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Blake Baggett came into Toronto looking to improve on only his second main event of the year last week at Daytona in which he finished 13th. He would match his main event finish from last week with his qualifying effort in Toronto with the 13th fastest time. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider wanted to be a
little faster during qualifying but looked to make the proper adjustments heading into the night show.
Blake Baggett flew out of the gate in his heat race and got out into 4th place early. He would not be able to hold back the charging German Ken Roczen and was moved back outside of a transfer position in 5th place. That spot is where Baggett would stay the rest of the race and that meant he was onto the semis. At the start of the semis Baggett would hit the gate and watch the rest of field take off in front of him. But to Baggett’s delight, the AMA officials determined there was a gate malfunction and red flagged the race. It was a big break for Baggett who would have likely had to go to the LCQ. He took full advantage on the restart and got out to a third place start. He then quickly moved into 2nd where we would stay and finish the race transferring into the main event.
The main event did not start how Baggett would have liked as he came around the first turn mid pack and then got caught up in the carnage in the first rhythm lane. He got hung up on Jason Anderson and Justin Bogle. That forced him way outside the top 10 after lap one and knew he had to start making moves. He moved up to 12th by lap 6 and would hover there for a majority of the race. He didn’t get lazy sitting in 12th, he kept putting in solid laps and it eventually paid off when he was able to steal 11th place from Vince Friese with three to go. That pass would be Baggett’s last of the race and he would finish a season best 11th place. It was an improvement from Daytona last weekend as he is slowly getting back to form after a series of injuries to start the season.
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