Supercross history on hold: Vicki Golden fails to qualify

Vicki Golden came up a few seconds short in her bid to make racing history Saturday.

Golden was attempting to become the first woman to qualify for the night program of a Monster Energy Supercross event, but her best qualifying lap wasn't fast enough to advance into the group of 40 riders who made it to heat races in the 250SX class at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Golden, a 22-year-old from El Cajon, Calif., has a long history of groundbreaking in various types of dirt-bike racing. She has won three gold medals in women's Moto X racing in the X Games. She also was the first female rider to compete against men in the X Games freestyle Moto X competition, winning a bronze medal in best whip category in 2012.

Her lap of 1:01.009 was 54th-fastest among the 56 riders attempting to qualify. She needed to surpass 57.203 seconds to make it into the top 40, who went on the compete in heat races to determine the lineup for the 250 feature race.

Marvin Musquin had the fastest qualifying lap in the 250 class, 51.08 seconds.

"Today was good and bad," Golden said. "Unfortunately I did not qualify, but all week I have been saying that if I don't qualify, I want to be as close as possible. We did that, at least."

Supercross is the top level of professional motocross racing, with a 16-race schedule that visits NFL and Major League Baseball stadiums. Saturday's event marked the first of the Eastern Regional 250SX Championship in which Golden is entered. She's set to try again next week when the series competes at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

"I felt good on the track today," Golden said. "I just need to be loose on the track. I am going to make the most of this week and come back strong next week for Atlanta."

Golden was the first woman to compete in Ricky Carmichael's Road to Supercross, in which riders work through ladder series to attain Supercross licenses. She qualified last year in the AMSOIL Arenacross Series.

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