WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 54 ISSUE 16 APRIL 25, 2017 P101
kner was relegated to third by TLD Red
Bull KTM's Shane McElrath, who gave
chase to Plessinger; McElrath's teammate
Mitchell Oldenberg went to work following
Hill through the field.
And then it happened: Plessinger, all by
himself, got a little off-line in the whoops,
skipped a whoop with his front wheel,
and went down hard while in full control of
the main event. The crash put Plessinger
out of the race with a reported shoulder
injury, leaving only McElrath—now leading
the race—mathematically still able to chal-
lenge Hill for the championship.
A few laps later, Forkner also went
down in the whoops when Kawasaki
privateer Ryan Surratt seemed to uninten-
tionally drift toward Forkner in the whoops
for a moment as he was being lapped,
throwing off Forkner's rhythm. He'd get
up in fifth and eventually finish sixth.
As the laps began winding down,
Shane McElrath got
back to his winning
ways in the 250SX
West final.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/SIMON
CUDBY
Mitch Oldenburg
got on the
250SX West
podium for the
first time.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KTM
IMAGES/SIMON
CUDBY
