Page 28 - Issue45

DAVI MILLSAPS
450 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Davi Millsaps has enjoyed a pretty nice year. He has been very consistent
by finishing in the thick of the top ten at nearly every round. He has quietly been logging good starts and coinciding good rides week in and week out. Millsaps has positioned himself in a tie for sixth in points with Blake Baggett which makes perfect sense because those two have always seemed to find each other out
on the track this year. Millsaps entered the Easter Break with a season best fifth place finish so he aimed to build on that and try and nail another top five here in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Millsaps appeared to struggle some in qualifying practice as he was only able to get the sixteenth fastest lap time. He is usually pretty quick in qualifying so it was cause for concern but he was ready to put that behind him and show out in the night show. He came around lap one in his heat race in eighth place and struggled to make up ground. He was only able to climb to sixth meaning he’d have to try his luck in the semi. Things went much better there as he started in third before quickly passing Barcia for second. He then set his sights on Jake Weimer and just snuck in a pass on the last lap to secure the position and the win. He was ready for the main event.
Millsaps started the main event in eighth and bounced between there and sev- enth for the first few laps. He enjoyed a battle with Brayton early on but around halfway, he had settled into seventh and looked poised to stay there. He built
a nice cushion behind him and Reed was just too far away in sixth to make a challenge. Millsaps would end up taking home that seventh place spot. The finish made sense because that is right about where he has been all year but he knows with a slightly better start, he could be challenging the top five.
28 GRITMOTO • APRIL 23, 2017