Page 128 - Issue34

CARLEN GARDNER
250 SX / AZ
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> At round 4 of the AMA Monster Energy Supercross series Carlen Gardner was able to accomplish a lifetime goal of rac- ing in the main event. The California native has flown under the radar for most of his career, mostly due to the fact that Carlen could only manage to go to selected races. With the help of his father/ Lazer star/ and race tech Gardner set sail to race the west coast series on his Yamaha 250.
I am currently unsure what the #805 rider did from last week at A2 to this week in Phoenix because it looked like a totally different rider out on the track. If you go off of past results @carlen_83 seemed to be a LCQ guy who might not make a main event his first year around. The rookie was lined
up in the first 250 heat race of the night, the gate dropped and Gardner was outside of a qualifying position. Halfway through the heat Carlen started to make his moves towards the top 9. With determination and a bit of luck, the LCQ war- rior turned himself into a main event straight out the heat race kind of dude. Although Gardner had some troubles in his first Sx main event he will certainly be walking into Oak- land next weekend with his head up and a list of new goals to achieve.
128 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 29, 2017