VOL. 50 ISSUE 27 JULY 9, 2013
P53
Briefly...
the track, the Monster Energy/Pro
Circuit Kawasaki rider continued to
show his quick reaction on the start
and jumped out to seventh in the
opening 250 moto but ended up
11th. He went down on the opening
lap of the second moto and went
from 38th to 15th for 12th overall.
"You never want to find yourself
that far behind, but sometimes it
happens and it's up to me to overcome that," said Cianciarulo. He
was one of the few 250 riders to
clear LaRocco's Leap.
Josh Grant, who parlayed two
great starts into third overall, via
3-5 moto finishes. The JGRMX/
Toyota Yamaha rider has spent
the past year recovering from
injury and his RedBud performance is perhaps a glimpse of
what a healthy Josh Grant can
do.
Grant jumped into the lead in
moto one after grabbing the Motorcycle-Superstore.com Holeshot, and then settled into a solid
fifth after a few laps. When Trey
Canard crashed and Ryan Dungey had bike problems, number
33 was elevated to third.
Grant was just barely edged
out for the second-moto holeshot by Stewart.
Grant slotted into sixth about a
third of the way in, but then benefitted from a crash by Malcolm
Stewart to move back up to fifth
by the end of the race.
"I had some troubles at the
start of the year, but I've finally
got healthy enough to put in
some strong races lately," said
Grant. "I haven't been up front
in a while, so it definitely takes
some time to adjust. The speeds
those guys run is really fast and
I tightened up a little in that first
Speaking of LaRocco's Leap,
the takeoff was shortened making the spectacular uphill double
jump even more difficult and many
riders chose not to attempt it, opting to "single" the two plateaus.
Eli Tomac admitted that he didn't
jump it during the race, but Ken
Roczen did it several times. "In the
first moto, I think I jumped it every
lap but two or three," said Roczen.
"In the second moto, I just kept it
inside and singled it." Either option
did not seem to offer any significant
advantage.
Continuing to make improvements,
Monster Energy/Kawasaki rider
Jake Weimer scored his third
top-10 finish of the season. The
opening moto saw Weimer battling
inside the top 10 during the entire
race, while in moto two, Weimer
made steady work of the field to
come from 23rd to 13th. Weimer's
ninth-place finish has helped him
move up the standings and now
sits in a tie for ninth in the overall
championship.
