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WESTON PEICK
450 MX / 6TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Weston Peick was more than happy to enjoy the weekend off after Red Bud. He has been racing and dealing with injured tendons in his ngers for much of the Supercross season and the entirety of the outdoor motocross series. He had been able to maintain solid sixth or seventh place nishes at virtually every race, but the injuries started to catch up with him at the last two rounds. He nished tenth at Southwick and ninth at Red Bud. He just wasn’t able to push as hard as he’d like but there were some crashes and other minor issues involved. He surely used the week off in full, so he could nish the season strong starting this weekend at Millville. Peick, aboard his JGR Suzuki, managed to log
in a solid pair of morning qualifying practice sessions. The southern California native was able to put down the eighth fastest lap time of the class. He was generally right around his usual qualifying positioning, so he entered the day of motos ready to go. Peick got out to a good start in the opening moto of the day rounding lap one in sixth place. He was right behind his teammate, Justin Bogle, but instead of passing him, Peick actually went back- wards two positions on lap two. He would be able to pick up one of those spots back for seventh on lap three after nally passing Bogle. Here he would go after his old rival Phil Nicoletti. These two riders enjoyed a tough and gritty ght for a good chunk of the race. Peick shadowed him for several laps but when he sensed Cooper Webb getting close behind him, he knew it was time to go. He passed Nicoletti on lap eight and tried running away from Webb and everyone else. He would succeed in doing so despite some threats from Webb in the second half of the moto. The sixth-place nish was a good start to the day as he was back to his usual spot deep in the top ten. Moto two started off better for Peick as he was able to nish lap one in fth place. This time, he moved forward, passing Bogle for fourth. Unfortunately, that spot was only brie y held by him because he would lose a brief but hard battle with Eli Tomac. Back in fth, he enjoyed a nice little cushion over the rest of the pack but that soon changed when Justin Barcia came knocking. Barcia would pressure Peick seemingly all moto but Peick refused to heed. It looked like Peick might be able to keep Barcia at bay all the way to the checkers, but Barcia would be able to squeak by with just four laps to go. This moved Peick to sixth where he would end up nishing. Peick de nitely rebounded after two tough rounds by going 6-6 for sixth overall. That week off de nitely appeared to bene t him.
22 GRITMOTO • JULY 22, 2018