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HEATH HARRISON
ARENACROSS
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Heath Harrison came out of the gate with an air of confidence on display in both the AX Lites and AX classes. He clocked the
5th and 16th fastest lap times, respectively, by way of a 22.32 and a 21.39. His AX Lites race involved a fierce battle with the South Carolina native of Kyle Bitterman; the two of them swapped places for the top spot from the get go, but Harrison was able to come out on top and grab the win. The FXR backed rider worked his way back from a mediocre start in his AX heat race in order to finish in a respectable 6th place position, moving him straight into the main event. The Alabama native was all business when it came time for the AX Lites main event; he pulled the holeshot ahead of Jacob Williamson and never looked back. Harrison immediately set a scorching pace that produced the fastest lap of the race on his 2nd time around the track, methodically building his lead to around a second as quickly as he could. As the race wore on and he began to get into lapped traffic, Williamson began to close in slightly. But, Harrison never broke a sweat as he rode calm, cool, and collected in order to grab the main event win by a solid 2 seconds ahead of his competitors. Although Harrison really stole the spotlight in the Lites main event, it’s nothing to take away from the stellar perfor- mance he threw down in the AX class. He held his own with the series regulars and finished both main events just barely on either side of the top ten, taking an 8th place in the final main event of the night. He’ll be one to watch to make drastic improvements as the series moves around the east coast in the coming months.
58 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 9, 2017