Larsen Earns Career Best Finish at Toronto
Larsen had a decent start to his day turning the 10th fastest lap time in timed practice. His qualifying time earned him the fifth gate pick at the start of the first Lites heat. Larsen got pushed around on the start of his heat and came from around 10th to 6th within a few laps. He maintained that position through the checkers to qualify into the main event.
At the start of the main event, Larsen grabbed a good jump off the line and came around the inside of the turn well inside the top ten. As they entered the sand straight, Blake Baggett got cross-rutted and cut into Larsen’s line costing the KTM rider a few positions. Larsen managed to stay on course and sat in 9th place. By the end of the first lap, Larsen passed two riders to move into 7th place. He continued to move forward on the next lap passing Hunter Hewitt. On the third lap he capitalized on Malcolm Stewart’s crash and on the fourth lap moved around the downed bike of Lance Vincent. Now sitting in 4th position, Larsen put his focus on riding consistent to finish the race and earn his season best finish.
“I was able to finally get a decent result because I rode a consistent race the whole main event and didn’t make any mistakes. I wish I had a better start in the beginning so I could have ran closer to the front of the pack. They had pulled so far out by the time I secured 4th it was hard to play catch up,” commented Larsen. “Overall I am very excited about this race. This is the best Supercross finish I have had in my career. Since making the switch to KTM, I have continued to improve upon my top finishes and am glad to get another one for myself and the team today.”
Larsen’s teammate, Tye Simmonds, improved upon his results from the Jacksonville Supercross with a much better showing in Toronto. After not qualifying after a bad crash in his heat at last week’s Supercross race, Simmonds was excited to easily qualify to the main event this weekend with an 8th place finish in the second Supercross heat.
In the main event, Simmonds started around 16th. Throughout the twenty lap main event, he remained consistent in that position. At one point he moved as high up as 13th before eventually settling into 15th for the night. “I am definitely still off the pace of where I would like to be at this point in the season. But this is my first year ever racing Supercross and I am learning more each week. I am happy to be near the tail end of the season without injury and also qualifying much easier into the mains than at the start of my season,” stated Simmonds.
The next race for the team will be the Dallas Supercross next weekend, April 2, 2011, at the Cowboy Stadium.
Overall Results SX Lites Class –
1) Dean Wilson
4) PJ Larsen – KTM
5) Ryan Sipes
10) Matt Lemoine
11) Justin Sipes
12) Les Smith
13) AJ Catanzaro
14) Alex Martin
15) Lance Vincent
16) Ricky Renner – KTM
17) Taylor Futrell
18) Brad Ripple
19) Malcolm Stewart
20) Jason Anderson
Overall Point Standings SX Lites Class –
1) Justin Barcia – 138
2) Dean Wilson – 122
3) Ryan Sipes – 115
4) Blake Baggett – 100
5) Blake Wharton – 89
6) PJ Larsen – 80
7) Matt Lemoine – 80
8) Malcolm Stewart – 55
9) Lance Vincent – 49
10) Alex Martin – 47
Overall Results SX Class –
1) Ryan Dungey
2) Chad Reed
3) Trey Canard
6) Nick Wey
7) Andrew Short – KTM
10) Cole Seely
11) Davi Millsaps
12) Weston Peick
13) Fabien Izoird
14) Michael Byrne
15) Tye Simmonds – KTM
16) Matt Boni
17) Chris Blose
18) Ivan Tedesco
19) Austin Stroupe
20) Mike Alessi – KTM
Overall Point Standings SX Class –
1) Chad Reed – 236
2) Ryan Villopoto – 233
3) Ryan Dungey – 228
4) James Stewart – 216
5) Trey Canard – 214
6) Andrew Short – 159
7) Justin Brayton – 137
8) Kevin Windham – 134
9) Davi Millsaps – 128
10) Nick Wey – 109
