VOL. 51 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 21, 2014
P51
THE NEW BRAYTON
Team rider eventually worked his
way into second and could see
the number-21 Honda up ahead,
but Seely wasn't about to surrender a sure win for a third time.
Seely held on to take the victory with room to spare over An-
For the second week in a
row, Justin Brayton proved he
can go toe-to-toe with Ryan Villopoto and not back down. The
Toyota/JGRMX Yamaha rider
took a thrilling heat-race win over
Villopoto early in the evening
program and then claimed a
solid fourth-place finish in the
main event after working his
way up from eighth. The former
Arenacross champ credits a new
bike and a new trainer for his
newfound speed.
"The biggest difference is my
mindset and we have a better
motorcycle and that gives me
a lot of confidence, and we all
know what confidence can do in
this sport," said Brayton.
Things got off to a great start
for Brayton with a heat-race win
at A2.
"In the heat, I got a really
good start and me and Villopoto
were pacing off each other, and
he ended up passing me, but
I passed him right back," said
Brayton. "I had been tripling out
of the corner most of the day
and I just kind of set it up right
and squared it off and went triple
and got to the inside of him and
passed him back. I ended up
winning the heat, which was a
real boost."
Brayton was as quick off the
line in the main event.
"I blew the start in the final, I
had a really good gate and felt
like I could have holeshotted,
but I wheelied or something. I'm
going to have to go back and
look at the tape and see what
happened. I think I was ninth or
10th and made some really good
passes to catch up to sixth. I was
all over Chad [Reed] for most
of the race, but then Villopoto
ended up crashing, and right
when he got up, he kind of cut
right in front of me and I couldn't
do a rhythm section and that let
Chad get away. So that was that
one incident the whole race that
I look back on. I felt like I had the
speed to run with him, we were
all on the same straightaway for
most of the race. So it's a little bit
of a bummer that I wasn't on the
podium, but I have to look at our
goals. I think I proved my race in
Phoenix was not a fluke and I'm
here for the long haul."
Shan Moore
