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LORENZO LOCURCIO
250 SX / 11TH
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / ECKERT DESIGN / WILSON
>> A Venezuelan prodigy riding out of the esteemed Millsaps’ Training Facility, Lorenzo Locurcio has had an extremely successful rookie season. Through the first four rounds, Lorenzo made every main and even walked out of the grueling Daytona circuit with a career-best 6th place finish. A week later in Indy, the #183 of Locurcio was cleaned out in the LCQ and missed the main for the first time. Looking to turn it around this past weekend Lorenzo put the CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha in the mix at the start of heat two but was buried within the madness. After dicing and surviving, Lorenzo came out swinging for 9th at the start of lap two, battling with Josh Cartwright. Trading positions, Locurcio was pushed to 10th behind Josh for the next few laps. As the heat passed the midway point, a mistake from the #740 of Staley put Lorenzo up a spot and into qualifying position. Continuing to capitalize on the mistakes from the fellow racers, Lorenzo was able to slide up a few more spots, squeezing into 5th by the finish and into the main comfortably.
In the main, Lorenzo was able to get through the first turn cleanly and held 8th through the opening lap. Battling with Anthony Rodriguez, a mistake put Rodriguez on the ground and outside of the top ten, while pushing Lorenzo back to 9th in the process. Dropping to 10th momentarily, Lorenzo regained 9th with a mistake from the #641 of Keith Tucker. Picking up a spot from Christian Craig, Lorenzo found himself, once again, in 8th, with nine minutes to go. After leading Craig for a lap around the fast Ford Field circuit, Locurcio gave the posi- tion back to the Geico Honda rider. Lorenzo looked to have 9th locked up but it wasn’t until the races end that the charge of Rodriguez and Renzland proved to have too much steam, as both riders got by Locurcio in the final stages. The mistake put Lorenzo back to 11th for the finish and his second best finish of the year. The solid rebound performance in Detroit definitely puts Lorenzo on the watch list next weekend in St. Louis; keep your eyes on this guy.
84 GRITMOTO • MARCH 26, 2017