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MOTOCROSS FIM MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS MOTOCROSS OF NATIONS / OCTOBER 6-7, 2018 REDBUD RACEWAY / BUCHANAN, MICHIGAN P62 iii My Own Race: 26 AARON PLESSINGER 16-18 (8TH O/A MX2) The 2018 250cc National MX Champ had an incredibly tough introduction to the Motocross of Nations at RedBud. "I want to try my best next year and get back on the team so I can come back for revenge," Plessinger said. "The weekend didn't end up like we wanted. I went out and crashed the first moto, twice. It was definitely not my weekend." 27 JUSTIN BARCIA 9-13 (7TH O/A OPEN) Sunday was a struggle for Justin Barcia. "It felt really good being here and I like these conditions," Barcia said. "I just feel a little let down that we didn't get it done. The second race, I had a little mechanical in the rear end about halfway through the race and couldn't really be competitive, so that was frustrating. It was a freak thing that happened to the bike. Like nothing has happened to us all year and we just had freak things happen this weekend. It's unfortunate. It's really unfortunate. But it's not lack of effort. But it's just like…no one cares. We weren't good enough and we lost." 17 HUNTER LAWRENCE 8-2 (2ND O/A MX2) Australian Hunter Lawrence, who will be racing in the U.S. full-time in 2019 for the Geico Honda team, nearly won his MX2 qualifier on Saturday and powered through adversity on Sunday to take second overall in his class and lead Australia to fourth overall on the day. "In the first moto I had to pull into the pits for a little problem, so I dropped a lot of positions there," Lawrence said. "Then with the other 450s and stuff, how it works out with the Olympic scoring, I ended up second overall. It's a bit of a bummer. First loser, but that's how it is. I think the ride and everything was good, though..." 49 KEVIN WINDHAM 32-40 (20TH OVERALL MXGP) Forty-year-old Kevin Windham has been retired for half a decade but still managed to show he has the skills to pay the bills as he helped to put Puerto Rico into the main event with an overall win in the B main on Sunday morning. "I think if we would have just went in [from the Saturday qualifiers] it would have been a little bit better," Windham said. "But everybody knew that I wasn't ready to do three motos in one day. It was too much. I've been retired for five years, and I'm way, way out of shape. I'm glad for [Ryan] Sipes. I'm glad for Puerto Rico. Sipes has never done this before. Travis [Pastrana] and I have had the honor of representing America at this event in the past. This was such a special race and having the opportunity to race under any circumstance, but you've got to remember that there has not been, that I'm aware of, a person that has left the starting gate at an MX of Nations where winning wasn't the goal. You line up, you line up to win, but that just wasn't realistic for us, for many obvious reasons." 51 TRAVIS PASTRANA 38-39 (20TH OVERALL OPEN) Travis Pastrana and Kevin Windham both won a Motocross of Nations as members of Team USA, and they both did it in France (Pastrana at St. Jean d'Angely in 2000 and Windham at Ernee in 2005), but although Pastrana decided on doing this event with the intention of wanting to try to compete on his trusty 15-year-old RM250 two- stroke, injuries during training along with circumstances at the race itself prevented it. Still, he and Windham were the most popular people on the track all weekend. "I'm old and I'm a lot more crippled than I had anticipated," Pastrana said. "I knew I was going to be hurt coming in, and I hadn't been able to ride at all the last few weeks with my knee, but I tell you what, K-Dub [Windham], he's so impressive. Off the couch, coming in last-minute, and he delivered in the B main. The important thing is that we were able to help Puerto Rico and raise a lot of money for a good cause, and this is just the start, as there are a lot of us who are committing to do more for Puerto Rico in the next few months, with friends of mine heading down there for charity work, and we'll be doing that, too. No regrets. This was awesome."

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