Page 24 - MPG14

theGRIT
From that point on, he led every lap in what was a flawless performance and what was expected as a
preview for the main event. Contrarily, the main event could not have gone more different for the series points leader. He attempted to hug the inside line too tightly in the first corner and clipped a tough block. This sent the rear end of the Honda swinging wildly, but miraculously Mookie was able to save it. Despite the huge moment in turn 1, he managed to come out in about 4th place. He passed Bisceglia through the 1st rhythm section and put a vicious block pass on Gannon Audette after the section of table tops. The dreaded sand section is where the entire main event started to unravel. Stewart stalled his bike on the brakes for the inside line of the sand section, causing Audette to have to wheelie over a tuff block to try to avoid him. The Pro Circuit fill in rider consequently went down just as Mookie got his bike fired back up. As Mookie tried to go around the downed Kawasaki, Bisceglia came into the picture and took both himself and Stewart down; eventually he was able to pick himself up in 11th place. As he made his way through the pack, the outside line in the sand bit him on lap 4. Stewart misjudged his speed coming out of the sand section and slammed his front tire into a tuff block on corner exit. This caused him to lose another 5 positions and remount the bike in 13th place. At this point, he was still in a decent position to sal- vage some points and get a top 5 finish. He had such a speed advantage on the competition all day that the head start he had given them wouldn’t be that big of a deal. But, in the waning laps of the race he tucked the front in a routine crash which caused him to pick the bike back up and finish in 8th place. He’s still narrowly leading the championship over Aaron Plessinger by one point, but Stewart will need to put in a consistent, mistake free ride next weekend in Foxborough to get his mojo back going into the final rounds of the series.
24 GRITMOTO • APRIL.18.16
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