CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 55 ISSUE 14 APRIL 10, 2018 P55
I'm going to see from this weekend,
my elbows are going to be touching
my knees and my feet are going to be
out. So, it's not the funnest, but it's the
same for everybody."
STUCK
Phil Nicoletti (JGR Suzuki) won a crazy
first 250SX heat race after starting well
outside the top 10. First, leader Adam
Cianciarulo's clutch burned up, and then
Shane McElrath got hung up in the mud
on the inside of a corner. Then on the
last lap, Nicoletti passed race leader
Chase Sexton to take his first 250SX
heat-race win. "I'm glad I'm from New
York on nights like tonight," Nicoletti
said. "I've got to thank my old man for
making me, as a kid, ride in this stuff. It
pays off. Mud is the greatest equalizer
in the world. No matter the amount of
money, horsepower, anything, just go
out there and get the job done and ride
the best you can." But in the main event,
Nicoletti duplicated a mistake made in
one of the 450SX heat races by Alex
Nagy and got stuck off the track on the
inside of a turn where the track workers
had been scraping all of the mud off of
the track. The mistake put Nagy out of
the heat race, but for Nicoletti, it was just
a major setback. He ended up toughing
it out for 11th in the main event.
BARCIA SET TO RETURN
Justin Barcia was hoping to make his
return to racing from injury at Seattle
but chose to wait at least another week.
"It's been a week since I started riding
again and I'm progressing pretty well
every day. I was shooting to race this
weekend in Seattle but it's just not
realistic," Barcia said. "My hand hasn't
progressed fast enough, unfortunately.
I went to California last week and did
some MX testing, which was good to
Briefly...
