One of the highlights of the day for the team was the phenomenal rookie performance of Justin Barcia in his first professional race. Groomed through his latter amateur years by the Factory Connection Racing team before graduating to FC’s pro team, everyone had high hopes for Barcia, but few could’ve expected what he actually did.In the first moto, Barcia started right behind his teammate Trey Canard, but quickly passed his more experienced teammate and took over the lead. Barcia led the first half of the 14-lap race before succumbing to arm-pump and falling back to an eventual ninth-place finish. In moto two, after starting about third, Barcia again busted out to an early lead, but this time he pulled out nearly 10 seconds on second place. Barcia ended up leading 10 of the 13 laps in the moto before being passed by 2009 Lites West Supercross champ Ryan Dungey and 2008 MX2 World Champion Tyla Rattray. Barcia finished third despite again running into issues with arm-pump.
“Coming in, I definitely wanted to be in the top 10, and I was happy with my finishes,” Barcia said. “In the first moto, I wasn’t very happy, honestly, because I wanted to be up front further, but I got some pretty bad arm-pump. But the second moto, I was really happy with my finish because I got third, and that was awesome for me. I was pumped. Coming in, I felt like I had the speed, but I didn’t know how aggressive those guys would be and everything. I was comfortable where I was, and I didn’t feel like I was riding over my head or anything, so it was a good start.”
His 9-3 finishes were good for sixth overall, just behind Canard.
Canard got the holeshot in the first moto before it was red-flagged, then got the holeshot a second time on the restart and ran second to Barcia for quite a few laps but couldn’t pass his
teammate. Meanwhile, he had Dungey and Christophe Pourcel on his tail, and the two 2009 SX champs passed Canard on the sixth lap, then passed Barcia barely more than a lap later. Canard followed them by his teammate and eventually finished third in the moto. In the second moto, Canard started just inside the top five and slid little by little to eighth, which he was not happy with.“That’s the roughest motocross track I’ve ever ridden, so that’s probably going to be the toughest race of the year,” Canard said. “I didn’t feel like myself really all day, and in the first practice, I was like 12th, and I know I’m better than that, and I know I’m better than the way that I rode, so if that’s a bad day for me, then it looks like we’re on the right track.”
Canard finished fifth overall.
Brett Metcalfe, in his first race back since injuring himself in Atlanta, still isn’t completely healed up, but despite a very sore wrist that kept him from doing even
one full-length moto prior to the opener at Glen Helen, he had a strong showing.In moto one, Metcalfe started outside the top 10 and began moving forward, eventually finishing a strong seventh after running as high as sixth. In moto two, Metcalfe started fifth and then fought it out around that position for the rest of the race, eventually finishing a strong sixth. He finished seventh overall..
And finally, Blake Wharton, also in his first Glen Helen National (like his teammate Barcia) rode strong all day, but had a couple of mistakes cost him. In moto one, Wharton started out seventh and ran sixth for much of the race before falling. Still, he recovered for a strong eighth. In moto two, he started 11th, fell back to 12th, then moved up to ninth before he stalled his bike. He still recovered for a strong tenth by moto’s end, though. He also finished tenth overall.
In the 450cc class, Dan Reardon took to the track for the GEICO Powersports Honda team. He started sixth in the first moto, but a fall on lap two put him back in 16th. Still, he worked his way forward to an eventual 10th-place finish. However, he dropped out of moto two with a bent front-brake caliper carrier, ending the day with 17th overall.
From here, the AMSOIL team heads north to Prairie City SVRA for the Hangtown Motocross Classic, round two of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship.
Until then, we'll see you at the races.
