Page 104 - ISSUE-47

Justin Barcia
450 SX / 21ST
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> After missing the first 6 rounds of the 2017 season fans where pleased to hear about the return of former winner Justin Barcia. Unfortunately it just didn’t seem like the same old Barcia that fans love. Everyone thought Justin was going to be able to come back to racing sneak a win or two and get mul- tiple podium finishes. Not only did that not happen but Justin was only able to manage 3 top ten finished out of the ten races he competed in. Now to be fair Justin did join the season late due to injury, he switched bike brands and the bike probably wasn’t fully developed. But surely JB51 is capable of much more then he showed this season. Hopefully we can see the real Justin Bar- cia show up in the motocross season.
Justin qualified 6th overall in timed qualifying with an 1:06.360 which was
just over a half second slower then Eli Tomac. In his heat race Justin found himself in 5th off the start but quickly moved to 4th. Barcia found himself in
a position that not a lot of riders like to be in and that is in front of the #3 of Tomac. The Suzuki rider of Barcia held off title contender Tomac for a few laps before making a mistake in the rhythm section that stretched along the sidelines heading to the outside of the stadium. Barcia was then back to 5th and outside of a qualifying position. A mistake came from Millsaps and Barcia was able to take the final transfer and was headed directly to the main. After a solid heat race Justin was determined to finish the season off on a high note. A 13th place start didn’t help Justin’s situation but the JGR AutoTrader Suzuki rider put his head down and made his way to 9th. Three minutes plus one lap remained in the main event and things started to unravel for Barcia as he started to make mistakes and dropped back to 16th before pulling out of the race.
104 GRITMOTO • MAY 7, 2017