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NICK GAINES
250 MX / 12TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> Nick Gaines has quietly had a nice, consistent season aboard his Trad- ers Racing Yamaha. The young rider hailing from Georgia has finished inside the top twenty at all seven rounds so far and has even sprinkled in three top fifteens. He has proved to be one of the best non-factory riders in the 250 class here in 2017. Since his season low twentieth place finish at Tennessee, Gaines has improved at each race since including a fifteenth place overall a week ago at Southwick. He seems to be getting into a groove as we near the stretch run of the series. With the track deep and sloppy in qualifying practice, Gaines would grind out the nineteenth fast- est lap time of the class. Not where he’d like to be timewise but the track would be in prime shape come race time and that would certainly help him out for the motos. Gaines’ first moto started off very shaky. He suffered
a poor start only emerging from lap one in twenty-first position. He then bobbled on lap two shuffling himself further back to twenty-third. He was not interested in moving backwards any longer so he dug deep and started moving back towards to front. He grinded to eighteenth by the halfway point of the moto but ran out of riders to catch. He’d only pick up one more position during the back half of the moto. He’d finish in seventeenth. He struggled from the start so he was eager to rebound in moto two. Gaines got his second moto going in a much better position. This time he secured the green flag in twelfth place. He was not satisfied either and he picked
up a few spots in the first few laps to get into ninth. He stayed there until
he battled with Taft and Ferrandis mid moto. Gaines would end up losing both spots but he would sneak by Plessinger late in the moto to get back into the top ten in tenth. He held onto that spot tight and brought it home to the checkered flag. He’d end up going 17-10 for twelfth overall on the day. His best overall finish so far this year and also tying his career best. Gaines certainly seems to be surging here in the second half of the season.
80 GRITMOTO • JULY 23, 2017