Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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SUPERCROSS MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD ROUND 2 / JANUARY 14, 2017 PETCO PARK / SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA P54 Davalos in fifth, just in front of Decotis. Then came Geico Honda's Jeremy Martin, after falling on the opening lap. JGR Suzuki's Phil Nicoletti came in eighth, then came Yamaha's Hayden Mellross, Munn Rac- ing's Josh Hansen, and Yama- ha's Tyler Bowers at the tail end of the lead lap. Yamalube/Star Racing Ya- maha's Dan Reardon ran third early in the main event before a fall relegated him to an eventual 17th place. CN 450SX 1. Ken Roczen (Hon) 2. Ryan Dungey (KTM) 3. Marvin Musquin (KTM) 4. Jason Anderson (Hus) 5. Cole Seely (Hon) 6. Eli Tomac (Kaw) 7. Weston Peick (Suz) 8. Davi Millsaps (KTM) 9. Chad Reed (Yam) 10. Justin Bogle (Suz) 250SX West 1. Shane McElrath (KTM) 2. Justin Hill (Kaw) 3. Aaron Plessinger (Yam) 4. Martin Davalos (Hus) 5. Austin Forkner (Kaw) 6. James Decotis (Hon) 7. Jeremy Martin (Hon) 8. Phillip Nicoletti (Suz) 9. Hayden Mellross (Yam) 10. Josh Hansen (Hus) has a lot of work still in front of him. "I don't know if it's so much the speed, just knowing where I was at physically," Hill said. "I didn't have a lot of time to get into race shape. Obviously last weekend I didn't ride good. I didn't push. I was in shape enough to ride with the guys. My dad, my brother and my mechanic were all just pumping it in me: 'You can do it. You can do it. Just get over the pain.' And that's what I did tonight. I was tired, definitely. Still need some work on fitness because we haven't had a lot of time, but I think it was just I got over my- self mentally and could do it." And for Plessinger, it's his second podium in a row, but in a short, nine-race series cham- pionship, he knows he has to start beating McElrath to take home the title. "The track kind of played in our favor a little bit," Plessinger said. "It was definitely good for passing, especially in the whoops. A lot of people were messing up and swapping sideways so we capitalized on that. And then we just clicked off laps. It was lap after lap and me and Justin were pretty much the same time every lap. We were just passing people left and right... It was one of the harder Supercross races I've raced, but these guys are great and they earned their spots." Hill's rookie teammate Austin Forkner came home behind There was one particular turn dur- ing the daytime qualifying sessions that kept biting people. It was a rhythm section that led into a left- hand 180 turn prior to the whoops. The first big name to bite the dust there was TLD/Red Bull KTM's Mitch Oldenburg, who went over the bars into the berm, resulting in a broken collarbone in the first 250 qualifying practice. Then, in the sec- ond and final 250 qualifying prac- tice, it was Geico Honda's Jeremy Martin who went down spectacu- larly into the turn. Martin was very, very lucky he didn't get hurt, as he managed to bounce completely off of the heavy-padded Tuff Blocks both in the turn and alongside the track's triple, which sat on the op- posite side of the berm. And then finally, when Suzuki privateer folk hero Jimmy Albertson went down in the same spot, bringing out a red flag for the final 450 qualifying prac- tice of the day, Feld and Dirt Wurx modified the section and there were very few problems there throughout the rest of the event. A week earlier in Anaheim, there were quite a few teams who had to return repeatedly to the AMA sound- Briefly...