VOL. 55 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 9, 2018 P59
many years ago specifically to
try and give other countries a
better chance of defeating Team
USA after many years of domina-
tion, but it worked in the USA's
favor at RedBud. In the end,
though, it didn't help much, as
luck just wasn't on Team USA's
side.
The format calls for one
qualifying moto for each class
(MXGP, MX2 and Open) with the
best two-moto scores combining
to determine the qualifying order.
In the MXGP qualifier, Team
TOMAC'S TROUBLES
Eli Tomac had a really tough go of it
at the Motocross of Nations, although
he still ended up being the best on
his team. He and his Monster Energy
Kawasaki race team debuted his new
2019 Kawasaki KX450 at the MXoN,
but a fall in his Saturday qualifier left
him unable to restart his machine. It
was reported early as "an electrical
problem" but that's often what teams
say when they have a mechanical
failure. However, the team was indeed
telling the truth. As it turns out, U.S.
law requires that lithium-ion batteries
sold in the U.S. be equipped with an
overload switch to prevent fires, and
after Tomac went down, his battery
simply wouldn't deliver a charge to
restart his motorcycle because the
battery's overload switch was trig-
gered. The KTM and Husky teams
don't have this problem as they get
their batteries straight from Austria,
minus the overload switch (and some
teams even run lithium polimer bat-
teries instead of lithium-ion, although
LiPos require more careful charging
protocols and have a reputation of
failing if those protocols, such as
balancing, aren't followed). So, after
the battery failure on Saturday, the
KTM team (via Roger DeCoster) made
sure that Tomac's bike had one of their
batteries in it for Sunday. That wasn't
the only trouble that Tomac ran into
on the weekend, but unfortunately he
was the only racer on Team USA who
failed to make himself available to the
press following the event.
SE7EN
After winning his first national champi-
onship this summer, Aaron Plessinger
became eligible for a single-digit
number, and he chose James Stew-
Briefly...
Those with mud-riding
experience had an
advantage at this year's
MXoN at RedBud.
