Page 20 - ISSUE_53

JUSTIN BARCIA
450 MX / 5TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / TILLS
>> There are numerous ways in which a competitor on this level prepares for a race. Some like to keep a calming mood around them, talking, chit-chatting amongst both crew and friends. Others, in isolation; gathering their thoughts, possibly listen- ing to music, preparing themselves for the adrenaline surge that lay just ahead. Regardless, once they all manage to roll into the launch pad, they visualize. Often forecasting a utopian chain of laps strung together, they must truly believe they can do the task at hand, otherwise the race is over before it has started. Justin Barcia believes in himself; you can attest to this by viewing his results in the past. He hopes and plans on reciprocating again today, here at Red Bud. Throwing down a superb practice effort, his lines through the pro section were very creative, running both in- side and outside lines, as the track began to push from the middle bath, to the brinks of the banners. As moto one was coming near, his switch was flipped. The pack clustered into the bottleneck, and then funneled down the infamous ski jump. Joust- ing throughout the chassis-deep ruts, the field began to sort themselves out through- out the opening laps. Barcia was near the top in fifth. Dicing it up at the end of the train, he was trailing Tomac, Baggett, Bogle, Musquin, and Christian Craig. Bouncing off the rev limiter, the sound of the screaming 450 was to the delight of the fans; as he his RPM’s were redlining, even in the air of Larocco’s leap. He would hold strong in fifth for quite sometime, only losing a spot to the flying Jason Anderson. He would try his best to latch on to the number 21, but to no avail, he would have to contend with Cole Seely. Seely would work his way around, just in the nick of time, pushing JB51 back to seventh, where he would finish. JB is back for a vengeance, flying
to an early race lead, where he would hold the front of the back for an astonishing seven laps. A mistake on lap eight saw Barcia throw anchor big time, almost as if there was a slight mechanical issue, or his tongue was getting caught in sprocket from fatigue. Whatever the case, his raw speed was apparent but he couldn’t sustain it for the entire moto. Fighting off the likes of Josh Grant at the end of the moto, the number 51 held his hed a bit as crossed the line; knowing that he has the speed, but can’t afford to go from first to sixth from here on out; he would finish fifth overall.
20 GRITMOTO • JULY 2, 2017