Page 50 - Issue-46

LUKE RENZLAND
250 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / LANG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / WILSON
>> Luke Renzland’s has enjoyed a successful 2017 250 East Coast series so far. The Traders Racing Yamaha rider has had some impressive performances throughout the season including a career best sixth at the second round in Atlanta. He’s finished inside the top ten at four of the seven rounds before the break tying the most he
has had in a season and we still have two rounds left. He came into East Rutherford excited to resume the series and even more excited to do so in front of his friends and family. Renzland is a New Jersey native so he was looking to put on a show for those friends and family.
Renzland looked good in qualifying practice coming away with eighth fastest lap time. He handled the tight, technical track well and was itching for the gate to drop for the heat races.
He got off to an average start in his heat coming out of lap one in seventh position. He was not satisfied with that spot so he put his head down and tried to better his gate pick for the main. He snuck up to fourth halfway through and held off Cunningham in the final laps to finish there and head straight onto the main event.
Renzland wanted to show his fans he can run with the top riders so he went out and nailed a solid sixth place start in the main. He got bumped back to seventh after the first lap but he dug in there. He was determined to stay near that top group and he rode hard to maintain that seventh-place position. He was just behind front runners the entire race holding down seventh until the last few laps when Cunningham came knocking. Unlike the heat race, Renzland could not hold him off and Cunningham would get by. Renzland slipped to eighth but would officially finish seventh after Sa- vatgy got docked backed to eights after the race. It was a great performance from the third-year pro and I’m sure it felt a little more special to do it in his home state. He’ll look to keep the momentum going and finish the season strong next weekend in Las Vegas.
50 GRITMOTO • APRIL 30, 2017