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DYLAN FERRANDIS
250 MX / 2ND
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Dylan Ferrandis suffered quite the gruesome injury early in his 250SX East Coast championship cam- paign. The French rider in his second full year in the United States suffered a broken arm and lost several teeth in a gnarly crash during the second main event at the Atlanta SX. This came as quite the bummer because he had nished second the weekend before and second in the rst of the three main events in the Triple Crown format. He possibly could have returned at the season opener for the outdoor nationals at Hangtown but instead opted to take an extra few weeks off to make sure he was properly recovered and prepared. He returned last weekend at High Point and nished fourth overall with 8-3 scores. He nearly had second in the nal moto, but Austin Forkner held him off fanatically until the end.
This weekend at Muddy Creek, Ferrandis aimed to take another step forward. Although his fourth place overall was spectacular in his rst race back, he was not satis ed and wanted to get on the podium. His quest for the that started off rather well in the morning qualifying practice sessions. He came out of there with the sixth fastest time, looking solid and ready to compete in the races. The rst moto did not begin very well for the Frenchman. Ferrandis started the race outside of the top fteen. He was marked in fourteenth after lap one and he struggled to make any passes. For three laps he stayed stagnant there, mired in the pack before his rst movement of the race; And it wasn’t the movement he would have liked. He crashed and slid back to seventeenth place. He remounted and began getting a little more aggressive but at the half way point, he still had only managed to get into thirteenth. He moved into twelfth on the fol- lowing lap but there was a wide margin between he and the rest of the riders ahead. He continued to plug away and eventually found the rear tire of Alex Martin late in the race. The two of them battled it out hard to the end and it would be Ferrandis who would make the pass on the second to last lap to take over and nish in eleventh place. Certainly, a tough moto and not what he was looking for, but he would come back and regroup for moto two. Ferrandis’ second moto began much better than the rst as he stormed into the rst turn in second place. He slotted in behind Alex Martin again but this time, much further up in the eld. The two riders yo-yoed back in forth for a majority of the moto and the lead never got greater than two seconds. Early in the race, both riders felt pressure from Jordon Smith, but they eventually inched away. During the second half of the race, it was an all-out war between Ferrandis and Martin. Every time Ferrandis thought he had an opportunity, Martin would block it. Ferrandis was doing everything he could and looked to be in such a great ow but could not close the deal. Then as he approached the nish line to get the two-lap card, he bobbled entering the corner and lost a bit of ground and the battle seemed
to be lost. But in a quick twist of fate, in the very next corner, Martin would get thrown sideways and go down in a heap. Ferrandis rode right by and then off to the victory. Unfortunately, due to his poor rst moto result, his 11-1 would not be enough for his rst overall victory but it did earn him second overall on the day. I’m not sure if anyone expected this from Ferrandis this early into his comeback but he has already assured the rest of the riders that he will be contending for victories for the remainder of the season.
10 GRITMOTO • JUNE 24, 2018