BEST PERFORMANCES FOR TICKLE AND BOGLE IN TEXAS

Courtesy of Team Suzuki Press Office

 Broc Tickle – (RCH Yoshimura Suzuki) 6th
Jake Weimer – (Autotrader JGR Suzuki) – 7th
Justin Bogle – (RCH Yoshimura Suzuki) 9th
Malcolm Stewart – (Ride 365.com Suzuki) 10th


After a sluggish start to the 2017 season, RCH/ Yoshimura/ Suzuki Factory Racing shifted into a higher gear for Saturday’s Monster Energy AMA/ FIM World Supercross at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Broc Tickle, rider of the No. 20 Suzuki RM-Z450, turned in his best performance of the season with a solid sixth-place effort. Tickle’s RCH stablemate Justin Bogle also notched his best overall performance of the year by winning his heat, grabbing the holeshot in the Main Event and bringing home a solid ninth-place finish.

“It was a good night for RCH,” commented RCH team co-owner Ricky Carmichael. “Broc’s been struggling a little bit out of the starting gate and I know he’s working really hard during the week to get that straightened out. It was nice to see him put everything together and come away with a really solid finish. Justin did everything that we expected of him. That’s why we hired him. He won his heat, won the holeshot and if he hadn’t ‘gotten together with someone in the Main, his race had top-five written all over it. It was really nice to see the whole team put it all together. That’s what we’re here for.”

When the gate dropped for the sixth 450SX Class Main Event of the year, both riders positioned themselves to be near the front of the pack. However, a downed rider off the start forced officials to throw the red flag, which immediately brought the race to a halt and forced a restart. As the 22-rider field blasted out of the starting gate, Bogle lived up to his reputation as one of the best in the business and briefly assumed control until yielding the point to eventual winner Marvin Musquin.

Meanwhile, Tickle made his charge and began picking-off the competition one rider at a time. After fading to 13th, the Holly, Michigan rider made a steady charge up the scoring pylon and was up to seventh before the halfway mark. Over the closing laps, Tickle picked-up one more spot to log his best showing of the season.

“I got a good start,” commented Tickle, who jumped from 14th to 10th in points. “There was a lot of chaos but I put myself in a good place to ride some clean, solid laps for the whole race and ended up finishing sixth. It was a big improvement from the last few weeks. I’m looking forward to making some more progress and seeing what we can do to get better. I felt like I was riding smoother and more like how I ride during the week. I was pumped to be riding more consistently and feeling like myself.”

While the battle for the holeshot was ultra-close between Bogle and Musquin, AMA officially gave the rider of the No. 19 Suzuki credit for crossing the line first. Over the next several laps, Bogle zeroed in on the task at hand and maintained his footing in the top-five.

Unfortunately, the Cushing, Oklahoma rider got together with another competitor just short of the one-third mark, which ultimately cost him more than a handful of positions. With plenty of racing left in the 20-minute-plus-one-lap Main Event, Bogle dug deep and made the most of a bad situation. Despite having to race his way through the frustrations of watching a potential top-five vanish, the 2014 Eastern Regional 250 SX Class Champion stayed the course and held on for a top-10.

“This weekend in Dallas went quite a bit better than the last few weeks have gone,” explained Bogle. “The bike felt good and I’m feeling healthy again. I got great starts all night. I won my first heat race of the year, which was great for confidence. I got the holeshot in the Main Event and came around up front. I got passed a few times and ended up going down but still finished out the race in ninth. It was a bit of a rough Main Event but all in all the day was quite a bit better and we made a lot of progress. I’m feeling good about everything moving forward.”

Monster Energy Supercross debuts at US Bank Stadium this weekend when Tickle, Bogle and the rest of their Monster Energy Supercross brethren return to Minneapolis for the first time since 2013.

Arlington SX Image Gallery: CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Championship Points (after 6 of 17 rounds): CLICK HERE


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