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JIMMY ALBERTSON
450 SX / A-1
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / LANNAN DESIGN / WILSON
>> Jimmy Albertson has been a busy man coming up to the Ana- heim opener. His off-season was a little different than most because of a team he once managed closing their doors. It was up to Jimmy to figure out a way to get his self back on the line for A1 and he
did just that. They put together a fantastic looking FMF Suzuki and Jimmy looked like his old self on Saturday morning in Southern Cali- fornia. He seemed to be comfortable in practice and was ready for
a new year. When the gate dropped for 450 Heat 2, Jimmy jumped off the line quickly but was squeezed into a mid pack start. Jimmy pushed forward and was nearing the top ten by lap two. By the end, Jimmy made his way to 8th place with some impressive lap times.
In the Semi, Albertson got a better start and was running 6th place by the halfway point. Jimmy was not able to make it into qualifying position by the checkered flag and would head to the dreaded LCQ. Jimmy was ready to hang it out when the gate dropped for the LCQ as he nearly took the holeshot and solidified his self in 2nd place early on. Then, Nick Schmidt started to pressure Jimmy and was able to make a block pass on him in the corner after the finish line on the second lap. Jimmy had no answer for Nick but held down 3rd place all the way to the finish. In the Main, Jimmy was awarded the far outside gate and he got a great jump on the field but was unable to take the line he needed to make it work. He was now running
just inside the top 20 as they began the second lap. He knew there wasn’t much he could do but that didn’t mean he was going to give up. He put down consistently fast laps and ended up with an impres- sive 18th place on the night.
110 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 9, 2017