Page 63 - GRID-4

Paasch found himself in fourth spot on the second lap after his teammate, Valentin Debise, crashed out of the race and the sixteen
BRANDONPAASCH
Paasch was a little
bit off of his regular
entire weekend, but it
all started on Friday
due to the lack of dry
track time as a result
of incessant rainfall.
Saturday brought on
a damp qualifying
session and Paasch
was only able to
salvage a ninth place
start on the grid with
a 1:33.029.
SUPERSPORT
GRIDmoto
VIRgInIa InternatIonal
Raceway
pace throughout the
The youngster out of New
Jersey made the best of the circumstances as the lights went
out on the opening race, making up
four positions on the opening lap as he attempted to go away with Benny Solis Jr.
>>
year old immediately began to feel some pressure from Conner Blevins behind him. He lost the spot but was able to maintain his position in fifth place overall for an number of laps, holding off a charge from his Suzuki counterpart, Nick McFadden. The two of them rode closely to one another until Michael Gilbert joined the fray and split the Suzuki teammates. On the ninth lap, Paasch lost the position and was forced to drop back to sixth place, but he was determined to stay on the in the top five as he worked his way back past Blevins. The two of them chopped and changed positions just past the halfway point, but Paasch wasn’t able to hold onto the position and he began to drop further back down the order. By the end of the race, the sixteen year old had fallen out of touch with the group of riders that he battled for the majority of the race, eventually crossing the finish line in tenth position. In the second race, the Team Hammer Suzuki rider wasn’t able to replicate his first race heroics off the grid as he settled into eighth place in the early stages
of the race. He wasn’t able to repeat his stint toward the front of the field this time around as he rode the first third of the twenty laps in eighth position. He came under pressure from Jason Aguilar on the eighth lap and lost a position to the Yamaha rider, falling back to ninth place, and he continued to drop back a couple of laps later after a mistake put him in thirteenth place. At that point, he was only able to make up one position as he fought his way past his teammate, Brandon Cleland, eventually finishing the race in twelfth position.
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