Page 38 - Issue_67

MARTIN DAVALOS
250 SX / 5TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After a successful stint with Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki in the 2013-14 seasons, Martin Davalos resigned with the team for the 2018 season. The veteran of the 250 class had the best performances of his career with the team in 2014 where he secured a pair of race wins and several podiums. He was happy to be back with the prestigious race team because he knew they gave him a great chance at dethroning the reigning 250SX East Coast Champion, Zach Osborne. Davalos was fast all weekend at our opener last Saturday in Arlington but was the main rider involved in that brutal rst turn crash. He was thrown from his bike and got ran into by several other riders. He would not return to the race, but he emerged relatively unscathed and was ready to hit the reset button in Tampa. Davalos picked up right where he left off, speed-wise, in the qualifying practice sessions. The rider hailing from Ecuador went out and set the third fastest lap time of the day just fractions of a second off his teammate Austin Forkner. He could not wait to get to the main event to show everyone what they did not get a chance to see last weekend. Davalos got off to a decent start in his heat race. He rounded the rst lap in fourth place but immediately passed Dylan Ferrandis and Cameron McAdoo to assert himself into second before the end of lap two. From there he set his sights on early leader RJ Hampshire. Hampshire was putting together a solid ride but Davalos had a slightly better pace. Davalos stalked him for several laps before nally nding an opening and making the pass on lap seven. Davalos rode the remaining two laps clean and took home the heat race victory. He appeared fast and possibly the man to beat heading into the main event. The main did not start how Davalos would have liked. It was clearly much better than last week, but he got stuck in traf c through the rst few turns and scrapped his way to the green ag in seventh place. He made quick work of Kyle Peters on lap two to move into second but failed to gen- erate enough energy to keep moving forward. He was hounding Luke Renzland but could not stay smooth enough to make an effort at a pass. This allowed Jordon Smith to come up on him and pass him. This sent Davalos back to seventh but also lit a little spark underneath him because he would follow Smith and nally make the pass on Renzland. This put him back in sixth where he would ride behind the orange fender of Smith’s KTM all the way until the last lap. It appeared as if Davalos was going to be bringing it home in sixth, but he got gifted a spot on the nal lap thanks to Smith jump- ing off the side of the track and falling on the concrete. The fth-place nish is a good place to start after the horri c beginning to the season he had but Davalos has to be disappointed because he had the speed to win all day. Look for him to utilize better starts next weekend in Atlanta.
38 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 25, 2018