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JUSTIN BRAYTON
450 SX / 4TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Justin Brayton has found the fountain of youth. The thirty-three-year-old veteran is the second-oldest rider on the circuit right now behind Chad Reed, but he certainly isn’t racing like it. Brayton looks as good as he has in nearly half a decade. He is consistently nailing great starts and sustaining them with great lap times and performances. Brayton has always been adept at heat races, so the shorter races of the Monster Energy Triple Crown certainly fit his style. He looked to take full advantage of the format and see if he could challenge for a podium finish when things were all said and done. Brayton looked quick and spry during the morning practice sessions and emerged with an impressive fourth fastest lap time. Showing once again that he is certainly meshing well on his SmartTop/Motoconcepts machine this year. He could not wait for the gate to drop for main event number one. Brayton came out of the first turn first after the gate dropped for the main event but would end up getting edged out by Honda HRC’s Cole Seely by the end of the opening lap sending him back to second. From there, Brayton locked in and started logging some fast, consistent laps. The rider hailing from Iowa built a cushion on the rest of the field while Seely slowly drifted away. He eventually got some pressure from Baggett towards the end of the race, but he would hold on and finish in that second-place position. I don’t think anyone saw that kind of a ride com- ing from Brayton and he’d look to shock everyone again in the second main event.
Brayton began main event number two up front yet again. He got the green flag in second right behind Eli Tomac. But Seely would get passed quickly yet again sending him back to third. Brayton appeared to be holding steady, ready to put forth a similar performance to the first main event, but Josh Grant had other plans. Grant powered passed Brayton on lap six and then he got gobbled up by a battling Weston Peick and Jason Anderson two laps later sending him back to sixth. This is where Brayton decided enough was enough, locking in and ending up finished right there in sixth. Still a solid ride from Brayton but he felt he should have finished up further, so good thing there was still one more race to go. The third race was a rather simple one for Brayton. He started in third place and ended in third place. He never really felt pressure from anybody and was never close enough to the two leaders, Tomac and Anderson, to contest them. It would be another impressive podium finish to give him 2-6-3 main event scores. Those scores would fall just short of getting him on the overall podium, so he would have to settle with fourth overall. It was his best finish since 2014 and he’ll look to keep the good times rolling next weekend in Glendale.
16 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 21, 2018