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Zach Osborne has historically ridden pretty well at Red Bud and was excited to be racing there. We haven’t seen that same fiery Osborne we saw from his moto win at High Point a few weeks ago and we were hoping we’d see some of that again this weekend. He looked quick in practice but only qualified with the fourteenth fastest time.
He knew what to change and got ready for race time. Osborne did not get the greatest of starts in the opening moto and came around lap one in twelfth place. He knew he had to get the front as quickly as possible before losing too much ground so he started doing just that. He sliced up into ninth by lap four but his journey forward flat lined. He was stuck in ninth until the halfway point when his journey resumed. After stalking them for several laps, he finally made moves on both Plessinger and Cianciarulo in the same lap to move into seventh. A few laps later he got around Oldenburg for sixth and then broke out into a battle with Austin Forkner. The two of them went back and forth for a few laps before Osborne secured the spot and would finish in the fifth position. Osborne got a slightly better start in the second moto coming around lap one in tenth place. Something seemed different about him this moto as he looked very confident and aggressive right from the beginning. He went from tenth to seventh in one lap and was in fifth place by lap four. He was on a mission and was all over the leaders the entire race. He never strayed too far from the lead group and hopped up into third after crashes by McElrath and Jeremy Martin. He started hounding Webb for second in the latter half of the moto but just as it seemed he’d make the move, he would make a small mistake. They yo-yo’d back and forth for a while before Webb would jump into the lead by Alex Martin. Osborne didn’t want to lose touch
with Webb and followed him right by Martin and put the pressure on for the lead. He didn’t leave Webb any room for error but would come up JUST short on the final lap and have to settle for second. It was fiery ride from Osborne and he will enter Southwick with some unfinished
business to settle.
words/SETHHARNISHFEGER
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