CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 55 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 6, 2018 P61
KTM's Alex Martin for second,
and chasing down Geico Hon-
da's Christian Craig for the lead
only a couple laps later.
Plessinger is known to shine in
rutted conditions, and he was
only challenged in the final cou-
ple of laps as he ran out of wind,
and Savatgy and AutoTrader JGR
Suzuki's Justin Hill brought their
battle to his rear wheel. Ultimate-
ly, Savatgy won the battle with
Hill, but Plessinger won his third
main event of the series.
"I've been sick since Thursday,
and I thought I had the flu, but
I just had to work through it,"
Plessinger said. "It was probably
the hardest race I've ever done
in my life, but the guys tell me to
never quit, and I'm really working
on that this year." CN
up just fine. But probably the most
spectacular crash of the night
involved Kawasaki privateer Tyler
Bowers, who clipped a Tuff Block
and was ejected from his KX450F,
landed in a crumpled mess in the
Oakland dirt with just a couple laps
left in the 450SX main. He didn't
finish the main, but despite looking
like a boxer with a swollen left eye/
cheek, early reports are that he
got out of Oakland without major
injuries.
ANDERSON'S ENDO
Jason Anderson was luck to escape
injury from his crash during the
afternoon free practice session. "I
endoed so hard off of that thing,"
he said. "I got away from the bike
pretty good and kind of belly-
flopped down the back side, but my
bike just hit me in the back, so all
day my back was pretty sore. Hon-
estly, it kind of scared me because
the worst thing that can happen to
you on the track happened to me
in the first couple of laps, so I was
very hesitant all day. Even in my
heat race I wasn't that good. I was
a fifth-place guy in that heat race. I
really had to bring it around at the
end."
TOUGH LUCK
CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha's
Bradley Taft was coming off his
best finish of 2018 so far with a
sixth place in Glendale, Arizona,
but he went down hard in his heat
race and was forced into the LCQ.
There, Taft fought his way up into
a qualifying position, but then went
down again and failed to make
the main event. Similarly, Moto-
concepts SmarTop Honda's Jake
Briefly...
