Glen Helen is in the books and the AMA Motocross Nationals are underway. For Travis, the season didn't get started the way he had hoped. The SoBe/Suzuki superstar is just coming off two surgeries and four days on the bike leading up to the race wasn't enough for the teen phenom to put it on the podium.

"No, last weekend pretty much sucked," he said. "I was looking for at least a top five finish so I didn't have too high of expectations coming into the weekend."

His expectations though were shot before the first moto was even three laps old. It was his third mid-race pull-off in as many events and the buzz in the crowd spread fast.

"Yeah, but everything with me was fine," he assured. "I felt great in practice, so good that I blew out three front wheels trying to clear the 130 foot table in the back. We replaced the wheels but we didn't realize that all those hard landings were putting stress on the frame and unfortunately it broke during the first moto. The crack was at the ignition box and every time I landed from a jump, the engine cut out. I think I would've placed at least sixth that moto too."

The second moto was much like the first for Travis, just a different story.

"I had to line up dead last the second moto but I still got out to a decent start. I used all my energy in the first few laps though and I didn't have a rhythm going. I was running in seventh and I realized that I just had to slow down so I could get my breathing in order. Then I turned it up a little but I was too tired to hang on."

And that's when Travis broke the promise he made here last week (he said he wanted to have more of a part in this series than just entertainment). It was in the second half of the moto that he crashed in a way that only Pastrana could pull off. Coming into the corner before "Bud's Creek", Travis grabbed a little too much throttle, was ejected from the bike, shot over the chain link fence in perfect stage dive form and landed in the crowd. The bike was in the air behind him but it caught the fence and was bounced back onto the course.

"Yeah, that was something, huh? When I landed off the double, my hands started to come off the bars and then I whiskeyed the throttle. I totally Super-manned it over the fence and I landed on some guy sitting in a lawn chair. It knocked the wind out of me and the crowd actually threw me back over the fence."

To say that Travis was tired before the crash is an understatement.

"I was dead. I physically couldn't hang on and I'm real sore now."

With Hangtown only a week out from round one, Travis and the team have a lot to work on. This week will be spent testing in Reno, NV on a track Travis says, "Is the most unbelievable track I've ever seen."

"Hangtown should be good. We're going to be getting the bike set up a little more and I can't wait for this weekend."

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