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FREDRIK NOREN
450 MX / 11TH
MAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> Fredrik Noren has enjoyed a fine 2017 outdoor campaign. Coming out of the week- end off, the Swedish sensation is sitting pretty in eleventh place in the points standings. After starting the season off fighting to finish inside the top fifteen, here in the second half he has bettered that by fighting for top tens. He has finished there twice in the last three rounds including an outstanding eighth overall at one of the roughest courses of the year at Southwick. With three rounds to go, Noren was eager to keep things going and hit that top ten three more times.
Noren enjoyed the morning qualifying sessions because he came away with the tenth fastest lap time. He looked spry and ready to go after practice and was ready for the moto one gate to drop.
When the gate did drop, Noren got out of the first lap in eleventh place. He was in prime position right on the edge of the top ten and after a few laps, he slid into that tenth-place spot after a crash from Matt Bisceglia. However, his time there only lasted a few laps because Dean Wilson came charging through to push him back to eleventh and that is when the rain hit. Torrential downpours ravaged the track but Noren kept everything under control and would finish the abbreviated moto right there in eleventh. He’d look to improve on that finish in the next moto.
The track was extremely sloppy with sitting water in many sections at the beginning of moto two making a start critical. Unfortunately, Noren suffered a horrendous start and did not come around lap one in a good position. He was buried in 24th and already caked in an excessive amount of mud. He did his best to grind forward throughout the shortened twenty minute plus one lap moto and he did end up making several moves. The track was very difficult to make passes with only one real line forming in the muck but Noren managed to pass eleven riders to finish in thirteenth. A great come from behind ride that would make it 11-13 moto scores for eleventh overall on the day. He must be bummed he just missed out on the top ten but he is still right there with two rounds left.
58 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 13, 2017