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AARON PLESSINGER
250 MX / 5TH
IMAGE / LANG WORDS / HARNISHFEGER DESIGN / MOTOPLAYGROUND
>> Aaron Plessinger’s silly season continued one week ago at Muddy Creek. Your series points leader once showed glimpses of his old inconsistent past once again. He labored all day and only came away with a seventh overall. He just didn’t seem to have that speed and spunk to get to the front of the pack like he has had at times this year. In the races he has not won with 1-1 performances, he has nished third, sixth, and seventh. It’s quite unusual to see someone dominate convincingly some rounds and then struggle at other rounds. He seems unbothered though because he still has found a way to hold a twenty-nine-point points lead.
Plessinger’s odd struggles continued at the start of the day at Southwick. He failed to nd a nice rhythm in the morning qualifying practice sessions and only came away with the eleventh fast- est lap time of the class. Despite that, he remained con dent heading into the motos. Plessinger got off to a so-so start in the opening moto of the day. He started just outside the top ten but managed to climb to eighth by the end of lap one. The riders were spaced out a bit after the opening lap, so he was only able to climb to sixth by lap ve. He kept grinding and slowly started to nd his groove. At the halfway point he took advantage of mistakes from Chase Sexton and Justin Cooper to hop into fourth and that really seemed to open things up for him. He soon passed Shane McElrath for third as well and he then set his sights on the battle for
the lead involving Alex Martin and Austin Forkner. He quickly caught the two riders and made it a three-way battle for the lead. Plessinger seemed like the fastest rider on the track and it seemed like he might storm through both riders, but their speed leveled out. Each rider had their own moments when it looked like they might advance forward but on the last lap, a big mistake from Plessinger would take him out of the battle. He would still nish third, but a little frustration might have set in after being so close to possibly winning. Plessinger suffered again from a shaky start in moto two and would come around lap one in ninth. He hopped around rookies, Jordon Bailey and Challen Tennant, on lap three to take over seventh. He would then move a bit more forward on lap ve passing Jordon Smith for sixth but one lap later his team- mate, Dylan Ferrandis, would pass him and move him right back to seventh. From then on, Plessinger remained stagnant and could not make up any ground to make passes. He stayed in seventh until a few laps to go when he picked up a position due to a crash from Forkner. So then it looked like he’d nish sixth but on the nal lap, Mitchell Harrison would shock him and make a move pushing him back to seventh. He’d nish there and go 3-7 on the day for fth overall. Not a terrible day from Plessinger but another one that certainly leaves some people scratching their heads.
44 GRITMOTO • JULY 1, 2018