Page 40 - Issue-46

ADAM CIANCIARULO
250 SX / 4TH
IMAGE / LANG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Adam Cianciarulo’s return to Supercross this season has gone quite well. Before this year, he had not raced a supercross since all the way back in 2014, where he was the points leader before crashing out of the series, due to several different untimely injuries. The young rider has come back more mature and completely healthy. He has been right in the thick of the battles all season long and even notched a huge win several weeks ago at Daytona, the toughest course on the circuit. Although he is not in the thick of the title chase this year where he’d like to be,
he has still taken several steps forward in the right direction. He looked to finish his season off strong by getting back up on the podium starting this weekend in East Rutherford.
Cianciarulo qualified strong in fourth place to get his morning going in Jersey. He seemed to be maneuvering around the tight, difficult track fairly well and was ready to compete once the races began. He would get his night going by drilling a holeshot in his heat race. It was just the kind of start he needed and he took advantage of it leading the race wire to wire to secure the win. He was hoping that breath of fresh air from running such a clean heat would transfer over to the main event.
The main began with a pair of Monster Energy Kawasaki’s rocketing into the early lead. Cian- ciarulo followed his teammate Joey Savatgy around lap one as they got the green flag in first and second. Cianciarulo peeled off some fast laps hanging with his teammate for the first half of the race before he started to unravel a bit. He got passed by Osborne just before the halfway point leading him to get gobbled up by Craig and Ferrandis a lap later dropping to fifth. He would find his footing shortly after that and surge back forward to make a move on Craig to take over fourth. He set his sights back on Ferrandis to try and sneak onto the podium but before
he could try anything, Jordon Smith came charging by to bump him back to fifth. That pass would end his charge back to the front but he would be gifted another position after Savatgy got docked back to eighth. Officially he would finish fourth. Cianciarulo may be bummed he could not stay in a podium position but he is staying strong and consistent with that being his sixth top five in the eight races so far this season.
40 GRITMOTO • APRIL 30, 2017