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JUSTIN BARCIA
450 MX / 6TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / MATTINGLY DESIGN / TILLS
>> When traveling to Minnesota, you get a sense of a very proud, blue-collar community in the surroundings. The fans take pride in following riders who work hard both on and off the track, all the while treating their peers with mutual respect. There’s a time for battle, and a time for a handshake, and Justin Barcia walks the line very well. The smile is turned off when the helmet is strapped on, and once he hits the track for the opening lap, it truly is all systems go. Coming through the first qualifying session, he went back to the semi, and assessed his lines throughout
the course; he and his mechanic agreed changes could be made, but were over-
all pleased. Rolling into the launch pad after all practice laps were completed, he knew the task that had to be done. A stomp of the gate, rolling his tread to and from the metal in front, he was ready to fight. The dirt was being sprayed everywhere, slapping the fender off the tire through the rollers, all the while frantically search- ing for relic of an outside line. Coming across the stripe in the beginning stages, he was hovering near the last step of the podium for the opening portions. Faltering to his amateur combatant of Eli Tomac almost at the halfway point, Barcia knew that he had to contain his excitement in order to be durable for the rest of the moto. He would hold on, pegged out, and elbows down; at times, his feet being ripped off the pegs, all the while moving forward. Turning the bike upside down at times over the finish line, his rev limiter wouldn’t ever falter. Battling with Cooper Webb until the end of the moto, he would come up just short, taking fifth. Round two saw Barcia in fifth on the opening lap, battling with Dean Wilson and Martin Davalos. The Husky duo was showing Barcia no favors, pushing him to the brink, and Justin running him wide whenever possible. The JGR team was recognizing this premonition, as this what they had signed him on. He would fade at the end of the moto however, drop- ping to both Seely and Craig. Dissapointed, his eighth place in moto two would only muster a sixth overall.
22 GRITMOTO • JULY 23, 2017