Page 134 - ISSUE _38

SCOTT CHAMPION
450 SX / 22ND
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / COPELAND DESIGN / WILSON
>> It has been a slow start to the season for the Yamaha privateer rider, Scott Champion. The Californian has yet to qualify for a main event. He would come into this round hoping to improve just enough to secure a spot in the evening final race and score his first points of the year. Quali- fying would suggest that he would really need to pick up some speed as he qualified 28th. That kind of lap time would not cut it if he wanted to
be racing in his first main of the season and would give him a poor gate pick for the heat races. Starting buried in the field in his heat, Champion went on to finish just outside of the top 10 in his heat placing 12th. Only the top 4 in the 450 heat races move directly into the main so he would be forced to try and qualify out of the semi. Being placed in a stacked semi would be troublesome for Scott, he would start well but he couldn’t maintain his position after an early mistake and finished 10th. He would be LCQ bound for his final shot at qualifying for the final race that At- lanta’s famous Georgia Dome would ever hold. The last chance qualifier would prove to be the most exciting race of the night for Champion. He would be locked in a battle with Cade Clason for the entire race and after passing him on the opening lap would eventually lose his position back to Clason. This led to a desperate last turn pass by Champion, qualify- ing him for his first ever 450 Supercross main event. Champion would go on to start his first ever big bike main in 17th in between the factory KTM teammates, Trey Canard and Marvin Musquin. A few mistakes would lead to Champion falling outside of the top 20 by the half way mark. He would succumb to the tough conditions of the track and cross the line
in 22nd. Not the finish he had hoped for in his first 450 main but he still accomplished something by qualifying this weekend and what a special place to do it at in the Georgia Dome’s final race. He will look to turn one main event qualification into two next weekend in Toronto.
134 GRITMOTO • FEBRUARY 26, 2017