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son came in the Amateur All-Stars class at Monster Cup. Shimoda tasted the podium in Las Vegas in 2017 when he was in the B class, but he redeemed himself this past year and moved up to the very top step, putting together first and third place finishes in order to get the job done. His smooth and ef- fortless style makes him a natural talent on the supercross track and he was aiming to keep up his winning ways at the opening round of Supercross Futures in Glendale. Shimoda entered both 250SX Futures and Open A, showcasing race winning potential in both classes. In the 250SX Futures class, he was seeded into the very first heat race and arguably the most competitive out of the four different groups. He didn’t execute the best start and ended up falling into position just outside of the top five on the opening lap, settling into sixth position as the race got underway. It was a quick four lap sprint to the finish line and there wasn’t a lot of time to make things happen, but Shimoda did his best with the cards he was dealt and moved up to fifth position by the time the checkered flag was flown. He didn’t receive an optimal gate pick for the main event due to his qualifying position and that subsequently affected his start in the main event.
The Honda rider came out just inside the top ten through the opening corner and crossed the finish line in 9th position on the opening lap, leaving him some serious battling to do in order to get on the podium. Shimoda fought his way through the field and charged forward for the entirety of the six-lap main event, but he came up just short of the ros- trum with a fourth-place finish. In the Open A class, Shimoda found more success as he pulled the holeshot in his heat race and led the first two laps ahead of Pierce Brown. The two of them battled throughout the early stages of the race and the Japanese rider eventually relinquished the position, falling back to second, but he proved to himself and his competitors where he belongs and he had the start to match. In the main event, it was practically an exact replica of the heat race as Shimoda pulled the holeshot and found himself in a tightly con- tested battle with Brown at the midway point of the race. The two of them battled for the lead on the third and fourth lap and he was forced to drop back into second place, but he maintained a small gap to the lead all the way until the checkered flag and collected a solid second place finish in the process.
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