Cycle News

SUPERCROSS MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS ROUND 9 / MARCH 3, 2018 MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUM / ATLANTA, GEORGIA P58 25 MARVIN MUSQUIN 2ND (4-5-1) 450SX Marvin Musquin won the final main event on the evening, securing sec- ond overall in the 450SX class. It was his fourth second-place finish in a row. "I thought it was going to be a long night for me," Musquin said. "My starts were not good the first and second motos. I mean, the first moto was good; I was the fastest, and I was able to catch those guys, but it was too short to make a pass. The second moto was really bad; I was pretty far back and made some passes, and ended up fifth. That's too many points. Finally, at the end, in the third moto, I was able to get a good start and get into the lead, and then rode like I was myself. I was riding happy. I could see Eli [Tomac] behind me, but I just tried to be consistent. I enjoyed it that third moto. I was really happy on the bike, and physically it was good. It's good to win. It's a second place. We're losing some points in the championship, and the goal is to make up points, but we tried our best." Musquin trails Anderson by 42 points with eight rounds left in the championship. 21 JASON ANDERSON 1ST (2-1-4) 450SX Jason Anderson notched his fourth win of the series in Atlanta, match- ing Eli Tomac's total for the year, but more importantly, he extended his points lead. "I've really been trying to prevent those issues and put myself in a better position, and it worked," Anderson said of staying out of trouble. "In the last race, the track was so gnarly, and I'm so glad that I didn't really have to push it too hard. I had a tough time all day, but when it came to the racing part, I was a lot better, and I'm excited, you know?" 34 WESTON PEICK 12TH (19-8-7) 450SX Weston Peick suffered a big crash in practice that would've sent most people to the hospital. But Peick isn't most people. "Atlanta was not a good race for me," he said. "I literally ejected off the face of the triple in practice. I don't know if I caught a Tuff Block with my foot or with my handlebars. My front end was ripped out of my hands. It was so fast that I don't know what happened. I landed on both feet and jacked up my left heel and right shoulder pretty badly. I pulled off early in the final practice session and forgot that it was the Triple Crown format, so I had to go to the LCQ. I won and got a bit of a flow. In the first main event, I had a good start, but another rider crashed into me. I had two good starts in the final mains and finished inside the top 10. It was not the night we wanted, but after the crash I had in practice I was happy to get out of the building in 12th overall." 46 JUSTIN HILL 22ND (20-21-21) 450SX Justin Hill (Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki) ended up with three DNFs on the night. "The day went well, all of the way up to the first main event," he said. "I lost focus on the start and was caught up in a lot of garbage in the second rhythm section. A rider crashed in front of me, and I got caught in the carnage. Then I went over the bars and my bike was tweaked up. I feel like I could have held the lead pace off, because it wasn't that intense. In the second main, I had an outside gate choice, but I started working through the field. I was making a lot of time on the triple-triple section, because I don't think anyone else was doing it. Unfortunately, I cross-rutted off the face and it pulled the handlebars right out of my hands. I made the split-second decision to bail. It would have been really bad if I had tried to ride it out. I landed feet-first, and because there was another jump right after that I couldn't land and fold up. I'm lucky in that I had great boots on that saved my ankles from seri- ous damage."

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