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theGRIT
Things have gone less than stellar for Justin Barcia since his return to racing in Santa Clara
JEFF COX
following the mid season surgery that set him back this Supercross season. As a rider from the
north east that normally excels in the muddy conditions that were present during practice at Gillette stadium, it was incredibly surprising to see Barcia floundering back in 18th position, something like 5 seconds off the pace of the leaders. Barcia didn’t have the pace all day long to challenge for the top 10 which is the minimum position that himself and his team would expect
him to achieve at this point in the season. He got out to a decent start in his heat race and found himself in 6th with a transfer position in sight, but he was simply outpaced by fellow Yamaha riders Weston Peick and Chad Reed which eventually relegated him to a 7th place finish and a trip to the semi. The start of the semi could have marked disaster for the JGR rider when he came together with Cole Seely, but Barcia escaped unscathed after the collision which catapulted Cole Seely and Dusty Pipes straight on in the first turn and off the track in a heap. Barcia was able to take advantage of a crash from Benny Bloss and Blake Baggett in the whoops in order to move into a transfer spot. At the beginning of the final lap, Barcia moved past Freise to give himself a comfortable 3rd place finish and a spot in the main event. Admittedly for Bam Bam, the main event was nothing short of a disas- ter. He had a mid-pack start in which he moved his way up to 12th place by the end of the second lap, but a major pile up in the middle of a rhythm section ruined his chances at a solid top 10 finish. Peick made a mistake in the very first rhythm section which caused Weimer to jump directly into the back of him and go down, then Barcia followed suit along with Tickle, and Alessi ramped off the fallen Weimer in a spectacular spill of his own. Barcia’s front tire ended up getting lodged in Weimer’s bike and he lost a ridiculous amount of time to the leaders, finishing the race in 19th place and two laps down. He desperately needs a solid result and an incident free race at his ‘hometown’ race next weekend in NJ.
words/LAKEKILPATRICK
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