Page 52 - Issue 79

PHIL NICOLETTI
450 MX / 8TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> The start of the 2018 outdoor motocross season has treated Phil Nicoletti quite well. He rode for the JGR Suzuki team in Supercross aboard a 250 in the West Coast division. He would only notch three top ten nishes in the main events and then fail to even make the East/West main event at the season nale in Las Vegas. He was surely upset about how his Supercross season went but JGR Suzuki immediately called him back up and told him he would be lling in on their 450 for the outdoors. Nicoletti has had success outdoors on
a 450 with the team in the past so it was a perfect t. He proved right away that it was a successful decision as he nished ninth and eighth overall at Hangtown and Glen Helen respectively. His good starts have kept him in the thick of things early so it could be only a matter of time until we see him stay up there and nish in the top ve. Nicoletti struggled mightily in the morning qualifying practice sessions at round three in Colorado. The New York product quali ed with the sixteenth fastest lap time. He and his team would have to
go to work before the motos to make the proper adjustments to get him back up deeper in the top ten where he belongs. Nicoletti got a great start in moto one and that seemed to re him up and shake him out of the funk he was in during practice. He rounded lap one in third with Marvin Musquin right on his rear fender. It looked like it was inevitable that Musquin would pass him, but it never happened. Nicoletti was clocking quick lap times and wasn’t really losing that much time to Barcia and Tomac up front. Roczen moved into fourth and tried challenging Nicoletti but he thwarted him as well. Unfortunately for Nicoletti, this great ride would be halted by a red ag and there would be a full restart. Off the restart, Nicoletti came out of it in seventh place but would get passed by Benny Bloss just a few laps into
it. This put him back to eighth where he rode well pulling away from the rest of the riders behind him. He’d ride the rest of the moto there to secure the eighth-place moto nish. Nicoletti got another good start to kick things off in moto two. He emerged from lap one in sixth position. He’d enjoy brief battles with his teammate, Weston Peick, and Bloss but both riders would get the best of him sending him back to eighth. It was déjà vu from the rst moto and Nicoletti would ride it home in a lonely eighth place. His 8-8 moto nishes earned him eighth overall on the day. He has nished in the top ten at all three rounds so far matching his three top tens he got during the entire Supercross season. The outdoors on a 450 is clearly “Filthy Phil’s” strong suit.
52 GRITMOTO • JUNE 3, 2018