Page 22 - Issue_67

JUSTIN HILL
450 SX / 6TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> A unique variable with Supercross, is the variety of layouts that are presented week after week. Few other popular professional sports, mock playing elds scenarios such as what we are presented with. The track at Tampa was a tangible presentation of this, as the rhythm lanes and sections provided here was a chess match of combinations. You saw multiple lines being pieced together, where both a combination of creativity and guts could be shown. If you have both, you would excel; if either one wasn’t carried in your arsenal, you would ounder. Justin Hill stored all of the above, and then some in his bag of tricks. He revealed a few to the crowd as they would “ooohh” and “ahhh” throughout the practice sessions. Tripling onto the table-top, making the step-on, step-off a quad, and even tripling through the sand, it was all on display, leaving nothing to hide. For the heat race, it was much of the same, uncorking the largest of gaps even in the midst of traf c. And there were two trains of thought when doing this; he could either make these insane combinations a habit, by doing the routines lap after lap. Or, he could save them for the main event, never truly revealing his cards to the crowd and those behind him. He would go for it anyway, gaining on Marvin Musquin, and making the pass after laps of haunting him; he would jump his way to a spectacular rst place nish! The main event provided an even rougher track, the ruts beginning to dig into the concrete base. Following the pack around, air traf c control would be in full effect, as these machines were pushing forward with no hesitation. Banging bars with the likes of Cooper Webb, he would provide a bit of give and take, relinquishing a bit of the lead, all the while soaking it back in, as he would manual the rear wheel through the sand. He would escalate at every go around, making his moves from fourth, into third and eventually second, eyeing Musquin. Nearly making the pass in the sand, Marvin Musquin would unfortunately clip the wheel of Justin! The result, a downed rider, that of the Suzuki pilot. Reading the mechanic’s area pit board,
his laptimes of high forty’s and low fty’s would be scattered, and consistency would be crucial, especially with the tad bit of bike malfunction he seemed to be having. Though much of the eld would stagger, his stake would be placed in the ground, never budging an inch. The style would go from predominantly sitting, to a constant changing of squat- ting and standing. All muscles of the body would be used, and his stamina tested; he put every ounce of effort possible into this race. His reward for the strong effort? An admirable sixth place nish, and high- ve from the crew the race concluded.
22 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 25, 2018