Page 42 - GRIT-82

RJ HAMPSHIRE
250 MX / 4TH
IMAGE / LANG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> 2018 has been hard to judge for Geico Honda’s RJ Hampshire. The rider hailing from Florida had a solid start to his 250SX East Coast Championship campaign before a vicious crash at Daytona derailed that. He had nished fourth at each of the rst three rounds before that Daytona crash where he racked up a laundry list of injuries: Broken rib, shoulder injury, and fractures to his T-3 and T-4 vertebras. Clearly, he would be sidelined the rest of the SX season, but he would be healthy for the start of this motocross season. He came out with some solid rides thus far but has started to come on strong in recent weeks. He nished fth overall at High Point and had a podium locked up at Muddy Creek last weekend until a big crash forced him
to nish nineteenth. He shook it off and was determined to get back on the box this weekend
at Southwick where he always seems to run well. Hampshire surprisingly struggled a bit in the morning qualifying practice sessions. He only was able to put down the twelfth fastest lap time, but it was later revealed that his crash from Muddy Creek had had some lingering effects and he almost was not able to race this weekend. So, in those terms, twelfth in practice seemed pretty good and he would look to do his best in the races. Hampshire jump started his day by nailing a nice start in moto one. He rounded the opening lap in sixth position right in the heat
of the battle. He passed Jimmy Decotis for fth on lap three but then would lose two spots over the next two laps to Alex Martin and Aaron Plessinger thanks to a small tip over in a corner.
He lost a little bit of ground but remained undeterred after he remounted in seventh. He kept a steady strong pace going just behind the lead group and moved back into sixth after a crash from Justin Cooper at the midway point. Almost as soon as he picked up that spot, Dylan Fer- randis would swoop in and push him right back to seventh. Hampshire stayed close with him
for a while but started to lose ground just a bit. He would ride the rest of the moto strong to nish seventh. A solid result but he wanted to be on the podium. Moto two started off better for Hampshire. He rounded the rst lap in third position. He was throwing down the heat on Shane McElrath in second but would succumb to pressure from Alex Martin before he had a solid chance at a pass on McElrath. This bumped him back to fourth which he would hold on lock- down deep into the second half of the moto. Like in the rst moto, Ferrandis would again make the move in the latter stages pushing him back a spot. He fell to fth but just a couple laps later, he capitalized on a crash between Forkner and Martin to slingshot into third place. He held onto that spot all the way to the nish despite pressure from Martin to try and get that spot back. He nally got that podium nish but would fall just short of nishing on the overall podium. Nonethe- less, it was a great day of racing from a rider who was worried he might not even be able to line up and race.
42 GRITMOTO • JULY 1, 2018