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SUPERCROSS ROUND 13 / APRIL 7, 2018 CENTURY LINK FIELD / SEATTLE, WASHINGTON P58 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS kind of had a few decent runs. I was in an easy fifth and just tried to main- tain that. I thought, 'Man, this clutch is going.' Unfortunately had to try and save it, save it, save it. Cooper [Webb] was pushing at the end there and I'm like, 'It's the last lap, I'm going to have to go.' But it just was slipping, slip- ping. It is what it is. It's still my best race of the year. I had a blast out there. Would have loved a good start to try to go with the leaders." Reed ended up seventh even though he didn't technically pass the finish-line flagger, because Tomac had lapped eighth-place finisher Blake Baggett. 20 BROC TICKLE 4TH 450SX Broc Tickle scored his best finish of the year in Se- attle, finishing a solid fourth inside a stadium where, in rutted (but not nearly as muddy) conditions, he won his first 250SX supercross. "It's always exciting to come to Seattle, I got my first win here in 2010 and I've always enjoyed the tough conditions here," Tickle said. "Tonight was pretty good for me, I was excited to see the rain but it ended up being really tough to ride in. I know I'm really good in those conditions just by being patient, taking my time and not getting too far ahead of myself, and I felt like I did so tonight and I was consistent." 69 TYLER BOWERS 6TH 450SX Tyler Bowers, who is filling in for Josh Grant at Kawa- saki, was the last guy to pass Chad Reed, in the final turn of the race, to snatch sixth place—easily his best finish of the season. "Honestly, I was so focused on Cooper [Webb] because I caught up to Cooper and was on him," Bowers said. "I couldn't really make the move. He was smoking like crazy and I couldn't really see because I lost my goggles at the beginning. I saw Chad [Reed], I thought he was a lapper, honestly. You didn't know who was a lapper and who was in front of you at that point. So I was just pinning it. I smoked my clutch in the heat race, so I knew I had to kind of limp it through the day. I got a horrible start and was just trying to be easy on the bike. Everybody else, I think when their clutches started to go, I was right there. It was hard. I saw Chad, like he was racing me for it and I'm like, 'He's got to be a lapper.' I thought he was just mad about the St. Louis thing. For him to kind of tip it over at the end, I was kind of thankful." 25 MARVIN MUSQUIN 3RD 450SX Marvin Musquin is normally a very strong mud rider, and he won his heat race going away. But in the main event, Musquin couldn't quite hang with the leading duo. He ended up third behind Anderson, and gave up another two points in the championship chase with only four rounds left to run. "Well, obviously the track guys did a great job on the track, fixing it," Musquin said. "So we were able to go through the track pretty good at the beginning. Obviously it got deeper and deeper in the ruts, especially in the finish line and crossing the starting line, but I'm a little disappointed. I got a great start, but the speed wasn't there. My intensity, I was too timid and too cautious. I should have taken more risks. But obviously I was just trying to be consistent and stay on two wheels. The other guys were just faster. A little bit of a bummer, losing points in the championship." finished second at the Agusta National. MUD TRICKS Mud presents challenges for not only the riders, but their mechanics as well, as they spend considerable time preparing the race machines for the difficult conditions. To get Christian Craig's number-32 factory Honda CRF450R race bike ready, his me- chanic Rich Simmons added thin foam under both the front and rear fenders, inserted foam under the rear-brake pedal, installed mesh Twin Air radiator covers, and mounted a solid skid plate, while Showa put a sleeve on the rear shock and "ski covers" on the bottoms of the fork legs. "The ultimate goal is to try and keep as little mud as possible from packing onto the bike," Simmons explained. "Tonight was stressful to say the least, especially getting the bike prepped after the heat race. The turn- around time was less than 30 minutes, and we had to wash the bike outside before coming back in and swapping the clutch out. I honestly didn't know if we were going to have enough time. It was all hands on deck, so luckily with the help of everyone, it worked out." RATING THE SEATTLE MUDDER Jeremy Albrecht, team manager for the Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki squad, has seen a lot of races over the years and rates the Seattle mudder as one of the worst. "In terms of races that I've been to over the years, Seattle was up there with being one of the most difficult I've been to," he said. "The Hangtown National in the 1990s was worse, but it [Seattle] was harder than Daytona in 2008. Even though there wasn't as much standing water, the dirt was extremely sticky and rutted." Briefly...

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