RANCHO CORDOVA, California: Seth Hammaker earned the holeshot in the first moto of the Hangtown Classic at Prairie City SVRA and with a clean track ahead of him, he ran away from the field.
The battle for the podium made up for the lack of excitement at the lead, however, as Levi Kitchen and Jo Shimoda worked their way through the field.
Kitchen began the race well outside the top five as he continues to struggles to get a solid start off the gate. Once he found his momentum, however, he marched forward and was inside the top five by Lap 8. He took fourth from Nicholas Romano later that same lap and got a tow from Shimoda.
Kitchen closed the distance to 7.2 seconds at the end of the race and was left to wonder what might have been without the poor launch.
Shimoda used a lot of energy getting around Romano, who started the race third. He fell to Kitchen in the final third of the race, but Round 2 of the Motocross season showed significant improvement for Shimoda.
Julie Beaumer returned from injury last week and surprised the field with a podium at Fox Raceway in Pala, California, last week. He started second but dropped fourth at the checkered flag.
Chance Hymas took the fifth position from Romano on Lap 9, lost it for a couple of laps, and regained it near the end of the race.
Romano ultimately fell to seventh after expending so much energy in the battles with Shimoda and Kitchen.
Cole Davies crashed from podium contention on Lap 1 and recovered in seventh, but he was never the same. He fell to 11th at the checkers.
