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ANTHONY RODRIGUEZ
250 SX / MN.
IIMAGE /MPG WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Anthony Rodriguez is coming into his fourth season competing in the 250 SX East divi- sion of Monster Energy Supercross. The Venezuelan native made the move to the United States in order to pursue his dream of racing professionally on the world’s biggest stage, finding a home at Millsaps Training Facility in Cairo, Georgia. A-Rod has been putting in
the work down south throughout the last couple months, riding with some extremely fast riders that will undoubtedly improve his race pace and his confidence heading into the 2017 season. He has been fortunate enough to share the track with Jordon Smith, Justin Barcia, Dakota Alix, and Lorenzo Locurcio in the weeks leading up to his 2017 debutt; therefore, replicating the intensity of a racing situation as well as having a gauge for his speed against some of his closest competitors. Rodriguez has been sneakily good in recent years, flying under the radar with a sixth place overall in the 2015 250 SX East season. As practice got underway at the U.S. Bank Arena, he found himself struggling to find the flow and clocked a time that put him sixteenth overall. Rodriguez put his qualifying time behind him as he rocketed out of the gate to a top five start in his heat race. The Venezuelan showed sharp reactions and an impressive presence of mind on the bike to avoid the opening lap carnage that plagued almost half of the field, putting him in fourth position behind the Kawasaki of Gannon Audette as the pack came across the line for the first time. Rodriguez rode his
own race as if he was clicking off the practice laps at MTF, holding firm in fourth position just ahead of Mitchell Harrison until the checkered flag. The Yamaha rider sped out of the gate to a spectacular start in the main event as he only had two riders ahead of him when he crossed the finish line for the first time. He did his best to keep the charging factory machines of R.J. Hampshire and Zach Osborne at bay, but he was only able to hold them off for the opening couple of laps. He kept his composure after dropping back to fifth posi- tion and held strong until eventually coming under fire from Adam Cianciarulo towards the midway point of the race. The two of them battled for a couple of laps, but Rodriguez was forced to forfeit the position and drop back to sixth place. It looked as though if that’s where he would finish until a late attack from fellow Yamaha rider and Frenchman, Dylan Ferran- dis, pushed him back one position further. The MTF backed rider brought his Yamaha home in seventh position for a solid finish that will fill him with confidence heading into the second round of the 250 East SX series in Atlanta. The starts that he was able to pull were the key to his success throughout the night of racing, look for Rodriguez to be mixing it up in the first corner in the Georgia Dome this upcoming weekend.
50 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 19, 2017