Page 19 - PULSE FEBRUARY 2018

M
After winning
the AMA 250
Pro Motocross
Championship
in 2012, Blake
Baggett was
viewed by many as
a bit of an outdoor
mostoutdoorsyofalltheSXtracks). In2016,hedidn’tracethefullSX season and he suffered an injury to his collarbone at the beginning of the outdoor season, hindering him from displayingthefullarrayofhistalents at any point throughout the season. Baggett was looking for a fresh start in 2017 and he found exactly that with Forest Butler’s Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM team. He immediately
with the KTM and showed steady improvement throughout the season, earning the team’s first premier class podium at the
eighth round of the season in Atlanta. Although Baggett didn’t land on the podium for the remainder of the SX season, it was obvious to anyone that had followed him throughout his career that he has grown leaps and bounds as a supercross rider. His consistency has improved and he scored multiple top five finishes to end the season, and if it wasn’t for an injury to his thumb in the middle of the Pro Motocross season, he would have most likely challenged Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin for the title. After taking the time during the off-season to have the ligaments in his thumb mended, Baggett will be moving into the 2018 season with newfound confidence and fitness. Can he continue to make strides forward and snag the first 450 SX victory of his career?
specialist. Riders such as Mike Alessi had set the precedent beforehand as a rider that
is able to excel
on an outdoor
track, but doesn’t
seem to show
the same speed
in a supercross
setting. Baggett’s
speed and fitness
were never a
question, and
although the
Californian had
stood on the top of the podium in 250 SX before, he never showed the potential to put it together for an entire season. Mistakes were aplenty and starts were few and far between, therefore prohibiting him from showcasing his full potential on a supercross track. It’s not as if Baggett was getting poor results; it was more or less that he set the bar so high during the nationals that anything short of a podium was considered underwhelming. Not only that, but he spent the majority of his 250 career under the Pro Circuit Kawasaki canopy, and Mitch Payton has certain expectations of his riders. Baggett made the move to the 450 class in 2015 on the Factory Yoshimura Suzuki team, and the only podium that he was able to grab that year was at Daytona, (the
seemed to find “The450classisastackedhis footing
class. All of the premiere riders are fighting to prove themselvesinordertorace intheprofessionalranks and you can never count anyone out.
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