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Fredrik Noren’s starting woes continued in the first moto at Millville as he surfaced in about 24th place after the roost settled. He made a quick move on Heath Harrison to move into 23rd position and quickly put passes on Tony Archer and Kyle Chisolm to land himself in 21st place. A couple of laps later, he put a
move on Cole Martinez in order to break into the points paying positions. Noren was running lap times that would put him right on the verge of the top ten, but he had to fight his way through Lamay, Bowers, and Zach Williams in order to break into the top fifteen. He spent a couple of laps riding behind Noah Mcconahay, but he was able to fight his way by the Husqvarna rider on lap eleven. Shortly thereafter, Nicoletti made a mistake and fell back into the clutches of Noren who began to cut down the gap to the JGR rider in front of him. In a couple lap’s time, the Swede was able to work his way around Nicoletti. Noren charged all the way to the last lap, putting in his fastest lap of the day and landing 13th in the first moto. The second moto start was even more abysmal as Noren found himself in 33rd on the opening lap. Miraculously, he had charged all the way up to 19th by the end of the 3rd lap - some- thing that even Ken Roczen might be proud of himself. Noren took the next couple of laps to pick apart those in front of him, including the local rider of Zach Williams for 13th place. Noren was able to catch up to Chisolm and found his way around the Honda down the hill just before the finish line, using the same technique that Roczen used to pass Musquin. In a clear 12th position, it was approxi- mately 24 seconds to 11th place Dean Wilson and Noren wasn’t able to close that gap at all with the limited time left in the moto. He showed speed to finish inside the top ten in both races, but he’s going to have to figure out his starts at Washougal if he hopes to break into the group at the front of the field.
words/LAKEKILPATRICK
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