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SEAN CANTRELL
250 MX / 13TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> Rookie Sean Cantrell began his career strong by reeling off three twelfth place finishes in a row at the opening three rounds of the series. It looked
like it was a matter of time before he cleared into the top ten but he has hit a few rough patches since then. He finished outside the top fifteen at two of the next four races and began to struggle putting consistent motos together. Be it crashes, poor starts, or one bad moto each round, Cantrell was running into the common rookie growing pains. He entered Millville after his two worst finishes of his career so he was ready to finally make a stand and get his season headed in the right direction. Cantrell looked solid in qualifying practice aboard his Troy Lee Red Bull KTM. He surged through the wet, early morning track to notch
the ninth fastest lap time. He looked set to have a good day. ot begin the way Cantrell would have liked. He escaped the first lap buried in twenty-third posi- tion. He showcased his speed early trying to make up for the poor start. He sped up to sixteenth place in just four laps. However, by the time he got there, most of the pack was far gone and riders to pass became rare. In the second half of the moto he would pick up two more spots by way of Luke Renzland and Bradley Taft. Cantrell would finish the moto in fourteenth. Solid considering his start but he knows with his speed, a good start could easily turn into a top ten. Cantrell did not necessarily get a good start in the second moto but it was significantly better than the first. He came out of lap one in thirteenth and raring to move
up. He picked his way forward during the first four laps to slide into tenth. He was primed to keep moving forward but he would go down on lap five and drop several positions. He remounted back in seventeenth place. From there he struggled to regain that early race intensity and would only claw his way back
to fourteenth. He has to be bummed about that second moto because he surely had a solid top ten finish. His 14-14 would earn him thirteenth overall which is improvement after a rough couple of weeks. Look for him to avenge that second moto fall next weekend at Washougal.
82 GRITMOTO • JULY 23, 2017