Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 8 / FEBRUARY 25, 2017 GEORGIA DOME / ATLANTA, GEORGIA P62 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES This was the last AMA Supercross event ever to be held inside the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Mer- cedes Stadium, located next to the Dome, is replacing the Dome and will host the Atlanta Supercross next year. This was Ryan Dungey's last chance to join Jeremy McGrath and Ricky Carmichael each with five wins at the venue. Dungey's win put him right up there with Carmichael and McGrath, both of whom were on hand to watch the KTM rider match the record. The Geico Honda team had a week- end they'd like to forget in Atlanta. First, there's rookie Chase Sexton: Sexton was making his AMA pro debut in Atlanta after missing Minne- apolis the week prior due to broken wrists he suffered in the off-season. After setting the ninth-fastest time in the first timed qualifying session, he went down in the whoops and broke his femur. He'll be out at least through the end of the supercross series. And then during the night- time program, Christian Craig went down a couple times in his heat race, the second time of which was pretty hard in the whoops. He'll be out under concussion protocol until given the okay. Yamaha's Cooper Webb did not suit up in Minneapolis. He had a scary crash in his heat race in Minneapo- lis and landed really heavily on his left shoulder. At the time, the injury looked very serious, but accord- ing to Webb, it's just very heavily bruised, so there may not be any permanent damage. He believes he'll be back very soon to continue his rookie 450cc season. Monster Energy Yamaha's Chad Reed still knows how to go fast. The two-time supercross champ (2004 and 2008) was second quickest in qualifying and finished runner-up by just two seconds to Ryan Dungey in the first heat race. He got off to a fifth-place start in the main but dropped his bike when the back end slid out going into a turn while chas- ing Justin Bogle on the sixth lap. He got up in 13th and would finish out the race seventh. And speaking of Justin Bogle, the RCH Yoshimura Suzuki rider was having a great ride; he held fourth for much of the early part of the race before losing a few positions by half- way. That's when Marvin Musquin (Red Bull KTM) got aggressive with Bogle in a turn, sending Bogle to the ground. The Suzuki rider got up right away but the damage was done. Bogle ended up a disappoint- ing 17th. A 13th-place started ended Musquin's chances of a possible second win. He ended up fifth. JGR Suzuki's Matt Bisceglia was hoping to make his comeback from injury at Atlanta but chose to wait at least another week. Kyle Peters, once again, filled in for Bisceglia in the 250SX East and finished ninth. And speaking of the JGR team, 450SX rider Jake Weimer was on the fence about racing in Atlanta after hurting his lower back the week be- fore in Minneapolis. Extensive physi- cal therapy during the week paid off for Weimer and he was able to race in Atlanta. He won the LCQ to get into the main event where he finished 18th. The team's Weston Peick is still recovering from a lacerated kidney and a dislocated wrist that he suffered at the Arizona Supercross. Peick's teammate Justin Barcia got a 15th-place start in the main in Atlanta and couldn't do anything with it. He finished out the night 16th. Rocky Mountain ATV-MC KTM's Davi Millsaps did not suit up for the evening's program at Atlanta. Earlier in the day, Millsaps fell and injured his wrist. He reported on his Insta- gram account: Had a good crash in practice trying to dodge people in the whoops and went down. All good and should be back for next weekend… Colton Aeck, who had a scary crash at the Arlington, Texas Super- cross two weeks ago when another rider landed on him off a jump, says he's on the road to recovery after suffering two fractured vertebrae, a broken shoulder and multiple ribs. He said through Instagram: …had a rough couple days but really start- ing to do much better! I want to say thank you again to everyone who has donated to my cause, called, texted, prayed, or even just kept me in your thoughts. You guys are keeping me going through these hard days. God has a plan, and I'm only going to become stronger from this whole experience! I also want to give a big thank you to @ road2recovery for all their help throughout this time. Briefly...

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