Page 48 - ISSUE_62

JUSTIN BARCIA
450 SX / 8TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After a few years in a loss Justin Barcia was left without an elite ride for the first time in his professional career. Justin put together his own program and was back riding his long time brand partner Honda. Barcia did one race with his own program and that was at the Monster Energy Cup which isn’t
a series race. Barcia put in a respectful showing finishing in 6th overall with 10-6-5 moto scores. Shortly before the first race at A1 Justin got a call to fill in for the injured Davi Millsaps at the Monster Energy Knich Yamaha team. The two parties agreed to a 6 race deal and then negotiation after that. Barcia has since been on the podium at the first two rounds of the season and is all of a sudden a title favorite. Justin’s night started off rough in the first main event rounding out in 13th after the start. The #51 worked hard to get himself into the top 10 battling his way past the likes of Roczen and Webb to finish in 8th. BamBam Barcia started in 10th in the second main event and even dropped a position on the opening lap. @justinbarcia tried to jump his way past Chad Reed on the triple, Barcia ran out of track and was forced to jump off of the track onto the stadium floor. In typical BamBam style Justin held onto the throttle re-entering the track right behind Reed and then made an aggressive pass just one corner later to take 8th. Justin continued to press on to a 5th place finish. After the first lap of the final main event Justin was in 17th posi- tion. The #51 used all of the main event to productively get himself to 9th by the checkered flag.
48 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 21, 2018