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Alex Ray
450 SX / 16TH
IMAGE / MPG WORDS / ARMSTRONG DESIGN / WILSON
>> Alex Ray came into the season with little to no support. The #314 was prepared to compete in the premier class once the supercross season started. Alex got himself a Husqvarna 450 and began to battle his way to main event appearances. The Cycle Trader Rock River Yamaha team ended up loosing a few riders under their tent due to injuries and one of their riders (Tommy Hahn) actually chose to retire for a second time. This left the team looking for a fill in rider. Team manager Christina Denney went on a limb and decided to offer Alex a ride for the remaining supercross series. The Cycle Trader team has had lots of success in seasons past so Alex knew the equip- ment was good, what he may not of known is how great the team is. Although there was expectations of Alex to do better than he was previously as a privateer that he didn’t necessarily pull through with the team stuck by his side. Luckily for both the team and Ray it all worked out in the final round of the season as the former privateer was able to come away with a 16th in the main event which was his best finish of the year.
In the heat race Ray was only able to come away with a 10th place finish. The Semi was much more exciting for Alex, he started around 10th position again but was able to quickly move his way to 7th. Ray got onto the rear wheel of Scott Champion who was also chasing down Nick Schmidt for the final transfer. Scott got his way around Schmidt and Ray followed. Alex made a last lap push to get his way around Cham- pion just narrowly missed out on the final transfer, sending himself to the LCQ. Alex came around the first turn of the Last Chance Qualifier in 2nd and made a few at- tempts to take the lead from Dakota Tedder before settling for a safe 2nd. @aray314 wasn’t able to duplicate his LCQ start to the main event and came around the first turn in 19th. Alex was able to make up a few positions throughout the race and looked to have 17th locked up. Fortunately for him Justin Barcia pulled out of the race with less then 2 minutes remaining giving Ray 16th. I seen earlier in the week on social media that Ray signed a deal to race the outdoors with his new team but it seems like the post has been removed. Stay tuned to see whats next for the #314.
94 GRITMOTO • MAY 7, 2017