Page 70 - Issue34

JIMMY DECOTIS
250 SX / AZ
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / HARNISFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Jimmy Decotis is off to a quietly strong season here in 2017. The “New England Rippa” has been putting his Geico Honda up front early and often in the heats and mains leading to three top ten overall finishes in three tries. This week in Arizona he looked energetic in practice lead- ing to a sixth fastest time. After two straight sixth place finishes, he was ready to break free and finally notch himself a top five finish.
Decotis got out of the gate fast in his heat race jumping into the first rhythm lane in third. He locked in behind early leaders Martin Davalos and Austin Forkner and held his own. He would put together a consistent six minutes of racing and finish right where he started in third.
Jimmy D has always been adept at holeshots and he stayed true to that by ripping a great second place start down the long start stretch. But just as fast as he rocketed out to that start, he began to get shuffled. He found himself on the short end of the stick on various battles throughout the first few laps and kept getting hung out to dry. He looked to finally have stopped the bleeding when he got bumped over a berm by Phil Nicoletti at the midway point. By this point, Decotis had dropped to ninth but he stayed positive and kept his head up climbing back to finish in eighth place. In a sense, he did break free from his two straight sixth place finishes but unfortunately it was in the opposite direction. Look
for Decotis to rebound and go back after that top five next weekend at Oakland.
70 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 29, 2017