Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/677616
SUPERCROSS ROUND 17 / MAY 7, 2016 LAS VEGAS, NEVADA / SAM BOYD STADIUM P80 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES My Own Race: 4 BLAKE BAGGETT 5 TH 450SX Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Baggett matched his season best with a fifth in Las Vegas. "It was a mudder, not the normal Vegas," said Baggett. "It started out normal Vegas—dusty and hard-packed. Then the rain came down, stopped and then came down again. I got a terrible start, I mean, like, fourth-from-last to the first turn. Then I just dug deep and tried to keep it on two wheels. I made a few mistakes when I got behind some lappers who made some bad mistakes in the mud. I was able to get up to fourth place before [Chad] Reed got me. I made a last-ditch effort on the last lap and was able to get back by him, but he just shoved it right in on me because he doubled a triple and there was nowhere for me to go, so fifth it is." 41 TREY CANARD 8 TH 450SX Honda's Trey Canard normally goes really fast in Las Vegas but in the mud, he crashed in the whoops twice—once in his heat race, once trying to dodge a downed Davi Millsaps in the main event. He also witnessed his team manger Dan Bentley getting smacked by a crashing motorcycle. "I'm definitely not happy with tonight's result," Canard said. "That's not how I wanted to finish the season. The track conditions were horrible and it was really just about survival throughout the race. I never got totally comfortable; I fell once and was just fighting the track. Honestly, after seeing what happened to Dan while sitting on the starting line, I wasn't into it. I'm really happy he's okay considering how bad it looked." 14 COLE SEELY 9 TH 450SX HRC Honda's Cole Seely started exactly where he didn't want to start in the 450SX main—way in the back. That's never a good thing, but it's even worse in the mud. "I didn't have a great start to the night with a vision issue in the heat, but we got it figured out for the main event," said Seely. "It's not too fun coming through the pack during a race like this, but I didn't want to give up and battled to make it into the top 10. Hopefully we can enjoy some nice weather in the coming weeks as we put our focus on outdoors." 16 ZACH OSBORNE 2 nd 250SX Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Zach Osborne had a pretty crazy night in Vegas. He had a terrible heat race, then turned it around in the LCQ where he finished second to Colt Nichols to qualify for the main. In the main, he again found himself near Nichols, who was second early in the race. Osborne passed him for third with five laps to go, then chased down Mal- colm Stewart to finish second in the main. "The night show started pretty rough," Osborne said. "I crashed in the first turn in the heat race and had to go to the LCQ. I didn't fall in the first turn of the main but did get caught up in that little melee. I came from 17th to second—six seconds out of the win. I'm pretty happy with how it went and I feel like I rode well." 94 KEN ROCZEN 20 TH 450SX RCH Suzuki's Ken Roczen gave Ryan Dungey everything he could handle in the early laps of the main event, but the conditions caught him out and put him on the ground soon after he took the lead from Dungey. "It turned out to be a pretty big crap shoot with how much it rained but we made the best out of it," said Roczen. "I had a good heat race and was feeling strong. I had a good start in the main event and was able to make a pass happen for the lead. Unfortunately, I hit the wrong rut and went down. After that, my bike was really bent up and we couldn't get it straightened out so we had to call it a day."