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JOEY SAVATGY
250 MX / 1ST
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / TILLS
>> After winning the third round of the series in Lakewood Colorado many specu- lated that Savatgy was beginning his crawl back to a title chase. Since then the Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider has yet to finish in the top 5 overal at any round. It has been heard that the 2017 Kawasaki 250 machine is not performing the way any of the PC Kawi riders have expected on a motocross track and they are struggling to find a set up that works. It has been two weeks since the last race and while most of the other riders enjoyed their weekend off of racing the Pro Circuit guys continued to do test- ing down at the Carmichael farm. That extra week few days of testing looks to have made night and day difference to Savatgy as he showed up at Millville looking like a completely new rider on the track. Joey was 3rd fastest in qualifying which gave him a great gate pick going into moto #1. Savatgy then began to pack down the dirt on the very inside position. @versacesavatgy17 launched off the gate on his green ma- chine rounding out turn one side by side with RJ Hampshire for the lead. In the sec- ond corner on lap one RJ made a mistake and Savatgy took soul position of first and never looked back. Race #2 started nearly identical for the #17 other then instead of Hampshire it was McElrath he was banging bars with on turn one, but once again by turn two Savatgy was in control. It looked as Joey was going to have an exact repeat until Osborne got onto his rear wheel in the final moments of the race. Joey and Zach have a history of meeting up with each other late in the races so Joey rallied back
at first and even jumped and uphill triple step up that no other 250 rider had done in a race all day. Eventually the #17 surrendered the position and was happy to leave Millville with his 2nd overall victory in 2017.
30 GRITMOTO • JULY 23, 2017