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It’s true, he had hoped to be feeling it when the first gate dropped on Saturday night but Jimmy appeared to still be struggling with his sternum. While the lights began to brighten, the sun inching its way down to remove the glare from today’s filthiest triple faces, Albertson found himself the fifteenth fastest rider out
of qualifying practice. In his heat, number two on the night, Jimmy was only able to muster a 12th place jump in the risky first turn left- hander. Making some early mistakes, he fell back the first lap and half to 14th before upping the intensity and turning around his LCQ destiny. The yellow 84 of Albertson picked up four spots by the halfway point and moved into 9th on lap five; the final transfer position in the heat. He held it all the way home and locked in his main event appearance with the late race assault. In the main, Jimmy’s hope of improvement on his dreary season didn’t take a step in the right direction as he got off to one of his worst starts, 18th by lap two. From there, his only movement was forward despite it being at a sluggish pace. He did what he could, crossing 17th on lap three and getting around Coates for 16th near the end of lap four. Settling in, Albertson moved up to 15th at the start of lap five due to Hampshire got held up in a tangle under the tunnel. The top fifteen was temporary for Jimmy, though, due to Hampshire remounting and charging back by Albertson, putting him back to 16th by lap seven. Over the next eight laps, the bottom ten riders remained somewhat stagnant as Albertson maintained 16th and finished outside the top fifteen for the fifth time in six races. The motivation ran dry for Albertson by the end of the night and all he can do is look forward to putting in a long nights work to prove the he can make his way into the top ten and finish the season as strong as he started.
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words/BRENTECKERT WWW.GRITMOTO.COM