Image: Octopi Media.

Another top-three result in the form of third overall at Glendale’s Triple Crown marks Justin Barcia’s fourth podium of the season, with the achievement adding to the hunger of the TLD Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing rider as he chases a 2023 450SX main event victory.

Benefiting from the off-weekend in the series to recharge and work on improving his starts, Barcia scored 3-6-2 finishes across the three main events to land P3 on the night at State Farm Stadium.

The strong result adds to the podium success that he has already achieved this season, notably third at San Diego, second at Indianapolis and P3 once more at Seattle. A spirited charge in Indy saw him finish just 0.739s from race winner Ken Roczen (Progressive Insurance Ecstar Suzuki), but now 12 rounds into the 2023 Monster Energy Supercross Championship he is determined to land on the top step.

“Definitely more hungry, I love a podium and the racing was really good tonight,” Barcia explained. “I just was charging hard, felt really good and the bike has been really good in the last few weekends.

“Definitely confidence is up there, searching for that win for sure, definitely want it but we have got to take steps for sure and I’ll keep taking these podiums, happy with it, but definitely want… a second would be good and a first would be even better.

“We’ll keep plugging away and going at it. My starts were a little bit better tonight, I made some good changes in the off-week and yeah, looking forward to getting a holeshot here soon and trying to win one of these.”

Despite scoring multiple Supercross podiums and five career 450SX wins across his career, Barcia had never scored an overall podium result at a Triple Crown event until Glendale on Saturday. The result also elevates him to fifth in the 2023 standings as five races remain in this year’s Supercross.

“It’s all about getting good starts, putting clean laps in and minimising mistakes,” Barcia added. “Pretty stoked on the team and myself tonight, we made some minor tweaks on the bike and my riding was really good on this hardpack, I’m not known to have the best throttle control, I kind of twist that thing hard.

“Tonight was good, I had some good stuff going on and I’m quite stoked to adapt to the track. These guys are riding unbelievable, and I am just happy to be up here and get a podium on a Triple Crown, it’s pretty cool and a good achievement I suppose, finally.”