Cycle News

MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS SERIES ROUND 7/JULY 12, 2014 BUDDS CREEK RACEWAY/MECHANICSVILLE, MARYLAND P62 >>250 National Baggett's Budds Despite getting off to his usual top-10 starts, the Monster En- ergy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki Team rider grabbed his third straight win at the Budds Creek track and kept himself in title contention with a 3-1 performance. In the first moto, after finish- ing the opening lap in seventh, Baggett worked his way into third and was gaining on the leaders when he ran out of time at the end of the race. "I didn't use my time wisely in the beginning of the race," Baggett said. "I tried some lines that didn't work and got stuck in traffic and I just didn't get up there in time to put up a fight." In moto two, Baggett was not much better off at the start but made some passes early and sat in fourth by the end of lap one. He was third at the end of lap two, and second behind Martin by lap eight. "I got another really bad start in moto two," said Baggett. "[Justin] Bogle was beside me on the gate and he got a really good jump and just boxed me out." Quickly closing a large deficit, Baggett took the lead from Mar- tin on lap 12 before cruising on to claim his third moto win of the season and his third overall vic- tory. With five rounds remaining, Baggett is 27 points behind Mar- tin. " We're one race past halfway and I think we're in this cham- pionship," Baggett said. " We're going to try to take it all the way down to Utah. We got caught off guard at Glen Helen, I wasn't ready and the team wasn't ready, so we did a full revamp before Hangtown and we had some technical difficulties at that race and DNFed one of the motos, but since then we feel like we have it figured out. We revamped again after Hangtown and after that I didn't change anything on my bike from Colo- rado until this past week when I changed some front fork set- tings." As with the 450 class, next week's race in Millville with be pivotal, since the Spring Creek track is literally in Martin's back yard. "It we can go in there and beat Jeremy on his own track then that would be icing on the cake," said Baggett. Solid Day For Martin For Martin, Salt Lake City surely can't come fast enough. With five races to go, the Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha rider has the ad- vantage, but Baggett is coming on strong, and Martin needs to answer in at least a few of the up- coming races. Martin was solid at Budds Creek, but in moto two, the Ya- maha rider just wasn't able to hold Baggett off. "I got the holeshot and I tried to run away, but I could see that big number four back there," said Martin. "I think about the 20-min- ute mark we started to hit lappers and he knocked a huge lead out of my gap. He was coming on strong and I tried to push but he was riding too good. My skid plate fell off with two laps to go and it was hitting my leg, so I just cruised in from there." Jason Anderson claimed his very first outdoor moto victory in the 250 class.

• Cover