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BRANDON PAASCH
potentially foreshadowing a race winning tradition for the sixteen year old rider. After wrapping up the 2016 title, the youngster out of New Jersey was invited to the world renowned Assen circuit in Holland where he competed in the RC 390 Cup World Final against top competitors from other countries. Paasch proved that he is one of the premier talents in the world as he managed to come away with a sixth place finish in the first race and a third place finish in the second race, bringing him one step closer to fulfilling his dream as a MotoGP rider.
Paasch quickly came to grips with his GSX-R600 in the opening couple of sessions as he was able to steadily improve his time from Thursday to Friday, chipping approximately one second off of his personal best time. He qualified in
seventh position behind his fellow Suzuki rider and teammate, Nick McFadden, heading into the opening race of the season. Considering it was his first major race on a 600cc machine, Paasch had an incredibly successful weekend as he brought it home in seventh position only a couple of seconds behind McFadden. The sixteen year old was able to build a solid gap of almost ten seconds ahead of fellow sixteen year old, Lucas Silva, as he was the last rider to clock a personal best lap time in the 2:16s. He gained some valuable experience as he duked it out with Daytona Anderson and Nick McFadden throughout various points in the race -- two of the other young guns in the series. Paasch will be steadily improving throughout the season as he becomes more comfortable on the bigger bike, so keep an eye out for him to be knocking on the door of the top five sooner rather than later.
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