Page 64 - ISSUE_44

JUSTIN BARCIA
450 SX / 13TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> After nearly missing the entire first half of the season Justin Barcia made his return to racing at round 7 of the AMA Supercross Championship. Barcia was one of the names that many had pegged out for a title threat, or at the very least a podium contender. In the past 8 rounds since his return Justin’s best result is a 9th place in Toronto. Many questions have been asked but very few answered. Barcia’s mediocre results could be because of his absence of racing and coming into the season late, or it could be that he hasn’t adapted to the new Suzuki that he is riding this year. One thing is for sure, since parting ways with Honda we haven’t seen
the same Justin Barcia that we’re accustomed too. It has been a long season for BamBam but he is finally showing signs of his old self and the results can’t be to far behind.
In Barcia’s heat race he started in 4th place behind heavy hitters Musquin, Dungey and Reed. The #51 Suzuki rider blasted his way around the outside of Chad Reed and began to chase down Ryan Dungey. Barcia and the defending champ played cat and mouse for the entire heat but Justin couldn’t find a way past. JB51 didn’t get the jump off the gate which resulted to him trying to sneak around the inside of the first corner. Sadly as soon as Justin got there two other riders went down right infront of him leaving Justin with nowhere to go but to hit the dirt with them. This caused a rock to get caught in his front disc break resulting into a quick pit stop. It took Barcia nearly five minutes to catch up to the rest of the field. At the end of the night Justin came around with a 13 place finish. The plus side is the speed was defiantly there. Three race remain, can the real BamBam show up?
64 GRITMOTO • APRIL 9, 2017