Page 22 - ISSUE_62

JOSH GRANT
450 SX / 6TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> We all remember two years ago at Daytona where Josh Grant basically hopped off the couch and finished seventh in the main event on a bike he had barely ridden. He impressed
the Monster Energy Kawasaki team enough that they gave him a fill-in ride which, after some more solid performances, turned into a full-time ride by the end of the year. Since then he has not looked back and remains a solid force aboard that factory Kawasaki. Grant is definitely getting into the later years of his career but that has not prevented him from still providing
some strong rides and performances already here in 2018. He has finished ninth place at both Anaheim 1 and Houston, but those results don’t speak for the top five speed that he has had. He entered Anaheim 2 eager to string together three solid main events and get back closer to
a top five spot. Grant struggled just a bit in qualifying practice. He rode out of there with the twelfth fastest lap time but a rider of his caliber and experience surely went back to the rig to make the proper adjustments, so he would be ready to compete come race time. The first main event of the night saw Grant get out to a fifth place start. The veteran positioned himself nicely in the thick of the battle. He rode hard in that spot for a few laps before getting reeled in by his teammate Eli Tomac. The two riders engaged in a rugged but clean battle and after the two rid- ers traded some passes, Tomac emerged ahead. Back in sixth, Grant rode smooth and ended up finishing right there in that spot marking a solid ride in the first main event. The second main event started almost like the first one. This time Grant bettered his starting position by one and grabbed the green flag in fourth place. He quickly went to work trying to run down and pass Justin Brayton. He slowly but surely inched his way towards him and made the pass for third on lap six. He was riding great up there inside the top three and it looked like he was about to put both Monster Energy Kawasaki’s on the podium (teammate Eli Tomac was leading). However, points leader Jason Anderson had different plans. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider ran Grant down in the final laps of the race. Grant put up a strong fight but with two laps to go, Anderson finally made the pass. Grant would finish in fourth place. Grant could not get another good start in the third main event. He rounded lap one in ninth positon. He passed Cooper Webb for eighth three laps into the race and then he’d pass Vince Friese for seventh on lap five. By the time he worked into seventh, the rest of the field was pretty spread out leaving him with no one to really chase down. He would get some company late in the race from Cole Seely and would fend him off for several laps. But finally, Seely made the pass and Grant would end up finishing in eighth. His 6-4-8 main event scores would get him sixth overall on the night. He surely proved he was better than those two ninths he had coming into the night. He finished better than ninth in all three main events.
22 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 21, 2018