ADAM CIANCIARULO | GRIT-218 | 450SX

ADAM CIANCIARULO | GRIT-218 | SX 450

Florida's Adam Cianciarulo, aboard his Kawasaki machine, would be thriving as he and the rest of the 450cc SX classification proceeded into various practice rounds on Saturday, with this unique morning format providing a change of scenery to all in the Supercross industry. He would do his best to follow the pace of the red-plate holder, Eli Tomac, and Honda's Chase Sexton through various portions of the raceway; including the whoop section that was rather steep and cupped, which had those outside of the top thirty (in overall times) puzzled with difficulty. But his fearlessness would prevail, where he sped into an immediate transferring position (into the afternoon show) and was designated alongside of Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb in his heat race. After rounding the first corner near the top-three, there was little room for error as he tried to triple amongst the last five obstacles before the dragon's back. Nearly clipping the outer tuff-blocks, his ability to stay swift in the corner thereafter would allow a move to be finalized on that of Team Tedder's Justin HIll before storming into the corner thereafter. It was here though, where an extreme shifting of the "SX" narrative would come to fruition…where Cooper Webb would fall amongst he outside of the berm, and Cianciarulo would have nowhere to go, besides running into the downed North Carolina native on the ground. It was the utmost accidental occurrence imaginable, but "AC" knew he had to keep going in that of the racing spirit. Therefore he would move into second behind Tomac, and focus on the checkered flag that was to come. And after countless solid laps in the runner-up designation, he would present a pace that was strong enough to claim second place in this brief sprint. The action on the first lap of the main event would be filled with bar banging and shroud scraping, leaving little window(s) for passing while the pack attempted to round the first corner and evade one another…but it was Cianciarulo who had clipped another rider, and was seen down in turn one! Remounting the motorcycle while in the last place position (by quite the distance), he would do everything in his power to make-up ground on the pack that was ahead. Many of the inside(s) in the first five laps were becoming log-jammed with opponents trying to travel the shortest distances, therefore his speed(s) and ability to make passes on the flattened outsides would be phenomenal as six to seven minutes of action had transpired. Fifteenth had become twelfth, and eventually ninth, as he would focus on Dean Wilson after battling with Kyle Chisholm. This track was extremely tricky and caused many riders problems with its unusual soil and obstacle selection; making many elite riders appear to ride a bit lackluster, though still presenting tons of speed (on behalf of Cianciarulo). The Floridian would create lines that were different than most, hopping over the dragon's back and whoop section with rhythm, rather than a normalized blitz that many others were used to doing. This would lead him to eighth, behind Wilson, after inheriting a position on behalf of Justin Barcia's crash. Eventually residing here as the dust settled, Cianciarulo would be thankful to walk away from Nashville with absence of injury; determined as ever, to generate success in the rounds to come.

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