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MITCHELL HARRISON
250 SX / 8TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Mitchell Harrison has struggled so far here in 2018. The Michigan native enjoyed several moments of success last year both in supercross and motocross but has been unable to carry
that momentum into the new season. He capped his 2017 supercross season by finishing better than ninth at four of the last five rounds while knocking on the door of the top five at few of those races. He then went on to grab a pair of top five overall finishes during the motocross season and nearly won a moto at his hometown race at RedBud but lost the lead in the final moments. He had a lot of things going for him at the end of the year, but he made the switch to the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna team in the offseason and that seems to have hindered his progression. It’s tough join- ing a new team and getting a new bike dialed in before the start of the season so as the season goes on, Harrison should be getting back to his old self and he aimed to do so this weekend in Glendale. Harrison got his day in the Arizona desert started by going out and qualifying eleventh in practice. He struggled to find his groove on the slick soil they were competing on, but he and his team would get together, make the proper adjustments, and come out stronger in the heat race. Harrison drag raced down the long start straight and into the first turn in his heat race emerging from the pack in fifth place. He made quick work of Cole Martinez on lap two and then began to get dialed in. He focused on stringing together nice, solid laps and was doing so well except for in the whoops. The whoops were massive in Glendale and they gave Harrison quite a hard time. They al- lowed Justin Hill and Phil Nicoletti to close the gap and get right on his rear wheel. The three riders duked it out during the last two laps and both riders that caught Harrison would pass him and push him back to sixth. Harrison would finish there and go back to the pits to find out what he needed
to do to find a little more speed in the whoops before the main event. Harrison has had flashes of brilliance for brief moments so far in 2018 but has made too many mistakes to sustain them. He hoped the main event in Glendale would be the race he turned it around, but it did not get off to a promising start. The young rider got a poor start and emerged from lap one in fifteenth. With almost nowhere to go but up, Harrison put his head down and got to work. He settled into a fast, smooth rhythm and finessed his way all the way into seventh place by lap seven. He looked better than he has all year and he did so coming from behind. He showed some guts and perseverance clawing all the way up there but there was still some more racing. A charging Justin Hill would sneak up on him with two laps to go just like in the heat race and make a move sending him back to eighth. Har- rison would hold on there to take home his best finish of the year. His previous best was thirteenth, so he certainly took a step in the right direction. This nice come-from-behind performance should be a nice spring board for him as the series heads into Oakland next Saturday.
56 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 28, 2018