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JUSTIN HILL
250 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> It has been a crazy year so far for the reigning 250 west coast champ. Justin Hill has elected to move on from the Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki team and joined up with the JGR Factory Suzuki team in hopes to bring their new 250 effort a title. So far things have not gone to plan for Hill or JGR as Justin has yet to place inside of the top 5. In qualifying earlier in the day at round 4 Hill looked to be showing great speed though. He was the third fastest qualifier, the only thing discouraging about this is that the two riders with faster lap times are his two former teammates Joey Savatgy and Adam Cian- ciarulo. Regardless the #1 looked to be showing speeds of his old self. In the heat race Justin started near last place and moved up to 11th on the opening lap. At the checkered Hill got all the way up to 4th. In the main event the Auto Trader / JGR / Yoshimura / Fac- tory Suzuki rider got another poor start and was forced to make his way through the field once again. Justin made some quick moves on the opening lap and was inside of the top ten going into lap two. Five minutes remained and Hill was able to make the move by his teammate Phil Nicoletti by blitzing through the whoops and jumping to the inside of him while entering a left hander. Justin then set his sights onto the #30 of Mitchell Harrison who he battled with late in his heat race as well. On the final lap the champ got past Harrison and tied his best finish of the season in 7th. Everyone knows that Justin Hill is capable of much more then a 7th place finish. Many speculate that he doesn’t like his Suzuki but Hill has clarified on more then one occasion that he is struggling on his own and that he loves his bike. Hopefully we can see that #1 machine get up into the top 5 before the season comes to a close.
46 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 28, 2018