Cycle News

SUPERCROSS MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES ROUND 1 / JANUARY 6, 2018 ANGEL STADIUM OF ANAHEIM / ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA P66 great." Barcia came into Anaheim I with a six-race deal to fill in for Davi Millsaps, but he might not be going anywhere after all. MISSING MILLSAPS Speaking of Millsaps, he did not suit up for the race. Last fall he suffered a head injury and is still dealing with that. He's hopeful things will come around in the next few weeks, but some people seem to think that we might not see him race again. Time will tell. DON'T BLAME THE BIKE Justin Hill had high hopes coming into Anaheim I. Hill more or less vacated his seat at the Monster Ener- gy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team when he went on a search for a 450 ride for 2018 but came up empty handed. Rather than re-signing with Pro Circuit, he moved over to the JGR Suzuki squad, the official factory Su- zuki racing team, which should give him an opportunity to move up to the 450SX class in 2019 within the same team. There were concerns about how good the motorcycle would be, since the platform for the RM-Z250 is almost 10 years old now, but despite his subpar performance in the main event at A-I, he was adamant that it wasn't the bike's fault. "The bike is phenomenal," Hill said after the race. "We're going to get up there. We're going to win races and I hope I can retain the title on it. There's no reason why we can't. It's a great machine. I'm sitting here and everybody's like, 'What's wrong? Is it this? Is it that?' It's not the bike. I can tell you that. I like it a lot." Hill qualified fastest in practice, so the speed is there, but he said he "gripped the motorcycle like an ape" and got arm-pump really bad in the main event. TRAMPLED UNDER BIKES JGR Suzuki's Phil Nicoletti came together with Adam Cianciarulo on the opening lap of the 250SX main event at Anaheim I. "I felt someone land on me, and I was just happy I didn't die," Cianciarulo said after the main event. Nicoletti went down, and likely would've been okay, except the whole pack was coming, and he was hit by a few motorcycles. He was slow to get up and called it a night right there. He said later: "Good thing about racing is that there's always next weekend. I'll do everything in my power to be ready for Houston." BLOSS BANGED UP Rocky Mountain ATV-MC KTM's Benny Bloss was leading the 450SX LCQ when he went down about in the same spot that Eli Tomac crashed in during the main event, but unlike Tomac, Bloss went direct- ly over the bars, and the bike drilled him into the hard Anaheim dirt. He was in a lot of pain and we don't yet know the extent of his injuries or his prognosis. EARLY NIGHT FOR MARTIN TLD/Red Bull KTM's Alex Martin started with his teammate Shane McElrath in the 250SX main event, but he made a few mistakes and lost some ground in the early going. Then late in the race, while running sixth, he went down hard and was unable to finish. He rode off the track and back to the pits. ENDO ENDS DEANO'S NIGHT Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Dean Wilson saw his time come to an early end when he endoed into the face of one of the track's two triple jumps. (You can watch it here.) He suffered a shoulder injury and will have it evaluated this week. CN Briefly...

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