Page 34 - Issue-35

PHILLIP NICOLETTI
250 SX / OKLAND
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Phil Nicoletti’s Northeast roots should have given him a decent advantage throughout qualifying practice given the fact that the track was a sloppy, rutted mess. He grew up in New York where it seems to rain every other weekend, providing him with a plethora of ex- perience battling through adverse track conditions. Unfortunately for the Joe Gibb’s Racing Suzuki rider, he struggled to find his rhythm in either of the sessions, forcing him to settle for fifteenth overall heading into the night show. Nevertheless, Nicoletti’s strong suit has never been qualifying and he’s one of those riders that seems to find an extra gear when the gate drops. He experienced some sort of issue out of the gate in his heat race which left him multiple bike lengths behind the rest of the pack heading into the first corner; he hugged
the inside line and managed to avoid some introductory rhythm section carnage to salvage a decent start given the circumstances. Nicoletti managed to work his way past more than half the field after the botched start, crossing the finish line in eighth position to start his first flying lap. The Suzuki rider showed an unbridled amount of urgency to work himself into transfer position, but he wasn’t done there. He forced his way past Killian Auberson one lap later as he tucked in behind the charging duo of Cole Martinez and Josh Hansen. Nicoletti hounded the pair of them as he battled the challenging track conditions, but wasn’t able to make the move, although he was eventually promoted to fifth position before the checkered flag as a result of the incident between McElrath and Decotis. The JGR Suzuki rider really suffered out of the gate in the main event, but he also was able to capitalize off of the traffic jam in the second corner by sticking to a high line, avoiding the hold up in the process. Ni- coletti ended up putting himself in seventh position on the opening lap, behind fellow former 450 class contender Kyle Chisholm. The two of them were caught up in a battle with Justin Starling throughout the first couple of laps, but Nicoletti was quickly able to dispose of both riders as he made his way into fifth position by the third lap. He immediately stretched out the gap back to sixth position as the time between himself and fourth position grew as well. The native New Yorker was in a battle of his own with the track conditions for the majority of the race, eventually falling under pressure from a charging Aaron Plessinger at the midway point. Nicoletti did well to hold off multiple passing attempts from the Star Racing Yamaha rider for a couple of laps, but it only prolonged the inevitable as he eventually conceded the position. Shortly thereafter, Plessinger made a mistake that would allow Nicoletti back into fifth position and that’s where he would stay for the rest of the race. The JGR rider earned his best finish of the 2017 series so far as he avoided the misfortune that has affected his throughout the series thus far. He’ll be looking to put another top five finish together in Dal- las before the series heads east to Minneapolis.
34 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 5, 2017