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Austin Forkner didn’t waste any time in removing doubt from anyone’s mind that he could run the pace with the top pros in the 250 class. He managed to trump the defending champion in qualifying and put down the 4th fastest lap time, half a second off the pace set by his teammate, Joey Savatgy. He grabbed a top 10 start in the first moto and may have succumbed a little bit
to first race jitters in the opening laps, admitting later on social media that he rode tight at the
beginning of the race. Forkner lost a couple of positions to A-Mart and Plessinger, but he still found himself within reach of the top 10. As the rain began to fall nearing the midway point of the race, he began to claw his way back into contention by way of a brief battle with fellow rookie, Alex Frye. Forkner made a mistake on the 11th lap and lost about 17 seconds as well as 3 positions, putting him back in 13th place. At this stage in the race, he was sort of caught in between Adam Cianciarulo and Colt Nichols and he brought the bike back to the truck in 13th place looking to improve in the second moto. Forkner pulled a rocket of a start in the second moto and he found himself in 4th place on the opening lap. He put together some incredibly consistent laps within the 2:04 and 2:05 second range as he stalked Jordon Smith for 3rd place.
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