Page 14 - PULSE-4

The opening round of the 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Moto- cross season marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Hangtown Motocross Classic; a fitting send-off for what is set to be a classic season. It was a typical day at the track by California’s standards -- blue skies, glaring sunshine, and a rough track full of the world’s best motocrossers. The nerves were aplenty on the gate in anticipation of the first 250 moto and rookie competitor Justin Cooper stole the show
in the first moto as he led the first five laps ahead
of Osborne and Martin, but it was relatively short- lived as the Rockstar Husqvarna rider moved him out of the way towards the end of the lap. Cooper maintained good lap times behind the defending champion for twenty minutes of the first moto, but
he eventually dropped down to fifth place where he would finish. The fiery pace at the front forced Martin into a mistake, but he was able to remount his Geico Honda quickly and rebound for a second place result. Meanwhile, Aaron Plessinger made the best out of a sixth place start and pushed from the gate drop to the checkered flag, stealing third place from Austin Forkner in the waning stages of the race. The second moto ended up similar in the results column, although the thirty-five minutes that preceded the checkered flag was quite different. Aaron Plessinger started out at the front and quickly dropped back out of the top three, giving way to Martin and Osborne. The two of them battled for the lead throughout
the opening portion of the race, but nobody was a match for the #1 rider as he collected a perfect fifty points at the end of round one with the Martin broth- ers rounding out the podium. The usual suspects jumped to the front of the 450 class as the first lap action settled down in the opening race -- Jason An- derson led briefly, but he was quickly overtaken by his training partner, Marvin Musquin. Nonetheless,
it wasn’t long until Tomac came knocking, barging past the Red Bull KTM rider at the halfway point of the race, never looking back. The second moto was put on a platter for the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna of Jason Anderson as Musquin and Tomac both struggled with poor starts and early mistakes, find- ing himself in the lead on the third lap. He stayed clear of Justin Barcia and Ken Roczen, but it only took until the fifteen minute mark for Musquin and Tomac to reel him in. It appeared that they were on
S DOWN...a more even playing field in the second moto, but the Kawasaki rider found another gear in the late
stages and really turned it up, taking the checkered flag with an advantage of more than six seconds to secure a commanding lead in the championship.
14 THE PULSE • ISSUE FOUR
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