DYLAN FERRANDIS - GRIT 237 450SX

DYLAN FERRANDIS | GRIT-237 | 450 SX

With spectacular performances throughout the evening last weekend, Phoenix Racing Honda's Dylan Ferrandis believed that he could contend at the front of the field once more, while in Southern California. The conditions would have a multitude of similarities to that of his native soil in France - where hard-packed country sides would be drenched with precipitation at times, leading to treacherous conditions...where Ferrandis flourished. His composure and style aboard the Honda chassis flourished in practice, leading to a third choice of gate(s) designated in his favor for that of the second heat. It was he, Aaron Plessinger and Cooper Webb who were contesting one another in the early going, trying their best to match their opponent's lap times. Though Ferrandis made sure to stay clear of problematic lines, and march toward the front with a calm demeanor; as he smoothly landed the finish line double time and time again. Plessinger and Roczen were in a battle of their own at the front of the field, but Ferrandis remained in third while trying to keep Christian Craig and Cooper Webb behind him. He capitalized on the mistake of the elder, Craig, around the halfway point and would look to have third decisively secured...until Cooper Webb's tenacity and relentlessness propelled the Yamaha rider to his left, with only two corners to go before the checkered flag! Keeping Ferrandis at the top of the final berm, Webb's cutting edge maneuver was one that had Dylan at an arguable stand still...though the Frenchman still garnered fourth in the final standings. The track was extremely difficult within the first five minutes of the main event, where every athlete was trying their best to memorize and decipher lines that hadn't been encountered since heat races earlier in the evening program. The number fourteen looked to strike as quickly as possible, rounding the subtle right-handed corner before the finish line with an eighth place bid as riders were making mistakes all around him. He would pass both, Christian Craig and Justin Cooper in the moments thereafter, residing sixth where he developed a flow that was sustained ahead of Hunter Lawrence...while just behind Jason Anderson. The path to the checkered flag was unlike anything describable, with spongey terrain seemingly grabbing the wheels of all and forcing them into an array of mistakes. But patiently, Ferrandis remained on-point; leaping through the whoop section as the moguls became disfigured and aiming toward the checkered flag with all of his might. And as the twenty-two lap process eventually came to a close, it was Ferrandis who scored an admirable overall of sixth, which kept him within sixth overall in the point standings as well.

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