By: Eric Johnson - In 2006, Team Honda rider Davi Millsaps had a breakout year. He handily won the AMA East Region Supercross Championship, and backed that up with a highly impressive third overall position in the final AMA Motocross classification point standings. Tapped to be Honda’s ace factory rider for the 2007 AMA Amp’d Mobile Supercross Series, all was well with Team Millsaps. However it would all go south during the off-season when Millsaps broke his femur in a slow-speed fall. It took the Georgia-based rider a solid four months to rehabilitate the leg and make it back into action. And when he did — at the Atlanta Supercross on February 24, 2007 — Millsaps quickly realized he had some ground to cover as far as his speed and conditioning were concerned. But he hung tough and as of the last supercross (Dallas, Texas on March 31), Millsaps was beginning to look for a spot on the podium. After a long break, and now only few days out from this Saturday’s Detroit Supercross, we hooked-up with the recently tuned 19 year-old to see how he feels about the home stretch of the supercross series as well as the rapidly approaching AMA National Motocross Championship.

Davi, what do you have going today?
I’m on my way home right now. I rode earlier today, so that’s about it.

The last race you did, the Dallas Supercross, was all the way back on March 31. Has the long break bothered you at all?
Not really. No. I’ve kept myself busy. A week after Dallas, I was in California testing. Then, after that, I came back home and started to ride outdoors. In fact this week I rode a lot of outdoors. Then, I’ll be back out in California in two weeks to do more outdoor testing.

Are things progressing well with your 2007 Honda CRF450R National bike?
Yeah, I’ll have something good.

Okay, after all the time off after breaking you femur, you came back to Supercross in the Georgia Dome on February 24, 2007. You placed 16th. A week later, at St. Louis, you also placed 16th. Did you come back to racing too soon?
(Pause) Everything was wrong. I was definitely not ready. I got arm pump really bad. I was nowhere near ready. It was like everything I had to go through on the little bikes, I was going through again on the bigger bike. It was hard to come back and deal with all that. But I’m not worried. Every week should be better and better. I just came back too soon. Yeah, it’s been five or six months since I broke my femur, but the femur is the biggest bone in your body. For some people, it can take over a year to come back from breaking a femur. I came back in four months. It was definitely hard to come back and not think about the injury I had with the femur.

You finished ninth in your third race back at Daytona. Did you start to feel better there?
I didn’t feel comfortable at all at Daytona. I think it was just because I’ve always ridden well there. Yeah, I got in the top 10, but didn’t do well at all. I don’t know what happened there.

A week later, in Orlando, it appeared that the wheels really came loose when you placed 19th.
I felt better and more comfortable on the bike at Orlando. I was going pretty good. In my qualifier, I was behind James Stewart and saw him do this jump. I decided to do it and I also made it. In the main, I tried it again but came up short and faced it in. It jammed my back and locked it up. It really bothered me every time I sat down or stood up over a jump. It was horrible. I’m not making excuses, but it hurt badly. The next week at Indy was pretty good. I got sixth there.

Then you finished fourth at the Dallas Supercross. Was the result there encouraging?
Dallas was good. I got a good start, but then got arm pump. But, yeah, the fourth place was encouraging.