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With every rider battling the elevated conditions of Colorado, Hampshire appeared to struggle across the Thunder Valley landscape. It wasn’t that he wasn’t riding well, the #31 placed 8th in qualifying and was setting comfortable before the start of moto one but struggled with the gate in both moto’s. He ended up around lap one in 15th. Staying there momentarily, RJ began moving forward by picking off a struggling Cianciarulo and Colt Nichols to get into 12th, where he went back and forth with Martin
and AC before finally making his way back into 11th and then into 10t shortly thereafter. Hampshire appeared to have settled into 10th but picked off Harrison who he would see again before the race was over and then into 8th. Here, RJ seemed to lose focus, constantly jabbing the inside leg in the sweeping ruts and bobbling coming out of each turn which allowed AC back by for 8th and Hampshire would begin to fade being picked off by Oldenburg, Alex Martin, who had gone down earlier in the moto, and Mitchell Harrison. Harrison put up the dukes with RJ pushing him back to 12th but eventually Hampshire got the upper hand and picking up a 2 –for-1 to get into 10th for the finish. With moto two a short rest afterward, RJ wasn’t able to shake the struggles and got out with another start outside the top ten in 13th where he would dance around, two-stepping into 14th and cha-cha-ing into 12th. At the ten- minute mark, Hampshire entered the ring again with Harrison for 11th but then dropped back to 14th after a pack of Yamaha’s got by with Plessinger being the lead wolf. Unfortunately for Hampshire, the clock was out and the race was over, finding himself in with a 10-14 for 12th overall. The lackluster result was still able to secure his 9th place in the standings but RJ will hope to make some in-roads as he hits the road east to High Point for round 4.
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