Page 14 - Issue_72

MARVIN MUSQUIN
450 SX / 3RD
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / WARNER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> For Marvin Musquin it seemed the mud that piled on CenturyLink Field seemed to
be giving him headaches early in the day Saturday. Or maybe the thought of knowing that he only had one, not three, one qualifying session to get into the cold, rainy paci c Northwest Main Event at CenturyLink Field. Marvin quali ed tenth, now on a normal weekend this is not ideal, but it’s really not that bad. Sometimes the top ten quali ers are within one to two seconds. However, Marvin was over six seconds off the pace of Jason Anderson. He needed to gure something out if he wanted to top Anderson and keep moving closer in points so he can capitalize if Anderson for some reason results in a DNF at any of these nal rounds. The gate dropped for Heat One and Marvin rounded turn one in second place. The rst lap he battled Webb, slipping, sliding and trying so hard not to crash he cleared Webb he began to break away and rode smooth and con- sistent to win Heat One by twelve seconds. After Marvin’s Heat Race if I would have had to place a bet on which rider I believed would win I would have put my money on him. Marvin’s such a crafty, smooth and calculated rider. Yes, he’s made some mistakes this season, but for the most part he doesn’t make many mistakes and I expected him to be victorious in the Seattle mud. The Main Event went to who!? Marvin Musquin that’s who, I really thought that after his great Heat race performance and grabbing the holeshot in the Main that Marvin would break away immediately and cruise to victory amongst the wildest track all season. Jason Anderson and Eli Tomac had other plans in mind though. Jason would move to the lead on lap one and Eli would take second away on lap two. After that Marvin rode his own race, smooth and precise, unfortunately he lost more points in the championship hunt to Anderson. His time is dwindling, even if Anderson end up with a DNF in the nal four rounds Marvin still has another twelve points he’d have to make up somewhere.
14 GRITMOTO • APRIL 8, 2018