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JUSTIN HILL
450 MX / 8TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> The jump up to the 450 was de nitely the right move for JGR Suzuki and Justin Hill. Hill struggled mightily in the 250 class nearly all of the Supercross season and especially at that start of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross series. He just didn’t have a good comfort level aboard the smaller bike and he pushed for the team to let him ride the 450. Then after three rounds, thanks to an injury to Jason Anderson, Phil Nicoletti left the JGR Suzuki squad to ll in for Anderson leaving a vacant 450 with JGR. Hill was promoted and instantly delivered with a fth overall in his debut at High Point. This is extraordinary because he wasn’t coming close to top tens in the 250 class to start the season. Other than a fortieth overall at Southwick due to a big crash, Hill has nished no worse than seventh overall. He will look to continue that at Millville. Justin Hill looked fast and comfortable per usual in the morning qualifying practice sessions. The new 450 rider threw down the sixth fastest lap time of the class and easily looked ready to contend for some more top ves in the motos. Hill started his day
in utter disarray as he had his fair share of problems on the opening lap and crossed the nish line to secure the green ag buried in twenty-sixth place. With nowhere to go but up, he started churning forward on a track that proved tough to pass all day. He was picking off a handful of riders per lap on his way to the front. By lap ve, he had managed to get into seventeenth and by the halfway point, twelfth. He still had plenty of time with a whole half of the moto remaining to make some moves. It was tougher now because the riders were so spread out, but he did manage to pick off two more riders to nish the moto in tenth. It was a solid come from behind ride, but he would be looking for a much better start and moto in the nal one of the day. Hill got a better start, but it still was quite poor. He rounded the rst lap buried in fourteenth position. He’d be unable to nd a groove in the rst two laps but on laps three and four he was able to squeak by a few guys and take over eleventh. He hung there for a lap before passing hometown rider Henry Miller and then Cooper Webb. This slotted him into ninth. He set his sights on Phil Nicoletti and managed to pass him quickly at the halfway point. Benny Bloss was next in line and it would only take Hill a few laps to pass him as well. This put him into seventh where he would run out of chances to make more passes. The lead group was too far ahead so he would have to settle with the seventh. His 10-7 moto scores earned him eighth overall. His rides were solid, but they didn’t show in the results thanks to his bad starts.
28 GRITMOTO • JULY 22, 2018