NEVER QUIT ATTITUDE RESULTS IN OVERALL PODIUM FINISH

Unfortunately, in moto two a pair of crashes early in the race had him at the very tail end of the field. But never being one to give up, RJ charged all the way to 11^th, which combined with his win in the first moto win, gave him third overall on the day.

“For the first round of the outdoors, I was so excited to come here and race,” said Hampshire. “It started off with a great start in the first moto. I’ve never felt like that out front where things felt that easy and I didn’t really have to get out of my comfort zone. Coming into the second moto I was going to try and do the same thing and it’s on me. I botched that start and was still kind of decent, but the second turn was mayhem and I ended up going down. I made up a bunch of passes right away, and then someone else got a little whiskey throttle and I clipped their rear tire going up the steep hill in the back. Then I had my work cut out for me. I was in last by quite a bit. I knew I had to put my head down and I was charging hard. I didn’t know if I had a shot at the podium. I had another little crash near the end, but I’m pretty stoked on the whole day. I’m really happy with the bike, where we’re at, our mentality. It’s going to be a good year and I’m so damn proud of this team.”