IIIMY OWN RACE:
27 MALCOLM STEWART
7TH 450SX
"My starts have been struggling a li le
bit all year long," said Stewart. "Even
in the main event, I didn't get the best
of starts, but I s ll made some passes
on the first lap and put myself in a
great posi on. Then I had a couple of
sketchy moments on the track. I landed
on a hay bale. I tried to do a quad and
landed on a hay bale again. You know
how people say cats got nine lives? I
think I used every bit of those nine lives
out there. It's just one of those deals
when the track goes away, and there
are potholes, and the whoops are kind
of sketchy. It turns into more about
survival mode out there."
7 AARON PLESSINGER
9TH 450SX
"It was a so-so day," said Plessinger. "I
started out not feeling comfortable in
qualifying. We made some changes,
and then we decided to go back to
what I ran here last weekend. That
was be er in the heat race. I think I
messed up on my gate selec on and
didn't pick the right one, and did not
get a great start in the main. I put my
head down and tried to do what I
did last weekend but only came back
to ninth. The track was like glass out
there, like wet glass."
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 23, 2021 P55
Cianciarulo broke away from
the back early in the race, but
by lap 10 of what would be a
25-lap race, the Monster Energy
Kawasaki rider gave way to the
championship contender, Webb.
And things would only get worse
for Cianciarulo. Four laps later,
while under heavy pressure by
Marvin Musquin, Cianciarulo lost
control of his bike in the whoops
and went down. He was shaken
up enough to call it a night with
an injured collarbone.
"I got such a great jump out
the gate and was able to just lead
some solid laps," Cianciarulo
said. "Once Cooper got by me, I
was able to see some lines where
he was a touch quicker than me
and felt like he wasn't getting
away from me, but as I began to
look for lines to try and make a
pass back, a lapper threw off my
whoop section, and I miscalculat-
ed my jump into the whoops that
resulted in me going down."
Musquin inherited second but,
by then, Webb had pretty much
taken control of the race.
Webb managed the rest of the
race by keeping an eye on Mus-
quin in his rear-view mirror and
would go on to take the win three
seconds ahead of Musquin, mak-
ing it a Red Bull KTM 1-2 sweep.
"This one is huge, back-to-
back wins is amazing!" Webb
said. "It was a great race battling
with AC [Cianciarulo] and great
points for tonight. Marvin was rid-
ing great. I knew he was coming
there at the end, and I know how
strong he is because we ride and
(Left) Marvin
Musquin made it
a Red Bull KTM
1-2. (Below) The
day started off
miserably for
Justin Barcia
(51) but the night
ended well with
a podium for the
GasGas rider.
Adam Cianciarulo
(9) led early but
retired with a
collarbone injury.
