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JUSTIN BARCIA
450 MX / 11TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / TILLS
>> When I think of Justin Barcia I think of a guy who came into the profes- sional ranks and lead the majority of his first ever race. I think of a guy who is feared by no one and can win every time he lines up. That has not been the case as of late. A part of Justins success was that he had built a great relationship with the brand he rode on (Honda). Justin rode on Hondas in his amateur days, his whole 250 professional career with Geico and eventually was riding for Factory Honda when he moved up to the 450 class. Barcia and Honda split paths at the end of 2014 and Barcia found himself going to ride for the JGR Yamaha team. Justin struggled to find his groove at first on the Yamaha but he worked hard and eventually found his speed once again. Sadly, Yamaha and JGR parted ways and JGR was making a brand change to Suzuki. This would put Barcia on his 3rd different brand in just 3 years after spending the majority of his life on Hondas. JGR was a little behind
the ball getting their bikes dialed in and it showed in Justins results. Barcia has since struggled to find his speed and on top of that he has been dealing with injury. This weekend at Ironman MX was Barcias return to racing after missing the past three rounds. The #51 came around the first turn inside of the top five and was running 4th early on lap one before dropping back to 8th after the opening lap. Barcia then got dropped to 9th place from a pass made by Craig after five minutes of racing. A few laps later Barcia seemed to find a gear that he was missing earlier and passed both Bloss and Craig. The battle continued as Barcia lost the positions in the later stages of the race giving Barcia 10th. The #51 JGR rider started inside of the top 10 in race two and got by Bisceglia for 7th in the early stages of the race. After five minutes of racing Barcia made the move past his teammate Weston Peick for 6th. Justin then started to struggle for a couple of laps and dropped back to 10th. Justin would end up in 13th which gave him 11th overall.