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MARVIN MUSQUIN
450 SX / 3RD
IMAGE / REEVES WORDS / WARNER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> After a devastating race last weekend in Daytona Marvin Musquin was out to redeem himself the weekend in St. Louis. Marvin had the opportunity to gain a mas- sive amount of points last weekend before suffering two crashes, which in turn brought him into St. Louis looking at a forty-point deficit to Anderson. The afternoon qualifying sessions would do little to help Marvin’s confidence to chip away at Jason’s points
lead as he would qualify in seventh, over a second behind fastest qualifier Eli Tomac and nearly half a second behind point’s leader Jason Anderson. Starting fifth in his Heat Race Marvin was unable to run the speeds of top starter’s Jason Anderson and Blake Baggett. He would soon lose position number three to a charging Eli Tomac and proceed to fall back to a fourth-place finish with a ten plus second gap between himself and race winner Jason Anderson. Going into the Main Event Musquin did not have the speeds of his competitor’s, but at second place in the Championship, his goal was to chip away at Anderson’s points lead. He needed to start in front of Tomac and Ander- son if he wanted to have a chance at beating them. Unfortunately, the two riders who he desperately needed to start in front of would start in front of him. Across the stripe Marvin was fourth and by turn two he was in third. Marvin would then spend all twenty- seven laps in third. Just slightly off the mark of second place rider Jason Anderson
who slowly crept away until late in the race when Marvin began to make a little ground, but he would ultimately run out of time losing another two points in the Championship points chase. With only six rounds remaining Marvin’s window is just about closed. It’s going to take a couple bad races and a DNF to take away the points lead from Jason, an unlikely turn of events, but with 2018 so far we will just have to see what the season has left in store for us all.
14 GRITMOTO • MARCH 18, 2018