Page 16 - GRIT-84

BLAKE BAGGETT
450 MX / 4TH
IMAGE / LANNAN WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> The 2018 outdoor season has been an odd one to judge for Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM’s Blake Baggett. We saw him win some motos and overalls convincingly last season and after coming off a career season in Supercross this season, many expected him to have another great outdoors, but it has not really come to fruition. He has not having a bad season by any means, but he only has one overall podium so far after seven rounds. Certainly, the kind of results from a rider that was pinned as a title favorite heading into the summer. With that said, his worst nish is only a seventh, so he was consistently been up at the front but just not always in the top three. After a week off, Baggett will look to kick off the second half of the season with some re and nish it out strong. Baggett kicked things off in Millville with a nice pair of morning qualifying practice sessions. The number four machine managed to throw down the fth fastest time of the class. He was right around where he has been all season, so everything was in order. He would look to get out to a quick start in moto and get the ball rolling. Baggett didn’t nail the holeshot, but he did position himself in a solid fourth place by the end of lap one. On that opening lap, he did a great job averting disaster after getting sketchy in the sand rollers and hopping off the track. He obviously saved it and quickly got back in the fray. He was positioned behind the Musquin, Tomac, and Roczen. Usually this season all three of those guys have been able to break away from him, but Baggett wasn’t having it this time. He stayed attached to those top three guys for quite some time and it paid off when he was able to slip into third after a Musquin crash. He would stay within shouting distance of the top two for a little bit longer but in the nal stages of the moto, he fell off just a touch. The third- place nish in the moto was impressive for him and it gave him a little jolt of con dence again. He would look to improve once again in moto two.Moto two started similarly for Baggett as he rounded lap one in fourth once again. This time he was able to move into third quicker by passing Justin Bogle on lap two. He wasn’t able to enjoy it for long though because Tomac came blasting by the following lap. This put Baggett back in fourth and
it was basically a repeat of moto one. He stayed just outside the battle for the majority of the race and was able to keep them in sight. This time he wouldn’t be able to capitalize on any moves, but he was able to stay close for longer than he has all season. He would nish there in fourth and bring back fourth overall with his 3-4 moto scores. This makes his third fourth overall in a row, so you have to think that sooner or later, he will have that breakthrough and get back on the box.
16 GRITMOTO • JULY 22, 2018