Page 44 - ISSUE_77

BLAKE BAGGETT
450 MX / 5TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Blake Baggett enjoyed one of his best 450 Supercross seasons to date. We saw him ghting up near the front more often than not and that led many to believe he’d have a smooth transition into the outdoor nationals. He stayed relatively injury free throughout the Supercross season and ended it on a little hot streak with back to back podium nishes at the nal two rounds. Many were excited to see him contend for the outdoor championship when they lined them up at round one here at Hangtown.
Baggett strung together some solid outings in the morning practice qualifying sessions. He looked cool, calm and collected on his way to notching the sixth fastest lap time of the day. A good placing but the one problem was that he was a full three seconds off the fastest time set by Eli Tomac. Baggett would have to nd some extra juice in the motos if he wanted a chance at the round one victory.
Not typically known for getting good starts, Baggett held true to that narrative in moto one as he emerged from the opening lap buried in tenth place. He made an early move on Bradley Taft for ninth before locking in behind JGR Suzuki’s Weston Peick. Baggett rode behind Peick for quite some time which surprised some people who thought he would make a quick charge to the front but Peick was riding very well. Baggett would actually lose some ground to Peick a couple laps into the race and get stuck behind Peick’s teammate Phil Nicoletti. Baggett would get by him on lap six to move into seventh and then endured a rather quiet rest of the race. He kept the riders in front of him in sight but just could not really get close enough to engage in healthy battles. That changed with about two laps to go when he reeled
in the returning Ken Roczen. Baggett threw everything he had at the Honda HRC rider and appeared to have the pass made on numerous occasions but Roczen held stingy and the two nished wheel to wheel. Baggett did not make the pass and had to swallow the seventh-place nish.
Baggett’s start in moto two was unfortunately as poor as his start from the rst moto. This time he round- ed the rst lap in eleventh position. But unlike the rst moto, he quickly got to work charging to the front. By lap four he was up to eighth place and then he leapfrogged both Benny Bloss and Weston Peick on the following lap to take over sixth. He looked like a totally different rider in this second moto. He contin- ued his charge forward by passing Roczen and moving into fth on lap seven. He was on an island when he got up there because he was just off the lead group and just ahead of the group of riders behind him but his didn’t discourage him. He continued his strong pace and it paid off when Anderson started to slip backwards, and he was able to capitalize and blow right by him with three laps to go. Baggett took over fourth and would hold it to the checkers. His 7-4 moto scores earned him fth overall and that second moto seemed to get his mojo back so look for him to perform well next weekend at Glen Helen.
44 GRITMOTO • MAY 21, 2018