VOL. 55 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 9, 2018 P65
Team USA's hopes looked
bleak for qualifying as the Open
class took to the track, but Team
USA's Justin Barcia managed a
good start and chased The Neth-
erlands' Glenn Coldenhoff from
the start to the finish, with Cold-
enhoff taking the win over Barcia,
Belgium's Jeremy Van Horebeek,
and Swiss rider Jeremy Seewer.
In the end, it was The Nether-
lands who managed to qualify on
top with a 1-3 score over Italy's
1-4, France's 1-4, Germany's
2-3, Australia's 2-9, Spain's 5-6,
Great Britain's 5-7, Switzerland's
4-8, and USA's 2-11. Team USA
would have a midpack gate pick
for Sunday's main event, with the
starting line heavily favoring the
inside gates (as per the rules for
the event).
Clement Desalle in the first turn
and managed to fight his way up
to third at the finish. Then came
France's Gautier Paulin and Great
Britain's Tommy Searle.
Then came the MX2 qualifier,
where Germany's Henry Jacobi
led the early laps before giving
way to Team USA's Aaron Pless-
inger. Plessinger seemed to have
the race under control past the
halfway point when he went down
hard, handing the lead to France's
Dylan Ferrandis, who was chased
by Australia's Hunter Lawrence.
Plessinger got up seventh, then
fell again the following lap and re-
mounted 11th, where he would fin-
ish. Ferrandis held off Lawrence
to take the win over Jacobi, Italy's
Michele Cervellin and Spain's
MX2 World Champ Jorge Prado.
(Left) Eli Tomac
couldn't find the
magic he had in
the AMA Nationals.
(Right) Justin
Barcia had an
up-and-down
weekend.
