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/941070
CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 55 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 13, 2018 P55 I was going to come out pretty decent, but I don't know what happened in the middle of the pack there, but I tried to go up the jump after the first turn, and I was stuck. I couldn't go. Look- ing at the video later, Roczen and Eli kind of came in hot into the first turn and collected Eli, and knocked Eli over, and it was a domino effect. He ended up getting his throttle stuck in my back wheel or whatever. So, his bike was stuck wide-open and I twisted my knee. It's sore [but] I'm good. I'm just bummed for both of us, because we were sitting there in 21st and 22nd and we hadn't even gone three seconds into the main event." SAVING THE SEASON Joey Savatgy hurt his left hand in the first practice of the day, but afterward he put in the gutsi- est effort of the day to not only go out and score points with a fourth-place finish, but to actually make up ground on champion- ship rival Aaron Plessinger. "It was just a simple tip-over," Savatgy said of his crash in prac- tice. "I washed the front end out, and the bike was on an incline, so it kind of just rolled back over on top of me, and I was stuck underneath it. At that point, I was just waiting for the flagger, or whoever it was, to pick up the motorcycle so I could wiggle out from under it and get back on it, and before I could even do anything, I was in a lot of pain. When he picked the bike up, he twisted the throttle wide open, and he didn't have the clutch in, so the tire caught the ground and tore across my hip and went into my hand. It ripped my wrist brace off and tore through the glove, so the biggest thing for me at the time was I couldn't feel my hand and my wrist area. I've broken bones before, and I know when you break something, you get that numb feeling, so that's really what scared me was that I couldn't feel my fingers and my wrist. Thankfully nothing was broken, but we decided to sit out second practice because we needed more time. I didn't have enough time in between to get my hand under control. We took that extra two hours or whatever to get that thing as good as we could, and I went out there and just put in like two or three laps. All I wanted to do put a lap time in so I could make it into the night show, then let it rest and take it from there. As bad as today went, and with all the obstacles, we took three points out of the championship lead. It's a long series, but if tonight's another one of our 'bad nights' I'll take it. Absolutely." BROC BREAKS THROUGH Broc Tickle had his best perfor- mance of the year. "Coming into the season, the goal was to be in the top five, and I knew that was attainable, because I've been rid- ing really good," Tickle said. "I've been making progress in the off-season riding with Marv [Mus- quin] and Zach [Osborne]. Every day, we're pushing each other, so for me, that's kind of what I Briefly... got by Savatgy, too, then began to reel Cianciarulo back in. Finally, after chasing Cianciarulo for about 10 laps, Hill made a pass stick. He and Cianciarulo went back and forth a few times before Hill could finally hold on to the lead, then he pulled away to take his first win of the series on his new Suzuki mount. Cianciarulo finished second, while Geico Honda's Chase Sexton came through for third in the end, just edg- ing out the injured Savatgy. Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha's Aaron Plessinger, after a fall at the end of the whoops, ended up seventh, which meant that Savatgy pulls to within five points of