CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 56 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 12, 2019 P59
ADAPTING
TO THE COLD
The Minnesota Supercross was
the first round of the season where
the pits weren't in the parking lot,
but instead were inside, out of the
cold. "The trucks were out in the
snow, so we had to unload all of our
essentials and bring them down to
our makeshift pit area in the tunnel,"
Honda HRC Team Manager Erik
Kehoe said. "It took everyone out of
their routine, but we adapted." The
Team Honda HRC mechanics used
warmers on the tires and on the sus-
pension to keep the bikes working
consistently.
ADRENALINE RUSH
On the starting line for the 250SX
main, Jordon Smith's mechanic,
Kristian Ortiz, began frantically trying
to remove Smith's rear wheel. "I de-
cided on the sight lap that I wanted
different gearing, so we changed
gearing before the main. [Laughs],"
Smith joked after the race. "No, I got
a flat tire, and Kristian my mechanic
did an amazing job to get that thing
changed. I didn't know what to think.
They started their bikes before he
even got the nut off of the first wheel,
so I was definitely getting a little
nervous that it was going to drop and
I wasn't going to be ready." He was
ready, though, starting around the tail
end of the top five, and despite a fall,
managed to finish on the podium in
second.
REPITITION
The 450SX class at Minneapolis
logged 27 laps in the 20-minute-
plus-one-lap main event, if you count
the opening lap off the starting line.
While the elapsed time might not be
any different from usual, the shorter
tracks get more eaten up under this
format, which can be more physically
draining on the racers. "I think doing
so many laps like that feels even lon-
ger than if you only do 19 or 20 laps,
for sure," said Marvin Musquin. "It's
just repetitive. And also the track gets
rougher and rougher every single
lap, and then we've got the 250s be-
fore us, so it's definitely always tough
when you go to the east coast and
you have a little bit shorter track. But
I knew it was going to be short lap
times because all of the lanes around
the stadium were pretty high-speed.
So it's kind of a good thing that the
track got deteriorated because it's a
little slower, but 28 laps [27, actually]
may be a record."
BAGGETT DOWN
Musquin got a birds-eye view of
Blake Baggett when he went over
the bars in the 450SX main event.
"I mean, I was right behind him,"
Musquin said. "I was a little wor-
ried for him because it was a gnarly
crash. That section was tough. That
kicker was getting deep and I actu-
ally changed lines to avoid that. I was
on the right side, so good thing I was
not following him. I was obviously
focused on my line and I was looking
ahead of me, but I saw him going
over the bars, and I didn't know
where the bike was going to end up.
So it was a little scary, but it ended
up being okay. Hopefully, he's okay,
because it was a big crash, and that
section was tough. But the whole
track obviously got pretty gnarly.
All the rhythms, you had to be on
point and try to be safe at the same
time because it was easy to make
mistakes."
Briefly...
