Racing

Benny Bloss’ Day At Southwick Motocross | MX 2016

Benny Bloss went 8-6 for 7th overall at round 7

July 12, 2016

SOUTHWICK PRTACTICE AND PITS MORNING

Benny Bloss’s number 167 sits under the BTO Sports Factory KTM tent in the morning before the first practice got under way at 8:30 am. Benny had his best performance of the year at RedBud last weekend going 11-10 for 10th overall in the 450 class for his first top ten finish. Benny is a rookie this year on the Pro Motocross tour and is learning these tracks for the first time in the first practice sessions. The 2015 Loretta Lynn’s Horizon Award winner got the call to fill in for Davi Millsaps after Davi injured himself in Supercross earlier this year. Benny has been making progress all year and was ecstatic with his top ten finish at RedBud.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK PRTACTICE AND PITS MORNING

In the first timed practice Benny had a small crash on his first fast lap of the session and it took him a couple of laps to get going and record his fast lap. Benny turned a 2:07.788 on his 3rd lap for his fast time, which gave him the 17th fastest time in group A. Southwick is known to only get rougher as the day progresses, so the first timed practice will almost always be the rider’s best time for qualifying. Here Benny takes the outside berm in Buckley’s Berm to keep his momentum going.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK PRTACTICE AND PITS MORNING

In the second timed practice Benny turned a 2:10.710 for the 11th fastest time in the second group A session. Benny said that he still has some work to do to be able to turn a fast lap in the timed practices. Benny feels more comfortable in race conditions instead of the approach of trying to go all out for one lap. Here Benny goes high in the corner after Buckley’s Berm.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

Benny packs his gate for moto one as team owner/manager Forrest Butler looks on. Benny said that Forrest is a big help at the gate with advice on what gate to take, how he should pack his gate and what line choices he should use. This week Forrest came up with a different technique on packing the gate for Benny and Benny said it worked.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

In moto one Benny got a good start and was towards the front of the field. After one lap Benny was in 9th place and got into a fierce battle with Phil Nicoletti for seven laps over the 7th position. Benny was able to get into the 7th place position by the halfway point of the race, then he lost one position to a hard charging Justin Barcia at the end of the moto.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

Benny getting ready to take off in front of the Southwick fans.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK PRTACTICE AND PITS MORNING

Benny railing one of the outer ruts on the sweeper close to the pits. Benny said his favorite part of the track was the section after the mechanics tents down that long straight and up the hill to this sweeper. He said it got really technical and he had to be on the balls of his feet and stand up the whole way into this corner. Benny also said that his favorite kind of track is a sand track and Southwick was his favorite track so far.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK PRTACTICE AND PITS MORNING

Benny exiting the sweeper and throwing up a big sand cloud off his rear sand tire.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

In the second moto Benny said his start was not as good as the first moto but he still was towards the front of the pack and started to quickly make some passes to get into 7th place by the 5th lap. Benny also said that he did not make any bike changes all day, that the bike was good from the first timed session to the 2nd moto. Here Benny takes the outer line over the fan jump by the American Legion.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

The inside line took over as the main line in the Buckley Berm. The outside line got pushed out toward the tree and some riders were hitting it with their handlebars. Benny stayed away from that since he’s a big guy.Photography by Rob Koy

SOUTHWICK MOTO1 1DX

Benny got into 6th place a little before the halfway point in moto two and said that he was catching Pourcel at the end of the moto but couldn’t get close enough and settled for 6th place for his best finish in his short pro career. Here Benny takes the outer line before the first turn in moto two. Look how rough and deep the track got at the end. Benny Bloss went 8-6 for 7th overall at Southwick and improved on his best results from last week at RedBud. Benny said that he was extremely pumped on the track and his results and is hoping for the same kind of results next week at Spring Creek.Photography by Rob Koy