CHRISTIAN CRAIG - GRIT 260 450SX

GRIT-260 | 450 SX

August 23rd, 2024 5:00 pm

The smooth style of Christian Craig was destined to flourish on this technical, Unadilla circuit. Amid qualification rounds in the morning, his expertise was exhibited amongst the number of elevation changes...and sustained well into the opening portion of competition. The athlete aboard the number twenty-eight machine was proficient as the timer would tick in moto-one...appearing to reside just inside the top-ten, around other opponents like Ken Roczen, Cooper Webb, and Malcolm Stewart. His teammate (i.e. Stewart) seemed to be the only one that was definitively behind him, but Craig couldn't ignore the pressure from the Floridian as he occupied the ninth-place residency. Lap after lap, Craig attempted to track-down Roczen, and then Webb as he began to fade...though Mookie seemed to always rev his engine in the background, remaining in the fight. This scenario was sustained through the twenty-five minute mark, two-lap board, and eventual white flag...where Craig's attrition propelled him to an eventual ninth-place standing. As gate(s) fell for the following round, Craig was contending among the lead positions...before fading to seventh after five minutes of action, after a hard-charging pack of competitors would surpass him. Names like Anderson, Ferrandis, and Roczen had made their way forward, leaving the Husqvarna rider to contend with Grant Harlan as the narrative unfolded. But a KTM rider would interrupt the feud for a short while, as Aaron Plessinger entered into the equation but quickly bolted ahead. This left the aforementioned tandem (of Harlan and Craig) to continue to duel...but Craig remained resilient aboard his Husqvarna machine. Lugging the engine of his 450cc motorcycle around at times, he stayed efficient as the track constantly broke down. All the while, Justin Cooper would begin to close-in...yet simultaneously, Cooper Webb had crashed to the ground. This created an array of position changes, but Craig remained composed among the chaos. He and Justin Cooper were fighting for various inside lines, and though the younger competitor (i.e. Cooper) would make his way by, Craig did his best to monitor the smooth pathways of the number thirty-two machine. As a result, his output of speed seemed to amplify when others descended, while approaching the final laps of the moto. In the end, with Malcolm Stewart relentlessly pressuring the Californian, Craig accelerated to the race's conclusion to earn a hard-fought eighth place result - and eighth position among final standings as well, which once again proved, that he was versatile on both SX and MX circuits.

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