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/683145
VOL. 53 ISSUE 20 MAY 24, 2016 P71 My Own Race: 31 RJ HAMPSHIRE 250MX 15 TH O/A (5-38) RJ Hampshire was another GEICO Honda rider who had a great first moto only to experience disappointment in the sec- ond moto. He finished an impressive fifth in the first moto, but in the second moto, washed out in a turn and ended trapped underneath his bike and had to wait for assistance. "The week- end didn't end too good but I'm taking positives from it," said Hampshire. "[I had a] solid first moto, ran fifth pretty much the whole time. The second moto I made some quick passes and ended up going down [and] my arm got stuck in the bike. That pretty much ended my moto. But I showed good speed and have a lot of positives to take out of the weekend." 4 BLAKE BAGGETT 450MX 11 TH O/A (3-19) Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Baggett finished a strong third in the first moto, which included re-passing Eli Tomac late in the race. Unfortunately for him, the second moto didn't end up nearly as well. "Moto one went about as good as it could get," said Baggett. "I charged from the back and fought hard to get a podium spot; I felt really good and that everything was working good. The second moto, I got a decent start and was working my way up through the pack, I needed one more spot to get on the podium for the overall, I was right on him [Trey Canard] and made a little mistake, caught a little rock and high-sided—it was slo-mo but a pretty big high-side, and ended up breaking my collarbone. We'll be back to fight again for sure." Baggett got up and finished the race in 19th. 7 JAMES STEWART 450MX 40 TH O/A (DNF-DNS) In general, it was a terrible day of Yoshimura Suzuki Team. They were looking forward to a fresh start with both James Stewart and Blake Baggett fully fit and ready to go, but both riders ended the day injured, and with Stewart's left arm in a sling. Stewart only got a few laps into the first moto before going down while running just outside the top 10. "Things didn't go the way I planned," Stewart said. "I had a decent practice, but got a horrible start [in the first moto]. I was just riding around trying to get comfortable; I came across the mechanic's area and the next thing I know I was grabbing onto my bike, trying to hug it [but] it knocked my hands off, went off a steep cliff [berm] and did something to my shoulder. I bummed, for sure, you keep putting in all this work and things keep happening, but I can't quit. As hard as it is right now, I refuse to believe that I'm done. I know I'm not done. I'm going to go back to work but I'm first going to see how bad my shoul- der is; hopefully I'll be back next week, we'll see, but I'll be back." 39 JORDON SMITH 250MX 7 TH O/A (2-16) GEICO Honda's Jordon Smith was the closest rider to Joey Savatgy for the entire first moto, logging a career-best second-place. In the second moto, he was running up front before getting taken out by Alex Martin. "My day went pretty good overall. I can only take positive away from it," said Smith. "We made some changes to my bike after practice—those guys killed it and the bike was great. I got a good start in the first moto, got up there and ran second the whole race. I felt good. Had another good one going in the second moto and…I ended up getting taken out. I just sort of struggled from there and finished 16th. I was running up front in both motos, had good starts and showed I had the speed, so I can just build on that."