Avard 2nd overall in American Supermoto Championship

Mark Avard took his Pacifico Supermoto DR-Z450 Suzuki to ninth in the final race of the 2003 Supermoto championship held at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. He finished the season a fine second position in the series point's standings.

The Las Vegas track was the longest of the season and had two very long straights, which favored the lighter more powerful Honda's and KTM's. Mark said; "I'm losing two or three bike lengths down the straight but can get them back on the brakes and in the tight stuff. The Suzuki is very tractable and I can get the power down early. I'll give it my best shot!"

In his heat race, Mark got a good start and settled down into third nipping at the rear tire of second for the entire race. He held the position to the finish, thus transferring directly to the main event, the only Suzuki in the final. His heat time put him twelfth on the grid.

In the National Supermoto Championship final event, Mark's start put him up two places after the first lap. He took another rider on lap two and another on lap three settling him in eighth. He held the position until lap eleven when a hard charging Jeremy McGrath got past.

World Supermoto rider Jurgen Kunzel got past Mark on the next lap however Avard made one more pass before the finish to net ninth, a fine result against such stiff opposition.

After the race Mark said; "I was in a good groove when Jeremy (McGrath) came by. He pushed me wide and I lost a bunch of time. It took me a while to get back on the pace and Kunzel came past. I got by Rolland just before the finish. I'm happy with the result, it would have been tough to get much better as I was losing a lot on the straights".

Mark thanked his crew chief Dana Demambro and mechanic Nigel Pitsch. "The guys did a really good job on the bike for me. It handled really well. We could just have done with a bit more power - but then what rider doesn't!"