Page 50 - Issue 79

WESTON PEICK
450 MX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> With all the injuries and drama that have captured the attention at the front of the pack in the 450 class so far this season, Weston Peick’s performances have own under the radar. I know Supercross and motocross are two different animals but dating all the way back to April 14 at the Minneapolis SX, Peick has nished no worse than seventh and no better than sixth; And that includes the rst two rounds of this outdoor season. Peick has been uber consistent of late and that is huge coming from a rider that has had his fair share of struggles with consistency. The tough and gritty rider from southern California has now added a little more nesse to his game and with these strong sixth and seventh nishes, it is only a matter of time until he breaks back into the top ve. Peick stayed true to his streak of sixth or seventh overall nishes in the morning qualifying practice sessions in Colorado. He clocked in with the seventh fastest lap time of the class and looked as good as ever. He was pretty much right where he’d like to be, and he would like to even improve on that once the gates dropped for the motos. Peick got his day going with a good sixth place start in the rst moto of the day. He kept both Ken Roczen and Marvin Musquin close in the opening stages and remained in the depths of battle. He had Blake Baggett nipping at his heels to make things more interesting, but things would get reshuf ed after a red ag put a momentary stoppage to the race. Peick got a better start, fourth, on the restart but would get shuf ed back to where he was in the opening moto, sixth, on the second lap by Marvin Musquin and Justin Barcia. He then received pressure from young Benny Bloss. Peick held him off for two laps but Bloss wore him down and made the move. This slid Peick back to seventh and he locked in there, not allowing anyone else to make a move on him. He’d nish there in seventh and would look for a slightly stronger performance in moto two. Peick got another decent start in the second moto except this time he came out of lap one in eighth place. He rode behind his JGR Suzuki teammate, Phil Nicoletti, for the rst few laps before nding his way by on lap three. The rest of the moto would be fairly quiet for Peick as he did not have the speed to catch up to the lead pack ahead of him, but he did have the speed to distance himself from everyone else. He’d nish the day with a relatively quiet 7-7 for seventh overall. He still wants a little bit more, but his nishes remain solid and consistent.
50 GRITMOTO • JUNE 3, 2018