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Coming out of qualifying buried in 17th, McElrath wasn’t on the list of front runners when the day began. Luckily for Red Bull KTM, McElrath warmed up even more after practice and came finished lap one of the first moto strong in 10th. Over the next few laps, McElrath capitalized on the mistakes of his peers to secure 9th and then
into 7th once Martin and Plessinger tangled where Shane decided to settle, He road 7th for a majority of the race before the battle between Oldenburg and Cianciarulo had worked its way in front of the #30 orange bike pushing him to 9th. Late in the race, Shane got the short end of the stick with a hard charging Alex Martin getting by for 9th and then the second-wind of RJ Hampshire making a last minute move, McElrath was out of time and out of energy, finishing moto one in 12th, well behind where it looked like he would. Putting the race behind him and focusing for moto two, “Moody” got angry and came out hot with a 3rd place start battling Martin Davalos. After the first few turns, Davalos made it by and Shane was left to deal with Jeremy Martin and his brother. First, Jeremy got by, and then when Alex made the move, Shane was able to get by Jeremy pushing him back to 6th, and Alex to 4th. After holding off Jeremy for a few moments, J-Mart got by but Shane quickly got back to the top five after AC went down. Unable to escape the pressure, McElrath was caught by Austin Forkner and passed, dropping back to 6th. Then, still unable to hold off the late race charges, the #16 of Zach Osborne made his way by Shane for 6th
as the clock reached 0 and McElrath was again left behind his early positioning. When the dust settled, Thunder Valley wasn’t what McElrath wanted but was everything he needed, picking up solid points and gaining six spots in the points standings for 14th. At this rate, McElrath is a
top five threat in two weeks at High Point.
words/BRENTECKERT
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