Matt Smith (far lane) and LE Tonglet in qualifying.

Cheered on by an enthusiastic group of Polaris employees up for the Twin Cities, Victory Motorcycles factory riders Matt and Angie Smith did their best to show off in front of their title sponsors at Brainerd.

Matt did a bit better than his wife, racing past Hector Arana Sr. to the quarterfinals before losing to Hector Arana Jr. Angie took her shot at red-hot pro Angelle Sampey and pulled off a big starting-line advantage, only to be caught and passed downtrack in the day's opening session.

"There is something binding up in these motors whenever they got hot and it's just robbing us of horsepower," Matt said. "All three days here the Victory Gunner ran perfect in the first round of the day, and then it would bind up and slow down in the second pass of the day. Unfortunately, that trend continued today in eliminations.

"Angie and I really wanted to show off for our Polaris friends and we gave them some thrills to remember, but we ended up with just one big moment on the day. But that's OK; we'll be testing again in Indy in a few days and now we know where to look to make these bikes even faster."