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SEAN CANTRELL
250 SX / 5TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Sean Cantrell’s rookie season has been quite up and down, like most riders in their inaugural season in the professional ranks. Cantrell began the year showcasing some speed but suffered from vast inconsistency and several crashes in the main events. His holeshots have also been something he has yet to master as they have varied in consistency as well. But, he has managed to redeem himself from three nishes outside the top fourteen with four nishes inside the top ten including an incredibly impressive fourth place nish at last weekend’s Triple Crown event in Minneapolis. He nally pieced together consistent performances and he showed the potential that many saw he had coming out of the amateur ranks. That could have been the shot in the arm he needed to end his rookie Supercross campaign strong.
Cantrell started off his day well with a solid showing in the pair of morning qualifying practice ses- sions. He maneuvered the slick and loose New England soil en route to notching the sixth fastest lap time of the class. He was right where he usually is and was looking forward for the gates to drop so he could go racing.
The gate dropped for the rst heat race of the afternoon and it saw Cantrell get out to a good start. The Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM product rounded the rst corner in third position. He settled
in behind Thomas Ramette who was in second and tried matching his pace. Throughout the race, Cantrell could not close the gap to really challenge the French rider. He did not have the spunk needed to move up, but it was only the heat race and he would still nish in third. He set himself up nicely to have a successful main event.
Cantrell dipped into his bag of tricks and remade his start from the heat race. He came out of the rst lap drama in third position. He was behind his teammate Jordon Smith and tried latching on to his rear fender. He would slowly lose touch from Smith and then about midway start to feel pres- sure from Kyle Peters. He was doing a good job keeping him behind but then late in the race on lap twelve, Cantrell would go down. Luckily, he quickly remounted and only lost the spot to Peters, so he was now in fourth place. He appeared to have the race wrapped up in that position until a red-up Jeremy Martin came streaking by with two laps to go. Martin was simply on a mission to get to the front and Cantrell did not stand a chance. He would still nish the race strong in fth place to make
it back to back top ve nishes for the rst time in his career. Cantrell is enjoying a great end to the year and he’ll have one more chance at another top ve at the nale in Las Vegas.
38 GRITMOTO • APRIL 22, 2018