Page 26 - Issue_56

WESTON PEICK
450 MX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> 2017 has been a rough year for Weston Peick. He saw a lot of successes in the past two years but was hampered by a pair of injuries just three rounds into the Supercross series. He lacerated his kidney and dislocated his wrist which was a huge bummer because he had improved at each of those three races securing a fifth at Anaheim 2. Things were looking up for him but he was forced to sit for the remainder of the series to heal up. He returned at Hangtown and has been very hot and cold throughout the outdoors. He has two top fives so far but only three top tens. Crashes
and mechanicals have been his story so far this season and he was looking to start rewriting it this weekend at Washougal.
Peick had a good pair of qualifying practice sessions emerging from them with the tenth fastest lap time. He looked solid per usual and was ready to try and string together two solid, consistent motos.
The first moto began with Peick getting out to a decent start. He came out of lap one in ninth posi- tion. He looked fast and bullish in the opening laps moving by Justin Hoeft and Fredrik Noren to get into seventh a few laps into the race. He stayed there for a while before catching Team Honda HRC’s Christian Craig at the halfway point. The two enjoyed a healthy battle but Peick ultimately prevailed to secure sixth. Shortly after that battle, he began to feel the heat from Blake Baggett. Baggett started applying some serious pressure in the waning stages of the race resulting in them catching Dean Wilson in fifth. A three-way battle ensued and Peick went from feeling the heat from Baggett, to applying the heat to Wilson. Peick had upped the pace and pulled back out on Baggett so he and Wilson went one versus one the final two laps. Peick threw everything but the kitchen sink at Wilson but he could not make anything happen. He would have to settle with sixth place. It was a great moto for him nonetheless.
Peick suffered from a rough start in the second moto. He got the green flag in twelfth and did not plan on staying there. He passed Tommy Weeck and Matt Bisceglia to get up to tenth on lap four. He was held up there for awhile until he passed Craig around halfway like he did in moto one. By this point in the moto, many of the top riders were too far gone and Peick did not have many riders to go after. He would be able to pick off Bogle late in the race for eighth but that would be as far as he’d go. Peick would go 6-8 on the day for seventh overall. A solid result to take into the break and something he can build from after finally piecing together two good motos.
26 GRITMOTO • JULY 31, 2017