Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GasGas teammates Ryder DiFrancesco and Pierce Brown each had their best rides of the 2024 season at Washougal finishing fourth and fifth overall, respectively. Both riders attributed several factors to their recent upward trend in performance.

First of which, both riders were able to get out of the gate well with DiFrancesco in particular starting P3 in both motos. Brown was able to turn two starts around the top 10 into a 5-5 performance on the day as the duo even battled each other during the second moto.

After a tough string of races through the middle portion of the championship, both riders were satisfied to see the hard work pay off.

“It’s definitely refreshing to have a day like today,” said Brown. “The last couple weeks, I feel like I had put my all into it and it just hasn’t gone to plan. We’re heading into the break in a good spot. I’m excited for the last three.”

DiFrancesco’s upturn in results has been the most noticeable as he struggled to a pair of 18^th place finishes earlier in the year and has spent nearly every week since round five battling inside of the top 10.

Finally getting off the gate well at Washougal gave him an opportunity to show where his speed fit in with the leaders. He even ran as high as P2 at one point during the first moto and hung with the lead group for quite some time.

“The first 10 minutes of both motos, I was right on those boys, and it was good to see the speed,” said DiFrancesco. “I think like lap five of moto two, I ended up going down, so it was a bit tough with the heat. At that point, I was pretty much just along for the ride, and I was smoked. To get a sixth out of it and end up fourth overall, it was good.”

But was it simply both riders building to this point, or is there another factor at play? Well, both Brown and DiFrancesco live and train in California full time on their current programs which means they don’t often get to test for the deep east coast conditions the riders face at places like RedBud and Spring Creek.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve been far off, but it perhaps suggests that coming to a hard-packed and slick track like Washougal falls more in line with where their bike setup currently is.

“This being more like California for sure did help us,” said DiFrancesco. “But we’ve been clicking off our weeks and they’ve been really good. We’ve been pushing each other, and we finally found some stuff with the bike that’s been good. I think this has been coming for both of us, west or east coast, and it’s been good.”

Even Brown, who had strong results at places like High Point and Southwick, admitted the California testing has perhaps pigeonholed their performance on tracks like those. But he also believes they are close to the right balance between both hard-packed and softer conditions.

“We’ve been in a really good spot with our setup all year,” said Brown. “I’d say a day like today is kind of similar to how the first three rounds were prep-wise. Not too deep, and more of a hard base. That’s kind of what our setup is based off of since we’re in California. So, a day like today favored me really well.”

Both Brown and DiFrancesco are now comfortably inside the top 10 of the 250MX standings and each rider will make it into the SMX Playoffs no problem.

Another key component of late for DiFrancesco is that he’s been riding and training back home in Bakersfield, California. Having moved down to the Los Angeles area nearly two years ago, DiFrancesco hadn’t been back home for a bit and took the chance to go up there before Southwick to get some sand testing in.

After that went well, DiFrancesco has been making deals with the team to continue training at home if the results keep coming in. And wouldn’t you know it, the results are certainly showing every week.

“I have a couple sand tracks back home [that I rode] before Southwick,” said DiFrancesco. “I did decent at Southwick, so I was like, ‘Okay let’s do another week back home.’ I did good and now it’s just been something that we do. I was in SoCal last week and I made a bet with my team manager that if I took fifth overall that I can go home and still ride there. I’ll be in Bakersfield the next couple of weeks enjoying my time with family and getting a bit better.”

With three weeks off from racing until the August 10^th Unadilla National, both Brown and DiFrancesco believe they have it in them to get on the podium in these final three races. Each of them are excited that this upward trend is coinciding with the run into SMX as well since they both are eyeing strong performances in the Playoffs.

Now that a pair of top fives have been achieved for the team, the podium is the next step in their progress of achievements to click off.