Quad Lock Honda Face Reality After Birmingham Shortcomings.

Quad Lock Honda endured a difficult night in Birmingham, with results falling short of the team’s expectations across the board.

Despite missing the round through injury, Joey Savatgy remains 6th in the championship. However, the rest of the team struggled to deliver, with Shane McElrath finishing 12th and Christian Craig 17th following multiple crashes.

Both riders faced challenges from the outset. In qualifying, McElrath placed 13th, with Craig just ahead in 12th.

Craig’s issues began early, with discomfort around his engine setting impacting confidence on track.

“I couldn’t get comfortable, it just didn’t feel right,” said Craig.

The team worked through several changes ahead of the night program, with improvements evident as Craig finished 4th in his heat race, while McElrath crossed the line in 5th.

In the main event, both riders secured reasonable starts, with Craig running inside the top ten early. However, multiple crashes derailed his race, with a second fall dropping him outside the top 15. He ultimately finished 17th.

“I’m disappointed. I didn’t gel with the track and made too many mistakes. We lost valuable time in the morning trying to get the bike where it needed to be, and we were chasing it all day,” Craig added.

McElrath delivered a steady but underwhelming ride, finishing 12th, one lap down.

“Mistakes, misjudgments, it just wasn’t a good night. I’ll take 12th and focus on improving in every area before the next round,” said McElrath.

Team Director Yarrive Konsky was candid in his assessment.

“These results fall short of our expectations. Honda produces a great motorcycle. Shane was consistently inside the top ten in the second half of last season on this same package, so being lapped is not acceptable at this level.

“Christian knows you can’t expect top ten results if you’re crashing, especially more than once. We can’t change what happened, but as a team, we need to take responsibility and learn from it.

“Joey has shown where the bike is capable of performing, and this same package has been inside the top ten consistently over the past two seasons. Anything outside of that is simply not where we expect to be,” Konsky concluded.