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BLAKE BAGGETT
450 SX / 7TH
IMAGE / KILPATRICK WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> The 2018 AMA Monster Energy Supercross season has been tough on Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM rider Blake Baggett. Seemingly every time he gets a good start, he makes a mistake or crashes and all the other times he gets a bad start and gets stuck in the back of the pack. It must be frustrating for him because his speed has been right there with the leaders at both rounds so far but he has not been able to translate that into quality results yet. With a twelfth and seventh entering Anaheim 2, Baggett was ready to finally finish a night mistake free. Baggett put forth a decent qualifying effort during the morning practice sessions. The southern California native had the tenth fast- est lap time of the 450 class but was only seventh tenths of a second off the quickest time. His speed was there, and he was ready to put it on display during the three main events. Baggett got off to a nice start in the first main event of the evening. He put his machine into fourth after the first lap right behind JGR Suzuki’s Weston Peick. Baggett and Peick would stay glued to each other for most of this race with Baggett finally mak- ing a pass stick on lap seven. He then tried running down Justin Brayton in second but simply ran out of time. The third-place finish was a great start to the night and he’d look to continue performances just like that. Baggett started main event number two in fifth position almost just like the first one. He looked ready to have another top three push but instead he’d throw it away and go down. By the time he got back on his motorcycle, he had dropped all the way back to seventeenth place. Fired up after the crash, he started charging back up through the field. He would push all the way back to tenth place even passing Ken Roczen and Marvin Musquin in the final laps of the race. Look- ing to get back on track in the third main event, Baggett started a little further back than he’d like in eighth place. He stalked Cooper Webb during the first couple laps before passing him on lap three and then did the same to Vince Friese during the next two laps to take over sixth place on lap five. The rest of the race would be fairly quiet as he would not lose or gain another position the rest of the way. Baggett would end up with 3-10-6 main event scores earning him seventh overall matching his finish from Houston a week ago. Although he did have a strong third place finish in the first main event, consistency still shines as a chink in his armor and he’ll look to correct that again next weekend in Glendale.
26 GRITMOTO • JANUARY 21, 2018