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RONNIE STEWART
450 SX / A2
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Ronnie Stewart put his Suzuki RM-Z450 in the twenty-seventh spot after qualifying practice had come to a conclusion. It wasn’t the best sce- nario for the Pennsylvania native as he set out to a last place start in the second 450 heat race. He wasn’t able to progress any further up the field and was forced to settle for a ride in the semi, hoping for a better start. Stewart laid down a much better start than his heat race, but it still wasn’t enough to give him track position that left him in with a shout of transfer- ring out of the semi. He sat around eleventh position on the opening lap and tucked in there for the first half of the race. Stewart was overtaken by Dusty Pipes just after the midway point of the contest, but he managed to hold onto twelfth for the remainder of the race. The Suzuki rider would be forced to take a trip to the LCQ in order to put himself in the main event for the evening. Stewart finally got the start he needed off the start of the LCQ as he came out around fourth position behind the 7Deuce Deuce. He showed solid composure as he held his own in a battle with Dakota Tedder and Jimmy Albertson on the opening lap. Albertson ended up going down just before the on-off leading up to the finish line, therefore creating a small gap behind the final transfer position. Stewart navigated through the carnage and came out in third position, holding strong until the end of the race when he barely lost out to Nick Schmidt, still earning a spot in the main event. He didn’t get out to the best jump off the start
of the main and ended up coming across the line in twentieth position for the first time, ahead of the JGR Suzuki teammates of Jake Weimer and Broc Tickle. He had lost positions to the Suzuki duo a couple of laps later and found himself in a battle with Adam Enticknap for the final spot. The two of them swapped places once or twice as the race played out and the leaders began to come through, but Stewart ended up beating him out for the twenty-first position.
116 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 22, 2017