Page 138 - ISSUE32

AJ CATANZARO
250 SX / SD
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> AJ Catanzaro aboard his Blue Buffalo, Slater Skins, Waynes- burg Yamaha has been around the block throughout his career. The now experienced 250 rider has had his moments of glory with a pair of top five performances in the past as well as a few top tens. The native of New England has shown he has the speed to run up front on occasion it is just consistency that has eluded him. He is also now one of the older riders in the 250 class making it even harder to compete with these new, fresh riders. Catanzaro kicked is season off last week at A1 with a twentieth-place finish. He knows he’s capable of more than that and he was ready to prove it this week at San Diego. He qualified a mediocre eigh- teenth place in practice but was ready to throw his hat in the ring during the night show. He got the start that he needed, coming out of lap one in ninth place, the final transfer spot. He decided being on that final spot was a bit too risky for him so he jumped up to seventh just to be safe.
The main event would not go as smooth as the heat race did for Catanzaro because he started off buried in twentieth place. He’d then bobble some more and fall back to dead last in twenty-sec- ond before getting back going again. But because he was so far back, he was only climb back up to where he started up in twenti- eth. Not the two race Catanzaro would have liked to start the sea- son so look for him to be a bit more motivated at the next round.
138 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 15, 2017