Page 92 - Issue43

LORENZO LOCURCIO
250 SX / 14TH
IMAGE / LANGSTON WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> What an up and down rookie season it has been from the Venezuelan rider Lorenzo Locurcio. For the most part he has bounced just inside the top ten but he showed what he could do with a start in Daytona a few weeks back.
He rode inside podium position for a great majority of the race before slipping back to sixth late in the race. It was a very impressive performance by the CycleTrader Rock River Yamaha rider on the toughest course of the circuit. We were all excited to see how he would back it up the following weekend but he failed to qualify for the main event. It has just been that kind of season for the rookie. He looked to regain some consistency this weekend in St. Louis.
Locurcio’s timed qualifying sessions went decent as he threw down the twenty-first quickest lap time. He appeared ready to get after it and nail some starts come race time. His heat race did not go according to plan as he started in thirteenth and struggled to move out of that spot. He moved into twelfth with a few laps to go and capped it off by crashing on the final lap falling back even further. He would have to test his luck in the LCQ. He started off third and avoided the drama unfolding behind him as he quietly hopped up to second and enjoyed a calm transfer to the main event.
Another bad start plagued Locurcio from the beginning in the main. He started back in seventeenth and he failed to get much going. He bobbled back to nineteenth a few laps in and that’s when he decided it was time to get aggres- sive. He charged his way forward slowly but surely to get back inside the top fifteen. He picked up one more spot late in the race to secure fourteenth. Not really the result he would like but he did the best he could with the poor start he suffered from.
92 GRITMOTO • APRIL 2, 2017