MOUNT MORRIS, Pennsylvania: Cole Davies took advantage of a mistake from Julien Beaumer at the two-third mark of Moto 1 of the High Point National and assumed the lead. With clean traffic ahead, Davies held onto the advantage for the remainder of the race.
Beaumer slotted into second on the opening laps as holeshot winner, Casey Cochran, spurted out to a solid lead. Beaumer tracked him down and took the top spot away until he put his bike on the ground at the two-third mark.
The top points contenders each had poor starts with Jo Shimoda finding himself the furthest back in the opening laps. He made up the most ground to move into the top five at the midway point, into fourth around Cade Dudney with 10 minutes remaining, and then he took the final podium position a few laps later.
At the end of Moto 1, Shimoda was only three points behind the championship leader, Seth Hammaker.
Cochran’s holeshot allowed him to find a comfortable pace early on. He capitalized on that to finish fourth.
Seth Hammaker challenged for a top five in the opening laps, faded to sixth during the first half of the race, and then followed Shimoda into the top five. He finished fifth.
Levi Kitchen entered the moto with a share of the red plate and appeared to be the rider with the edge until he put his bike on the ground on Lap 9. He fell to ninth with the crash and was unable to move forward appreciably. He finished sixth, after passing two riders in the final two laps.
