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MICHAEL MOSIMAN
250 SX / 8TH
IMAGE / REEVES WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Michael Mosiman has had a very quiet rookie campaign. The young rider from Southern Cali- fornia is a member of the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna 250 team. He made his professional debut during the 2017 outdoor series under the radar due to the high-profile debuts of Chase Sexton and Sean Cantrell. He initially performed very well finishing fourteenth at round one, then eighth and tenth at the following two rounds. He was establishing himself as a top ten guy and turning some heads when unfortunately, he suffered injury and was sidelined for the rest of the year. His Monster Energy Supercross debut occurred in Atlanta at round three this season because he suf- fered a concussion right before the series began. He had to jump in after everyone already had some races under the belt, so he struggled at both Atlanta and Daytona. He was hoping St. Louis would be the round he found his groove.
Mosiman looked solid in qualifying practice. The rookie qualified with the thirteenth fastest time and seemed to be handling the track with ease. His smooth effortless style meshed well with the smooth, jumpy course so he couldn’t wait for the first gate to drop.
In his heat race, Mosiman got off to a nice start. He entered the second turn inside the top five when it all went wrong. Last week’s winner, Jordon Smith, tucked the front end and went down leaving Mosiman nowhere to go. He was basically stuck until Smith got back up so both of them started in dead last. Mosiman had to fight and claw his way to the front if he wanted to avoid the ever risky LCQ. He put his head down and calmly surged forward. He picked riders off seemingly every lap all the way to the finish. He managed to pass Lane Shaw in the final moments to take over ninth place, the final transfer spot. He could breathe a sigh of relief, he had a ticket to the main event.
Mosiman got off to another good start in the main event, this time coming around the opening lap in seventh place. He hung in there for a few laps before getting bounced back to eighth thanks
to Jordon Smith charging through the pack. He stayed steady after getting pushed back a spot and retook that seventh place position a few laps later by passing Thomas Ramette. Mosiman continued his impressive run into the midway point of the race where he moved up into sixth place thanks to a crash from Martin Davalos. It looked like he was poised to finish the race up there, but he fell victim to a pair of Yamahas late in the race. Both Brandon Hartranft and Luke Renzland worked their way by him to send him back to eighth. Mosiman would ride the rest of the race there to secure the eighth-place finish. It marked his best finish of his short career and his first top ten. It was just the race he needed to gain some recognition and start making some noise in the 250 East Coast ranks.
48 GRITMOTO • MARCH 18, 2018