Team Suzuki Press Office – August 2.
Justin Bogle – RCH Yoshimura – 9th
Matt Bisceglia – RCH Yoshimura – 17th
Weston Peick – JGR Autotrader – 7th
RCH/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing riders Justin Bogle and Matt Bisceglia were faced with their own set of individual challenges but despite the complications, turned in workman-like efforts when the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship took on the Peterson Cat Washougal National in America at the weekend.
While Bogle was a fixture at the front of the field in the early goings of both premiere 450 Class motos, he was confronted with his own trials, leaving him disappointed at day’s end. Still, he went on to notch a formidable 8-10 effort and bring his #19 Suzuki RM-Z450 home 10th overall.
“Another struggle weekend,” commented Bogle following the event. “I’m really disappointed in my day, to be honest. I put myself in a good position with two great starts and didn’t make it happen. First moto, I went a little too hard at the beginning and made a mistake that took me from battling for the lead to 15th. I had to start working my way back through the pack and struggled there.
“Second moto, I had another good start but I had a pretty scary issue. I had some kind of allergic reaction or something. I’ve had asthma my whole life and sometimes certain things set it off worse than others. I had to basically just survive that moto. It was miserable. I wanted to pull off but I did that the week before. It’s been a rough couple of weeks. Luckily, we have a weekend off so there’s some time to regroup. Somehow, I ended up with two top-10s and 10th overall. I’m not proud of it but we’ll keep it moving. Back to work. We’ll make the most out of these last few.”
With three quarters of the season complete, Bogle is currently seventh in points with a slim four-point margin separating him from sixth.
Bisceglia qualified 12th and rounded to first corner of both motos firmly inside the top 10. He held down his footing with the frontrunners for the first 450 Class moto and would finish with a solid 10th-place showing. Unfortunately, he lost the handle on his machine early in the second and was forced to pull off before completing the final moto of the day. Officially, Bisceglia was scored 17th overall at day’s end.
“Washougal was a fun day for me,” offered Bisceglia. “It was amazing to race in front of my home crowd. I’ve never heard anything like that. There were a bunch of cheers all the way around the race track. I feel like I made good progress from last weekend. I qualified better which was good.
“I didn’t get very good starts in either moto but somehow found my way in the top 10. In the first moto, I put in a strong finish and got 10th. In the second moto, I was in the top 10 again and I ended up washing the front end out and went flipping over the banners. I really would have liked to finish both motos but all in all, I’m still happy. I made progress from last week and I’ll make more progress for Unadilla. I’m excited to get on the bike later in the week, get ready for ‘Dilla and come out strong.”
The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship takes next weekend off before the final three-race sprint kicks-off in two weeks in the heart of New York State to wrap-up the 2017 outdoor campaign.
JGR Autotrader Suzuki:
Justin Barcia was posting fast qualifying times and looked ready for an afternoon of great finishes. Unfortunately, Barcia crashed hard after putting in a hot lap and was slammed into the ground – hard enough that the organisers red-flagged the practice session and he was sidelined for the day. Weston Peick logged some of the fastest segment times in both motos, but poor starts had the SoCal native fighting to make up ground. Peick dug deep and chipped away at the competition and finished with 6-8 moto scores for seventh overall.
