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/830616
MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND 2 / MAY 27, 2017 GLEN HELEN RACEWAY / SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA P76 The guys at Honda have to be wondering who's cursing them by this point. Christian Craig, filling in for the MX Nationals for injured Ken Roczen, had a fantastic ride in the first moto to finish fourth, and he was running third late in the sec- ond moto when he washed out the front end of his factory CRF450R and went down, punching the ground with his fist. He ended up with what's known as a "boxer's break," which is when you break your metacarpal in your hand that leads to your pinky. Boxers typically get this break when they swing and catch somebody with just their pinky knuckle. He got it plated on Monday after the race, and the prognosis surprisingly is that, at this point, he might be ready to race by High Point, at round four, since there's a week off between rounds three and four. Boxer's Break can be healed enough for use in as little as two weeks. But although that's a perfect scenario for Craig, don't be sur- prised if it takes him a week or two longer than High Point before he's behind the gate again. Geico Honda's Cameron McAdoo had a huge crash in the second 250MX moto that put him out of the race. Luckily, he was not injured. "Glen Helen was a rough one for us," said McAdoo. "My bike broke in moto one, but in moto two I was finally up in the fight and feeling pretty good. About 25 minutes into the moto I hit neutral off the face of a jump that had some ruts and kick- ers, which resulted in a pretty big crash ending my day. It was not fun! Glad I'm healthy and we will be out there fighting next weekend!" The hills at Glen Helen came under scrutiny from some of the riders in the press conference, too. They said the hills were "sketchy" because they were so incredibly rough. Apparently, Glen Helen didn't groom the hills after amateur day, which made them even worse. "I think I'd rather have them either way too rough, so you can't go fast, or just smooth," Blake Baggett said af- ter the race. "It's scary when they're like this, though, because you need to go fast, but those things will kick you." Glen Helen heard the com- plaints and groomed the lower part of the hills for the second motos, and the racers were much happier. Monster Energy Yamalube Chap- arral Yamaha's Cooper Webb is having a bit of a tough go of it so far in his first 450MX National MX Se- ries. The reigning 250MX National Champ got 10th in the first moto at Glen Helen, but dropped out pretty early in the second moto with undis- closed physical ailment. Geico Honda's Jeremy Martin was upset after the second moto at Glen Helen. He went down when he hit a slick spot while leading the race on the opening lap of the first moto and wasn't happy about it. "We did the sighting lap," Martin said, "and there was some water down in that corner, but then when I came around lead- ing, you know, you're trying to put in the fastest lap possible on the first lap when you're leading like that, and I come around, and that corner was way wetter than it was during the sighting lap. They watered it after the sighting lap. I mean, what's the point of a sighting lap if they're going to change the track after the lap is over?" The AMA made an exception to allow the entire Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki Team to wear the same number on the front number plate of their bikes. Adam Ciancia- rulo, Joey Savatgy, Justin Hill and Austin Forkner wore the number 69 in honor of Nicky Hayden. Briefly... cont. on page 78