Tedesco Talks Anaheim 1

Shan Moore | January 12, 2011

Ivan Tedesco made a striking first impression at Anaheim 1, grabbing the holeshot in his heat race and then again in the main event. The Dodge Motorsports/Bel-Ray/Hart & Huntington rider ran near the front of the pack for the first half of the race before dropping off the pace at the halfway point and finishing an eventual seventh. Tedesco is new to the Hart & Huntington team this year, which is running Kawasaki machinery instead of their more familiar Hondas. According to team manager Kenny Watson, it will just be a matter of time before Hot Sauce is a podium regular.Cycle News spoke with Tedesco after the A1 main to get his thoughts on the first race of the season.How did the race go for you?I got the holeshot in both races but then I got tight in the main event. It’s been a while from the injury and all, and the bike was working good, but we’ve got a little chassis work to do. I was feeling a little uncomfortable in the whoops and I almost went down a couple of times, but we will work on it this week. It isn’t a fitness thing, I just got tight and had to back it off. It was kind of embarrassing for me but we’ll move forward.You have to feel good about your speed.Yeah, you know the last few years my speed has been there. But I haven’t run out front like that in a long time and I just need to get comfortable with it. Hopefully we’ll got up on the box pretty quick.You came together with James Stewart in the heat. What happened?In the heat race he came together with me on the first lap and it kind of lit my fire. I got pissed off and, I’ll be honest, I kind of went for the takeout move and I ended up going down myself. But we’re good, it was all in the heat of the moment and that’s racing. Hopefully, it doesn’t lead to anything else. We’re just going to concentrate on ourselves and not worry about anyone else.What will you work on this week before Phoenix?Yeah, we’ll work on chassis stuff, for sure. I’m not going to change anything else, I know my speed is there and my fitness. During the week I’m solid. It’s just that comfort thing, I haven’t been out front in a while, so I need to get used to it, but we’ll get there.