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DAKOTA ALIX
450 MX / 12TH
MAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / TILLS
>> Dakota Alix has quietly built this 2017 outdoor season into the best of his young career. The fourth-year rider made the jump from the 250 class in Supercross to the 450 for the outdoors and it has proved to be a change for the better. Aboard his Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM, he has gone from hanging just inside the top twenty early
in the year to becoming a constant inside the top fifteen and he has even begun to
flirt with the top ten. In fact at our last round at Washougal, he finished tenth overall marking the first to top ten in his career in any class. He wants to keep that momentum rolling into the final three rounds of the year.
Alix had a solid time in qualifying practice escaping with the sixteenth fastest lap time. Known to be a great holeshotter, Alix would enter moto one looking to get a good one to get his day started on the right note.
When the gate dropped for moto one, it did not see Alix get the start he was looking for. He rounded lap one in fourteenth position. He slid into thirteenth after Matt Bisceglia fell a few laps into the moto. He had Henry Miller on his tail right from the start but he managed to keep him at bay for the entire moto. Even after the all the weather and rain hit, Alix rode hard and held onto that thirteenth spot all the way to the early finish. A solid result but he wanted a little bit more in moto two.
In a wet and muddy second moto, Alix got a slightly better start than the first emerg- ing from the opening lap in twelfth place. He lost a spot to Bloss on the following lap but rebounded by passing Ronnie Stewart and a downed Blake Baggett to hop into eleventh. He then set his sights on Josh Mosiman but not before Justin Bogle spoiled the party and pushed him back to twelfth. Alix restarted his charge for Mosiman and made the move late in the race but Baggett would get back around him keeping him in twelfth. He would hold that all the way to the checkered flag. He’d go 13-12 on the day for twelfth overall. A great result considering the devastating conditions the track was in. Alix will keep up his search for a top ten next weekend at Budds Creek.
60 GRITMOTO • AUGUST 13, 2017