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Justin Brayton hasn’t exactly had a great start to the outdoor season but he looked to turn it
around in Colorado. He put forth a pair of solid qualifying sessions and came away with the
twelfth quickest time. He looked ready to finally get back to running inside the top ten.
Brayton finally nailed the good start he has been looking for as he rounded the first corner in fourth place. He hasn’t been that close to the front all season and it may have caught him off guard a bit as he dropped positions to Nicoletti, Barcia and Canard before the first lap ended. Grant would also maneuver around him on the second lap sending him back to eighth place. Bray-
ton began to stabilize his descent and actually moved back up into seventh after Nicoletti went down. He stayed up there for a while but then a group of hard charging riders would come sweeping by. Bogle put the pressure on at the twenty-minute mark before making the move. His pass opened up the floodgates as the extremely fast freight train of Cole Seely and Eli Tomac came storming by as well at the halfway point. Brayton would get back up into ninth in the latter half of the race looking to regain his top ten performance but Nicoletti and Pourcel would work around knocking him back to eleventh. And then Brayton squeaked back into tenth place to finish the race after a late race crash by Barcia. Brayton’s second moto was much less wild as his first moto. He didn’t get a good start and rounded lap one in twelfth. He dropped two spots early falling back to fourteenth. Bloss bobbled allowing Brayton to get by for thirteenth around the midway point. Just as he thought he was safe Pourcel would find a crafty way by sending him back to fourteenth place. The rest of the race would be relatively quiet for Brayton but he did have to withstand a late race charge from Bloss but he ultimately held on. It would be 9-14 moto scores for Brayton good for thirteenth overall. As the season continues, look for Brayton to continue to regain his composure and get back to being a consistent top ten guy.
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