Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 2 / JANUARY 12, 2019 STATE FARM STADIUM / GLENDALE, ARIZONA P48 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS iii My Own Race: 4 BLAKE BAGGETT 1ST 450SX "I was stressing it," Blake Baggett said of the restart. "I had Vince Friese behind me and didn't know if this was a good spot to be in [laughs]. It was one of those things where your heart rate comes down; when do you put your goggles back on? They put up the flag, they put it down; it was a false start, all of a sudden—go! I was confused and worried." Once he got behind Anderson, "I was trying to be patient," Baggett said. "I didn't want to get into a slugging fest out there, then the train would've been right there up to us, so I was just waiting for a mistake, really, because there was no place to pass, it was like concrete out there. You fight for traction and as soon as you be a little aggressive you push the front wheel or slide or spin; I thought honestly Jason would get away from me because I couldn't get the thing to bite and get up on there. I wasn't comfortable with it. It might've looked like I was laying up but I was just trying to find traction. I was watching the time, not rushing it but not taking too long; at one point I thought I might've waited too long and didn't throw it in there early enough but things just ended up going my way." 94 KEN ROCZEN 3RD 450SX "If you're leading and the red flag comes out it's never too fun," Roczen said. "I wasn't really sure if we were going to restart at the gate or do a staggered start, luckily they did do the staggered start. You never want to see anybody down. Up until then, I pulled a good holeshot; I just focused so hard on the start because the heat race did not go very well for me. I made some adjustments and came out swinging and wasn't going to let the heat race bring me down. I knew I had to turn the whole night around. Led some good laps and had some pretty good speed; I was just super focused and trying to hit my marks until the red flag—that was bummer but the same for everybody." 25 MARVIN MUSQUIN 5TH 450SX Marvin Musquin was fast in Arizona, but he made a lot of mistakes. He ran as high as second in the main event and ended up fifth. "Glendale is always a big, big track and it's always been a really tough racetrack for me, so I'm happy because this year was a lot better," Musquin said. "I got a great start in the heat race and I got the win, so that felt really good to get back to the top even though it was just the heat race. I wanted to do the same thing in the main and I got a great start again and was leading at the beginning but then I got passed for third. I was behind [Jason] Anderson and I was pretty happy about my riding until they red-flagged it. We restarted in our spots we were in, which was good because I thought we were going to have to restart the whole race. Unfortunately, I had too many mistakes in the first two laps and it cost me two spots and I lost too much ground on the other guys. Fifth place is not too bad considering all that happened in the main. It's an improvement for me with the riding and the bike, everything was working good." 22 CHAD REED 14TH 450SX The high point of Chad Reed's night was coming up through the pack and finishing second in his heat race, but he had a bad start in the main and ended up 14th. "Glendale was a really positive day, and the heat race was special," the JGRMX/Yoshimura Factory Racing Suzuki rider said. "The team did a great job of helping me find a feeling that I've been chasing. This helped massively throughout the whole weekend. The main was disappoint- ing, but I'm focused on the feeling we found, and I'm looking forward to a solid week ahead. Video replay shows what I'm doing wrong on my starts, so I'll look to correct that before Anaheim 2."

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