It's almost July, and Corona Suzuki's Steve Rapp is still trying to complete a Formula Xtreme race without incident.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for the Corona, California resident after riding for three factory Superbike teams the previous three years. Many assumed Rapp would be a contender in the Formula Xtreme class championship. Instead, it has been a nightmare year for Steve.

"I've had too much time to think and not enough time to ride," Rapp said at Brainerd. "I've only raced Daytona and Fontana. Unbelieveable."

Rapp, in a one-off 750 Supersport ride at Daytona since there was no Formula Xtreme race that weekend, put the Corona Suzuki GSX-R750 on pole. Then bad things started happening. He crashed in the Daytona race and hurt his arm. At Fontana, the bike stalled on the grid but Rapp eventually got underway to finish seventh. Then he broke some ribs in a dirt bike crash and missed three races.

At his comeback race at Elkhart, Rapp once again stalled the bike on the grid and was torpedoed by another rider.

"Once it starts, it only takes a little to get you down, but a lot to get you back up," opined Steve. "Last year, I only crashed two times all year and didn't get hurt at all this year ... "

Rapp is looking to jump start his season at Brainerd, the track where he finished a second behind winner Nicky Hayden in Superbike last year. The going hasn't been so easy after the Elkhart crash decimated some of the good parts from his Formula Xtreme bike, including the kit swingarm and radiator. In Formula Xtreme qualifying, Rapp was fastest in the infield of all the riders according to the AMA split times but lost his advantage on the faster parts of the track. He qualified sixth.

He hopes the startline problems of the past two races are a thing of the past. "We've gone back to the stock clutch," Rapp said.

Although there has been plenty to get him down this year, the switch to the Formula Xtreme class hasn't been one of the problems. "To be honest, it doesn't feel much different than a Superbike to me, with the big power and the machine adjustments. Of course, you have a shorter weekend with less practice time, so you have to get down to business from the beginning of the first session.

"I think the only thing that would save my season at this point is to put it on the podium," Steve said. "That's the only thing. It's been frustrating."

Rapp is hoping to put something together something for the end of the year Willow Springs 200 mile race. Steve put the V&H Ducati on pole the last time the AMA went there. "I definitely want to do it," he said. "It's an hour from my house and I've always gone great there."