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WESTON PEICK
450 MX / 13TH
MAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> After missing nearly all of the 2017 Supercross season, Weston Peick made his return to racing at the outdoor season opener at Hangtown. Many expected him to jump right back to being a top ten, borderline top five threat and although he has done so to an extent, he has been very inconsistent. He has been plagued by bike issues, crashes, and poor starts. But when he has none of those problems, he still has that top five capability and he proved that at Muddy Creek with a fourth overall. After a strong seventh after our last race at Washougal, Peick looked to build on that here at the start of the last three rounds.
Peick looked good in the morning qualifying sessions en route to setting the eleventh fast- est lap time. The JGR Suzuki rider looked poised and ready to get the days motos started.
Peick began the first moto in decent position rounding lap one in ninth place. He seemed to have a little extra spunk compared to the rest of the riders because he initiated a solo charge to the front. He picked up a handful of spots in the opening laps capped off by passing Cooper Webb for sixth on lap five. He settled in there and moved his attention to fifth place rider Christian Craig. At about that same time the rain really started to fall and that made things difficult. He could not get up to Craig quick enough and then the race ended prematurely due to lightning in the area. He would officially finish with that sixth in the moto and would look for a similar performance in moto two.
Peick could not achieve another good start in the second moto and came out of the opening lap buried in sloppy mud and water in fifteenth place. Then in a complete reverse of the first moto, Peick started moving backwards. He was struggling and making vari- ous mistakes on the overly saturated course. At the halfway point, he had slid back to nineteenth place and then another mistake in the final stages sent him back to twentieth where he would end up finishing. Certainly, not how he expected that moto to play out so he’d have to settle with 6-20 for thirteenth overall. Unfortunately, he could not complement that great first moto in the second one but he has two more rounds to correct that and get back to top five contention.
62 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 13, 2017