Page 28 - ISSUE-47

DAVI MILLSAPS
450 SX / 8TH
IMAGE /MPG WORDS / ECKERT DESIGN / WILSON
>> The poster boy of homegrown motocross, Davi Millsaps, has surprisingly turned a lot of heads this sea- son. With racing pre-mixed into his blood as he grew up on the ultimate mecca for all moto-related training methods, the Millsaps Training Facility, or MTF for short, Davi has been a top-dawg for quite some time. Forced to overcome obstacles and survive lengthy injuries over his career, Davi’s return to racing didn’t happen over night. In fact, Millsaps dropped off the leaderboard following a setback in 2014 and didn’t really return until this season. Now heading into Vegas for the final round, Davi found himself in 6th place in the overall point standings, a mere four points out of 5th. With that being said, Millsaps’ hopes were high walking down to the line for heat one, fueling the #18 to a holeshot as 450 racing, officially, got underway. Leading the field in and out of the stadium on the famous final round track design for the first half of the race, Davi looked strong. A betting man would have put all his chips on Davi, as Millsaps is third, among active riders, on the all-time heat race win list. Unfortunately for Davi, his luck ran out exiting the sand section and the orange machine hit the deck. The mistake dropped Millsaps back to 4th, just ahead of the always charging Justin “Bam-Bam” Barcia. With Davi struggling to find his rhythm, he eventually gave way to Barcia and dropped outside of a qualifying spot, forcing himself to a Semi later in the program.
With a top five start in the semi, Davi again seemed to be a shoe-in, sliding into 3rd within the first few turns. Holding onto 3rd place, Davi went down on the opening lap, unable to remount until he was back near 15th place. Now having his work cut out for him, he put his helmet down and put in work to reach
11th a lap later. Carrying the momentum, Millsaps reached 7th in a blink of an eye and inched his way towards Enticknap in 5th. With what would seem like not enough time, trailing 5th by nearly five seconds, Davi grabbed an extra gear for the last two laps. A mistake by Enticknap with a lap and a half left, Davi was up to 6th, one spot out of the main event. On the gas, Millsaps kept it going and a few corners later, Davi picked off Pelligrini for 5th, where he would keep it smooth for the final lap. Taking the last ticket of the race to the main for the final hand of the 2017 season, Davi stacked the cards in front of him with distaste as he struggled out of the gate. Most likely due to a poor gate pick, Davi was outside the top ten but made early work to find Barcia in 9th. Battling on the opening laps, Davi held it a split-second longer, railing his KTM around Barcia to take over the position. Holding 9th down through the middle portion of the main, it wasn’t until the race passed the halfway point that Davi saw any movement. With eight minutes left, fellow KTM rider Marvin Musquin ran into an issue forcing him to pull off, allowing Davi into 8th. With the crowd going nuts, and the bars banging in front of him, Millsaps focused on flawless laps. The effort would keep Davi on two wheels and a end his season with a top ten finish. The 8th would give Davi the nudge over Cole Seely in the point standings and earn him 5th in the championship race. It’s clear the Millsaps is sending a message to the rest of the field that “the Duke” isn’t finished with the leaderboard yet.
28 GRITMOTO • MAY 7, 2017