Hartranft's First Career SX Podium

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – It was an exciting night for Brandon Hartranft and the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team as the 250SX West rider earned his first-career podium finish on Saturday night with an impressive third-place at Round 2 of the 2020 AMA Supercross Championship in St. Louis, Missouri. 

 

Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Brandon Hartranft powered his KTM 250 SX-F to a top three start in the Main Event, where he set himself up in a favorable top-five position early on. He moved into podium contention with five laps to go and he held strong in the final laps to ultimately secure a career-best finish of third.

Brandon Hartranft: “Honestly, I’m still in shock about what happened tonight, this podium couldn’t have come at a better time for me. The team and I have put in a lot of work this off-season and I definitely couldn’t have done this without them!”

Teammate, Derek Drake had quite the eventful night as well as he came out fast in his heat race with a creditable hole shot. Unfortunately for Derek he ended up doing a 180 at the first turn landing himself off the bike. Derek continued to climb back through the pack during the rest of the heat race and was ultimately just shy of the transfer spots into the main event. Calm and ready to do it all over again Derek did just that on the gate for the LCQ where he was able to get an early lead to pull away and secure his spot in the Main Event with an LCQ win. Drake was able to finish 10^thfor the night and plans to continue to make progress each week during his rookie Supercross season!

 

Results 250SX West Class – St. Louis 
1. Austin Forkner (USA), Kawasaki, 18 laps
2. Justin Cooper (USA), Yamaha, +1.639
3. Brandon Hartranft (USA), KTM, +17.560
Other KTM
10. Derek Drake (USA), KTM 

Standings 250SX West Class 2020 after 2 of 10 rounds
1. Cooper, 49 points
2. Forkner, 44
3. Hartranft, 37
OTHER KTM
8. Drake, 28