MOUNT MORRIS, Pennsylvania: Cole Davies swept the motos in the High Point National to win the overall and close the gap on the points leaders.
Davies earned a podium in the season opener, but was unable to back that up in the next two races. He finished fourth overall the following week in the Hangtown Classic and then struggled with a pair of results outside the top five last week at Thunder Valley.
Julien Beaumer was Davies’ closest competition in the first moto, and he battled for the podium throughout the second moto. It took a long time to get around Kayden Minear for second in that race, and when he did with seven minutes remaining on the clock, he was 10 seconds behind Davies.
Davies would not be counted out, however, and set himself up as one of the top contenders with Pro Circuit’s Levi Kitchen and Seth Hammaker struggling in High Point.
Jo Shimoda was scored third overall, but he was the biggest winner of the afternoon. With Kitchen fading in the middle stage of the round and Hammaker crashing hard in the opening laps, Shimoda closed to within one point of Kitchen at High Point, earning 38 points with results of third and fourth.
Shimoda caught Minear for third position in the closing laps, but the rookie fought hard for the spot.
Kitchen faded in the middle stage and then recovered to finish fifth. Last week, he was disappointed to share the red plate. Two weeks from now in RedBud, he will have sole possession of it.
Hammaker’s crash came while he was running third. His first moto was a modest fifth, but he was on his way to improving that in the second race before his crash.
