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ADAM CIANCIARULO
250 MX / 1ST
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / TILLS
>> In 2013 a new name joined the professional rankins in the AMA pro association. That name was Adam Cian- ciarulo the Supermini phenom. Adam grew up as arguably the fastest amateur dirt bike rider in his century if not ever. The Adam Cianciarulo story started when he saw a Supercross race on television and instantly got hooked. He eventually got a dirt bike of his own and from there Adam went on to conquer the world. If you have hopes of becoming a professional dirt bike rider in America you have to put you’re name on the map, the best way to do so is to qualify for the Loretta Lynn Amatuer National that is held in Tennessee once a year. If you win a Title at Loretta’s you are almost guaranteed to get exposure, support and other things that will help a amateur racers career. Kevin Walker holds the record for most titles (14) held at Loretta’s but all of those titles are from the vet classes. Eleven
is the second highest amount of championships received to a rider but this record is held by three riders, James Stewart, Mike Alessi, and the most recent addition to the list Adam Cianciarulo. Adam did win all of his eleven titles on minicycles from 2005-2012 before turning pro in 2013 a record in itself.
While Adam was adding up his Amatuer Championships he would haveto give big thanks to team green, before even getting on big bikes Adam recieved a contract from Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki. This contract went all the way through to 2017, a contract that was unheard of to a rider at such age with little to no experience on a big bike.
Adam jumped onto the 125 machine for little time before making the complete transition to the 250F. While all of this was going on Adam was riding with Professional champions such as Ryan Villopoto and Ken Roczen, while training with Aldon Baker.
Adam struggled in his first few races in his professional career on the motocross tracks, but when he went racing in Supercross it was immediate success. Sadly a shoulder injury swallowed his championship hopes that year. All of a sudden Adam started to get injured every year at least once and if he wasn’t injured he would be dealing with ill- ness. A matter of fact it wasn’t until 2016 where AC would finish each race of the 12 round Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series.
Luckily for us fans Adam never gave up because we are witnessing his rise back to the top and this weekend at Budds Creek could very well be the climax. In moto one the Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider jumped off the gate leaving 40 other riders chasing him across the holeshot line. Adam has got the holeshot many times this year but this time his race went flawless, no tip overs, no stalling the bike, just a perfect race start to finish, now that is a way to win your first ever national moto. In race two Adam was found just inside of the top five off the start and in 4th place after the opening lap. At this point the #36 was tied with McElrath for the overall on the day but McElrath would take the overall because his second race result was better then AC’s. For that to change Adam would have to get his way to 3rd place or better to get the overall. Other then Shane who was leading 2nd and 3rd place riders are the top of the class (Zach Osborne & Jeremy Martin) so the task at hand was to straight up pass the fastest 250 riders in the AMA. Just past the mid way point Jeremy Martin had a tip over in a corner that allowed Adam to get up to 3rd. McElrath dropped back to 2nd place from a pass by Osborne shortly after. This locked up the overall for Adam but he wasn’t quite done yet. Cianciarulo charged his #36 machine past McElrath in the very final stages of the race to give him 1-2 Moto scores for his first ever Motocross National overall win.
30 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 20, 2017