Justin Barcia more or less made his way onto the AMA GasGas operation by way of a ‘trade’ with Yamaha involving then amateur rider Nate Thrasher. Since moving on from the old Monster Yamaha Factory Team, Barcia has been terrific with GasGas. He came right out of the gate winning last year’s Supercross opener in Houston. Then later he won the 2021 Millville National in the summer. While the total results were not mind-blowing, the rider, bike, and team fit felt good. The two main parties agree with that sentiment. Barcia, who was seemingly set to hit the open market next fall, is now staying with the GasGas squad through the 2023 AMA Motocross season. This via Kellen Brauer of RacerX/Start Your Systems at the team’s 2022 intro event.
Just announced at the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas intro:
Justin Barcia has re-signed with the team through 2023
“This is where I want to end my career,” said Barcia of the contract extension
— Kellen Brauer (@kellenbrauer) December 17, 2021
Be sure to keep up with all of our Supercross/Motocross coverage.
Onto Anaheim
Crazy to say that the Supercross season is right around the corner as well. Barcia, via the official team press release, sounds eager to hit the ground running starting January 8 at Angel Stadium.
“I’m really stoked for the second year on the team! The first year, we had so much fun and we worked really hard. We got two race wins, which was super awesome, but our goal is always to win the championship and that’s what we’re looking for in 2022. The team has changed a lot this year. I have a new mechanic, Ollie, which I’m stoked on; and we have a few other new guys on the team that are doing an awesome job. The whole GASGAS brand is really cool and it makes work a lot easier when you can have a lot of fun with the crew. We definitely have a strong team coming into this year and for me, I have my head down and working hard, having fun and ready to go for that championship!”
A Team Called Home
From Barcia’s own words at the team intro, said that he wanted to retire with this Troy Lee Designs GasGas squad. He was one of many riders who had far from a great time at the old Factory Yamaha outfit. To get to the point, the GasGas team is probably a breath of fresh air compared to the countless reported problems the Yamaha team had, specifically related to bike setup. On that same topic, Barcia will also have a new wrench for 2022 as said in the release. That would be Ollie Stone, formerly of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki and Austin Forkner. Stone moves over to the Troy Lee Designs team after nearly a decade working for Mitch Payton’s 250 squad.
Former rider Wil Hahn, who joined the team last year after a long stint with Star Yamaha is back again as the team trainer. Along with Michael Mosiman and Pierce Brown on the two 250 entries, Barcia has a great base around him. Not particularly hard to see why he decided to stick around for an extra year. Not to mention that the bike isn’t half bad either, just ask the new GasGas MXGP team. Now Barcia looks to win a mind-boggling fourth consecutive season-opening round win of Supercross in a row in less than a month.
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Main Image via GasGas
