash that sent me into the hay bales at the Pomona season finale seemed perfectly fitting for 2013. To be fair, my year had some awesome moments as well. Well, one awesome moment, anyhow. In May, I won my first race back after ACL surgery - the Stockton Half-Mile. To come

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