Image: Octopi Media.

A frustrated Pierce Brown has declared ‘I’m not a seventh-place guy’ after a heat race victory boosted his expectations in Lumen Field, with misfortune in the main event later limiting the TLD Red Bull GasGas rider.

Brown qualified eighth fastest as 250SX West returned to action at Seattle, later impressing in heat one to take a 4.724s victory ahead of Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki fill-in Carson Mumford.

Unfortunately, a first-turn collision in the main event meant he was a lowly P20 after the opening lap, with the number 33 ultimately able to work his way back to seventh position come race-end.

“Tough day,” Brown recalled. “It started off great. Something about today, I was fired up. I was P1 in free practice, and decent in qualifying. Not the best. I won the heat race, and in the main event, I collided with a rider in the first corner and fell.

“But after the fall I was able to put some really good laps together. Not good enough to be where I want to be…I ended up P7. I’m not a seventh-place guy and I need to prove that I’m not. So we’re going to use the next weekend off to smooth some things out and focus on eliminating our weaknesses.”

With four rounds remaining in 250SX West this year, Brown is eighth in the championship standings with a best result of P5 which he achieved at both San Diego and Oakland. Notably, he did not complete the season-opening event at Anaheim 1 following a crash in heat two.