Page 52 - MPG14

theGRIT
What he got was five. No, not seven, but five was the magic number for Stewart in St. Louis and it couldn’t have been more devastating to the #7 Suzuki. You see, the day went great; Stewart qualified 4th, less than a second off of Eli Tomac’s pace, and started his heat race ready to do work. He got off the gate well, getting shuffled in the top 3 as the pack cruised around the first turn with preci-
sion and velocity. Settling into 3rd behind Alessi and Brayton, Stewart moved around the Orange #10 and set sights on the 800, his only obstacle before the checkers. He pushed hard, using the hole width of the track in many sections in effort to gain as much momentum as the Suzuki could muster. He rode smart, too, not showing signs of weakness early on as he held on to his position for the first three and a half laps. Well into lap four, James fell back to 3rd due to the hard charge of Canard, who qualified 2nd earlier in the day. With Canard moving too quick and Mike riding great, uti- lizing his start skills to carry him towards his second heat race win of the year, James found himself just in front of Grant, yet another rider who seemed to
be full of steam. Just as lap four ended, Grant made the move around Stewart pushing him pack to 4th until later that same lap, disaster struck. Losing mo- mentum and speed, Stewart was losing ground to the unforgiving #28 of Weston Peick.
52 GRITMOTO • APRIL.18.16
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