BROC TICKLE

Set to compete once more for the 2024 season, was Kawasaki’s Broc Tickle. The veteran of the sport had been working as a test rider of sorts at the factory level for quite sometime now...but still yearned to battle amid the professional ranks for a few, select races in the current championship. This led him to Budds Creek, where after gathering the knowledge he acquired from his previous racing bout, earlier in the year (i.e. Red Bud) Tickle seemed prepared for whatever was thrown his way as gates would rise on Saturday morning. To begin the first moto, Tickle would flow through the first corner with aggression, and immediately begin to make passes. He would earn an opening standing of eighth when flying past the timing and scoring sensors, scrubbing his way over the ant-hills thereafter with a precise flow aboard his machine. He would advance to seventh before descending to ninth, while he, Dylan Ferrandis, Phil Nicoletti, and Malcolm Stewart appeared to be on the same trajectory. Tickle wouldn’t trail the rear wheel of Stewart by far, and as he crested “Henry Hill” time and time again, many in the crown would notice the superb charging ability of the veteran rider. He appeared to move forward with optimal RPM, and with his extensive testing experience, there were certain edges, bumps, and pot-holes on the track he would hit, with a bit more finesse than many others...which was a undoubted elite trait within his arsenal of tactics and skills. Throughout the duration of the seventeen-lap contest, Tickle continued to charge with minimal fatigue...crossing the final jump in a notable position of ninth before beginning the second contest of the afternoon. In the following round, Broc acquired a position of twelfth before beginning to chip away toward the top-ten. The hard-packed base of the track was beginning to become more apparent, and many times, Tickle would use a higher gear to roll across the slicker surfaces...rather than by staying in a lower portion of the transmission and spinning the rear wheel where traction was needed. Broc would pass not only Colt Nichols, but Phil Nicoletti as well on a path to tenth-place position — where he would pursue Freddie Noren for seemingly the entire moto...all the while keeping both, Nicoletti and Eli Tomac at bay! In the end, a tenth-place result (for this race) was strong enough for eighth-place in the final standings!