race recap
SETH HAMMAKER GRIT-230 250MX
August 22, 2023 · Seth Hammaker
SETH HAMMAKER | GRIT-230 | 250MX
Pennsylvania's Seth Hammaker had been "on fire" since his return to racing on the professional circuit in recent memory - and with a fourth-place overall position (amongst qualification times) to begin the day on Saturday, there were few who doubted the talent of the number thirty-five as gate(s) fell for moto-one. Registering tenth to begin the contest, Hammaker's run to the front of the field would be slightly halted as riders were in a frenzy - where Seth would wash the front-end and subsequently fall to the ground in the corner atop the hill, just before the mechanic's area. With mud now covering his left grip of the handlebars, the Kawasaki rider would do his best to brush the soil off and attack the raceway as quickly as possible in the moments thereafter. Somehow remaining inside the top-ten, he would advance forward to that of eighth-place before the red-flag was waved on behalf of an injured rider...and upon the gates falling once more, Hammaker (again) would reside around the tenth-place designation, where the Pennsylvanian would be in a traffic-jam of sorts amongst his teammates and Yamaha's Stilez Robertson. The insides of this course were deepening by the second, with bursts of power and stockpiles of RPM being an absolute "must" if one wanted to surge through the muck with forward propulsion and not as a means of stopping. Yet Hammaker would find a way, as always, when carving through the trenches while keeping his teammates at bay through lap thirteen. In the process, he would also pass Stilez Robertson on the fifteenth circuit, which placed him behind Tom Vialle - and after residing in the sixth-place spot, he would ultimately be finalized here before moving to the next round of action. Seth's start to the second moto was less than desired, but the never-quit attitude of the Pennsylvanian would be evident as he'd moved into seventeenth (on the seventh lap) after beginning the moto in twenty-fifth. He was constantly toggling between riding the main line (which would be blocked by multiple riders) or persuaded into funneling into differing pathways that offered opportunities to move forward, but also could suggest risk and a losses of time...yet Hammaker was never one to play it safe, and proceeded to conduct a charge that consisted of multiple outside berms being used while nearly clipping countless track markers! Launching the up-hill triple just before "Henry Hill," Hammaker would leap with his front-end high before returning to the racing surface with his suspension compressed - continuing to use every inch of travel possible while passing riders in bundles...and as he proceeded to distance his machine from Josh Varize and Maximus Vohland, his final moto result of fourteenth would be strong enough for tenth overall in the record book.