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“The Milestone Assassin” qualified right where he’s been all season long by finishing 20th in
combined times, just on the edge of the main event. He was a little bit over 3 seconds off of
the pole time, which is a good result for someone changing out their own oil in between races.
Schmidt didn’t get the start that he needed in his heat race and ended up coming out of the first turn towards the rear of the field. He was able to work his way up to 10th place, approximately 30 seconds off of the lead. This gave him a decent gate pick for the semi qualifier and he was able to avoid going to the dreaded LCQ after starting 5th and holding off Cade Clason and hometown hero Nick Wey for the final transfer spot. This added to his streak of main events this year, putting him in his 10th main event in
a row and hopefully turning a couple heads over at Suzuki. The main event wasn’t his best of the year. He got hung out to dry on the start and was 20th the first time over the finish line. He made quick moves on Kyle White and Cody Gilmore on the second lap to put him up to 18th place. From that point forward, the race was fairly straight-forward for Schmidt. He rode his own race and took advantage of DNFs from other riders to finish a respectable 16th behind Nick Wey. Schmidt ended up finishing 2 laps down which is never the goal, but the whoops played a huge part in separating the field over a 20 lap main and he won’t have been disappointed by finishing ahead of where he qualified.
words/LAKEKILPATRICK
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