JUSTIN BARCIA - GRIT 231 450MX

JUSTIN BARCIA | GRIT-231 | 450MX

Amongst the past few seasons, Justin Barcia had displayed some of the strongest performances of his 450cc MX career at the Ironman MX raceway. The layout would reveal his off-the-wall style which was encompassed in a force field of speed and daring maneuvering, which could be showcased amongst vast elevation change and gigantic leaps from various obstacles...creating quite the spectacle for fans who watched! Nevertheless, the same theatrics would be displayed throughout practice, and carried into the first moto of action. Where the field would sweep through the opening right-handed corner and into the left-handed bend that followed, launching over the anthill jump and into the hills thereafter. Barcia would reside around the thirtieth-place position, after unfortunate circumstances would cause him to be involved amongst chaos in the back of the pack. Therefore in the laps that followed, his means of attack would come at the expense of others relinquishing their twisting of the throttle; using every bit of his GasGas engine when storming amongst downhills, and flying into the obstacles that approached with endless aggression. It was simply a race against time as he entered into the top twenty, and eyed the top-ten as the halfway point was cleared. Battling with racers from the MXGP series, Barcia's path to the front was hard for anyone to ignore...and as he approached that of Phil Nicoletti in the final stages, the fellow New York racer would have no choice but to oblige on behalf of the charge via the number fifty-one. The two veteran's charged into the mechanic's area on the last lap, with Barcia speeding a bit further into the final right-handed bend on the circuit than that of the Yamaha rider...and as all concluded, it would be Justin who occupied eleventh behind Jess Pettis, with Nicoletti earning twelfth. For moto-two, Barcia's rear wheel would dig into the deeply plowed soil of the start straightaway, fighting for a position of fourth amongst the first-lap of action thereafter. With Aaron Plessinger just ahead, Barcia would attempt to pace the Ohio native for as long as possible; though Jason Anderson was on a solid trajectory of his own, and would fight for an inside position amongst the sweeping corner that proceeded the mechanic's area...making a definitive pass, with around twenty-two minutes remaining on the clock. Now fifth, Barcia was seemingly in a standing by himself; with Anderson a few seconds ahead, and the gap between he and Cianciarulo amplifying with every lap that was completed. At that point, Barcia was competing for "seat time" and logging laps amongst a strenuous atmosphere, to prepare for the SMX playoffs in the coming weeks...therefore as the conclusion of the moto eventually came to fruition, a solid fifth-place score (for moto-two) would solidify him as seventh in the final standings of the Ironman National.

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