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SHANE MCELRATH
250 MX / 2ND
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Ever since Shane McElrath captured his rst overall victory at Muddy Creek, his season has really taken a turn for the better. He has been riding each round with a new swagger and con dence and he has shown blazing fast speed at times. He has irted with the podium and race wins in nearly every moto and has been a consistent top ve rider. Unfortunately, he ran into this rst real problem this season at our last round at Millville where he DNF’d the second moto after nishing a strong fth in the rst one. It forced him into a fourteenth overall, so he was determined to get back to those podium positions this weekend at Washougal.
McElrath struggled a bit to kick off the day in Washington. He escaped the morning qualifying prac- tice sessions with the tenth fastest lap time in the class. The class was so tight in lap times that he remained undeterred. Also, he and the TLD Red Bull KTM team were wearing special addition Adidas racing gear so he had some extra style and edge heading into the motos.
McElrath did not start his motos very well. He kicked off the rst one of the day by rounding lap one in eleventh place. The track was slick and tight early making it dif cult to make passes. He stayed stag- nant there for the next few laps and actually lost a spot on lap three to Dylan Ferrandis. He would not be able to retaliate but he did manage to hook up to his rear fender and not let him go. He stayed right there behind Ferrandis nearly the entire moto until a few laps left to go when Ferrandis stalled his bike. This allowed McElrath by and he then set his sights on RJ Hampshire. He charged hard all the way to the wire and passed him on the nal lap. This resulted in a ninth-place nish for McElrath. That was not the way he wanted his day to begin so he would have to go and salvage a good result in moto two.
McElrath started the second moto much better in the rst by pushing into the rst turn in second place right behind points leader Aaron Plessinger. McElrath put on a huge charge going up Horsepower Hill and managed to rail around the outside of Plessinger and take the early lead. From there, he never looked back. He slowly walked away from the rest of the pack in dominating fashion. He straight up walked away from the Plessinger and even had a lead as large as twelve seconds late in the moto. He led every single lap for his rst career moto victory. It was a huge moment for him and one more box to check off his goals list. Unfortunately, due to his bad nish in moto one, his 9-1 moto scores would keep him just one point away from securing the overall victory on the day. He’d nish second overall, but he certainly took another large step in the right direction and he is now back on track.
10 GRITMOTO • JULY 29, 2018