Page 26 - MPG18

It’s here! It’s here! The long awaited professional debut of Austin Forkner has finally arrived. He’ll line up on the gate at Hangtown with his familiar number 214 Kawasaki and for the first time in a long time, his inner voice will be asking a cautious question - “Can I win?”. In all honesty, we could just leave this section of the magazine blank, because anyone that knows anything about motocross is well aware of
the potential that this kid possesses. He hopped into the middle of the AX series and dominated the field in just his second race; absolutely nailing his starts, refusing to crumble under the intimidation of the close quarters Arenacross racing, and doing it all with
a cheeky smile. But, in a sport so fleeting and fickle, we often forget of familiar tales of amateur stardom that haven’t gone at all how we expected. Adam Cianciarulo was coming into the professional ranks as the winningest amateur rider in history, boasting an incredible 11 amateur National Championships. Unfortunately, an illness kept him away from making his debut at Hangtown and Cianciarulo wasn’t
able to race until the middle of the season. Although he did podium the first moto at Utah later in the year, the season went against the grain of mostly everyone’s expectations and Adam has failed to stay healthy throughout his professional career. He clearly has the speed to contend for titles, having won multiple SX races, but being able to put it together for a whole season is the trick. Forkner now has this blueprint laid out by his Pro Circuit teammate and now the two will line up on the gate at Hangtown together. Those that are close to Austin and those within his program will look to temper expectations; he’s stated that he would be absolutely ecstatic with a top 5 finish at the opening round. One thing to take into consideration is the fact that professional races are 30 minutes plus 2 laps whereas the longest races run in the amateur ranks are a little more than half of that. Race fitness and experience come into play at the end of a moto and
this is something that has to be learned through trial and error, no matter the raw speed or potential of a rider. Forkner ended his amateur career in a picture perfect fashion by going 1-1-1 at the Freestone Spring Championships. In the very last moto, he pulled an awful start and got caught up in an incident in the first corner. This put him in practically dead last place, but Forkner didn’t panic one bit. Instead, he passed everyone and took the checkered flag first with brilliant measured race craft and balls out speed. It’s safe to say that Forkner is an extreme talent on a dirt bike and that he’ll be winning races in his professional career - the question is, how soon can he do it?
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IMAGE/WONDERGOAT
AUSTIN FORKNER
26 GRITMOTO • MAY.23.16