Page 52 - Issue43

MITCHELL HARRISON
250 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANGSTON WORDS / KILPATRICK DESIGN / WILSON
>> Mitchell Harrison has experienced some growing pains during the opening por- tion of his sophomore season on the Monster Energy Supercross tour. Although he showed the speed to run regularly within the top ten, the Star Racing Yamaha rider failed to finish there throughout the opening couple of rounds. He reached a turning point in the season after scoring an eighth place in Indianapolis and Harrison has con- tinued to improve since then by scoring a career best finish of sixth place in his home state of Michigan only one week ago. It was the first time in his young career that he was able to put two top ten finishes together in succession and it has done a lot to build his confidence moving forward. He continued to show his top ten speed once practice got underway in St. Louis, eventually finishing eighth place after both qualify- ing sessions came to an end. Harrison had a fairly hectic heat race after the start left him outside of a transfer position coming out of the first corner. The youngster cut his way through the pack in the early stages of the race and managed to come across the line in tenth position after the first lap. Harrison had his sights set on moving forward and he managed to do so almost immediately as he made moves on Gradie Feath- erstone and Jesse Wentland. The Star Racing Yamaha rider had worked his way up to seventh position into a battle with Fredrik Noren when he made a mistake before the whoops section, relegating him back to thirteenth place. He remounted another inspired charge as he fought his way back to ninth place on the final lap, avoiding the LCQ at all costs. Harrison put himself in contention for another top ten finish from the gate drop of the main event as he battled his way through the first corner in about fifteenth place. The Michigan native worked his way up to twelfth on the opening lap, but he didn’t settle there. Harrison turned cranked up the aggression meter a couple of notches as he overtook four riders throughout the next lap, promoting himself to eighth position. He withstood some pressure from Christian Craig that only pushed him to a new pace, but he was only able to hold off the Geico Honda rider for one
lap. The Star Racing Yamaha rider stuck behind Craig, setting consistent times until he made his way past Gannon Audette on the eighth lap. Once Harrison settled into seventh place, he rode a calm, collected, and calculated race in order to earn his third top ten in a row. He’ll be hoping to keep himself at the sharp end of the field as he continues to improve with each and every race heading into New Jersey.
52 GRITMOTO • APRIL 2, 2017