Page 128 - Issue_39

LORENZO LOCURCIO
250 SX / 21ST
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> 2017 marks Lorenzo Locurcio’s first season in the professional ranks. The rookie enjoyed a mildly successful amateur career earn- ing a handful of titles across the amateur national circuit. He certainly progressed into a top rider once he made the move from his home country of Venezuela to the infamous Millsaps Training Facility in Cairo, Georgia. His experience racing abroad and his success in the amateurs in the United States earned him a role with the CycleTrader Rock River Yamaha team. They helped groom him as an amateur and now they are continuing that relationship onto the pros. He’s looked good so far with two to fifteens to start his career and he looked to keep that trend going in Toronto. He would qualify with the nineteenth quickest time and was ready to rock for the night show.
The gate dropped in his heat race and he was in tenth place. He needed one more spot to secure the transfer position but he would not be satisfied with just that. It took him three laps to finally take it over but then he went on a mission and fought his way to fifth during the next three laps. He looked aggressive and confident en route to that fifth-place heat finish and surely looked ready for the main.
Locurcio could not get the start he needed in the main event coming out of lap one in eighteenth place. He got bumped forward and back- ward over the course of the next few laps before running into problems on lap eight forcing him out of the race. Not the race the Venezuelan wanted but he will look to rebound and get back to fighting inside the top fifteen next weekend in Daytona.
128 GRITMOTO • MARCH 5, 2017