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/783081
SUPERCROSS MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD ROUND 5 / FEBRUARY 4, 2017 OAKLAND ALAMEDA COLISEUM / OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA P64 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD 250SX When you're hot, you're hot. Right now, Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki's Justin Hill is hot. Hill's teammate Austin Forkner actually snatched the holeshot to start the 250SX main event, but overcooked it going into the second turn on the track and went down, taking championship contender Aaron Plessinger down with him, along with nearly half the field. Rock- star Energy Husqvarna's Martin Davalos assumed the lead, but Hill was quickly by and began to pull away. Just when things seemed to be over with, just past halfway, Hill almost tossed the win away when he crashed in a tricky right-hand turn after he hit a piece of plywood that came up through the dirt. He was up quickly, and his bike was still running. Davalos caught him but was unable to pass him, and Hill began pulling away again, eventually winning by a little over eight seconds. "Tonight was crazy, because the track was real rutted and if you lost focus for just a second, you could cross-rut and go off the track," Hill said. "I actually had a big lead and came into a right-hander and there was a piece of wood in the rut. I couldn't see it, crashed and had to regroup. I just came in and it's blind around that Tuff Block there so you couldn't see it. And then it was just, 'Ah,' over. "I can't thank my team enough. They helped me through the day. I was sick all week. I didn't ride at all and they really helped me today with bike setup. Just made me feel confident." Davalos hung on for second, his best result of 2017 so far. "I'm definitely happy about getting on the podium," Davalos said. "I got a great start. The track was pretty gnarly out there. The lappers were crazy. I was trying to push and Justin was rid- ing a great race. I was trying my hardest to keep him honest. It was just tough. It just got so, so gnarly. The triple faces, the land- ings were having a lot of holes, so I'm very thankful that I got on the podium." Behind them, points leader Shane McElrath had his hands full with Geico Honda's Jimmy Decotis. The pair went down together in their heat race, and with the track breaking down like it did, they nearly had a few moments in the main event as well, but eventually TLD/Red Bull KTM's McElrath was able to hold off Decotis by just a couple of seconds to take third. "We've kind of done bad in some areas and better in other areas," McElrath said. "The way I have to look at it is everything we're dealing with is building us up. And that's the thing. The ultimate goal is not a champion- ship here—it's not anything in this class—it's to be where Ryan Dungey is, in the 450 class. Oakland 250SX Highlights