VOL. 53 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 P53
rider who hasn't actually raced
a 450 championship yet. Mar-
tin had only ever been to the
Nations as a member of team
Puerto Rico and Jason An-
derson was a complete MXoN
rookie, coming back from injury
that meant he had only raced
once since June. To say there
were question marks about this
team's ability to win would be an
understatement, but like with all
American teams, you knew that
they would fight to the very end
to try and make it happen.
Webb and Anderson are both
known as aggressive riders
anyway and both were coming
in with points to prove. Webb
wanted revenge for last year's
defeat and to renew his battle
with fellow Yamaha rider Romain
Febvre, while Anderson wanted
to prove he was the right choice
as the third rider and just gener-
ally show the rest of the world
who he is. Martin is definitely a
more reserved personality but
one who was no less determined
to end the year on a high note,
after what has been an incred-
ible 2016 for the older Martin
brother.
And yet, while some might
see their third place as failure for
Team USA, many more will look
at these riders' performances
in truly adverse conditions and
be proud of what they were able
to accomplish, even if they did
come up two laps short.
Qualification day was an
absolute disaster, with the team
actually fortunate that they didn't
