Page 26 - Issue_78

RJ HAMPSHIRE
250 MX / 7TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> RJ Hampshire has shown ashes of being a contender over the past few years. Last year he had a few breakout rides in the outdoor series when he nearly won a few motos. His troubles with inconsistency haunted him though and he was never able to get that breakthrough victory, but he showed that the potential is there. In the offseason, he defended our American soil successfully at the MXGP of USA down in his home state of Florida. He decimated the eld in the MX2 (250) class with a 1-1 performance. He just needed to gure out how to transfer that type of con dent perfor- mance over to the Supercross and outdoor series’. His Supercross season this year began pretty well with three straight fourths but he suffered a devastating crash at Daytona resulting in a series of injuries. He healed up in time to race Hangtown where he ended up with an impressive 10-7 on the day for his rst race back. He looked to keep those solid results going for week two at Glen Helen.
Hampshire showed he still has the speed in morning qualifying practice sessions. The Florida rider was able to rip the seventh fastest lap time of the class. He looked strong and comfortable heading into the two motos.
Hampshire did not get the best of starts in moto number one. He emerged from lap one in tenth place but managed to hop into ninth by lap two. He settled in behind Garrett Marchbanks and Joey Savatgy thereafter and did his best to keep them in sight. He did so initially but as the moto wore on, he slowly lost touch with them. He did not let that sway his con dence and he kept plugging away all the way to the nish. He logged clean laps the entire race and managed to pass Shane McElrath with just two laps to go to secure eighth for the moto. A solid score for the rst moto and he would aim to improve on that in moto two.
Hampshire got a worse start to begin the second moto. He rounded the rst lap this time back in thirteenth place. It took him a lap or two to nd his rhythm, but he eventually started clicking off quick laps. He passed one rider per lap for the next three laps getting by Enzo Lopes, Justin Hill, and Sean Cantrell. This put him into tenth right behind Jordan Bailey. He pressured Bailey for two laps before getting past the rookie to secure ninth place. Hampshire rode out the rest of the race smoothly and held onto that ninth-place spot all the way to the end. His 8-9 moto scores would be enough to earn him seventh overall. That makes it two solid, consistent rounds for Hampshire in his return from a tough, slew of injuries.
26 GRITMOTO • MAY 27, 2018