ATLANTA – The AMA Supercross Championship entered the second half of its 17-round series on Saturday with an eventful Triple Crown format for Round 9. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team’s Marvin Musquin ended the night on a positive note by claiming victory in the third and final 450SX Main Event to secure 2nd overall in Atlanta. Additionally, Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jordon Smith earned his best finish of the season with 3rd overall in the highly competitive 250SX East division.
Showcasing three Main Events in lieu of the normal heat race to Main Event format, Round 9 mixed things up in both classes. In the 450SX class, Musquin had a strong start to the day as he claimed the fastest qualifying time of the afternoon to give him a boost of confidence heading into the three-race Main Event format. In Main Event #1, Musquin didn’t get off to the best start but he worked his way through the pack to put himself inside the top five just after the halfway point. With two laps to go, Musquin grabbed one more position to ultimately finish 4th in the first race.
In Main Event #2, Musquin began around the top-ten as he was forced to come through the pack once again. Musquin wasn’t able to make it up to the top-five until late in the race where he ran out of time, finishing a hard-fought 5th place.
Musquin was able to finish strong in the third and final Main Event of the night, this time putting his KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION into the 3rd place position off the start. Musquin took advantage of his good start position and continued to move forward until he overtook the lead on lap five. From there, Musquin maintained a solid position to take his first Main Event win since the opening round. With combined scores of (4-5-1), Musquin earned 2nd overall in Atlanta.
Musquin: “It was a great track; the dirt was amazing and they made it super technical. I had the fastest qualifying time in the afternoon, which is awesome but my starts were not so good tonight. It’s really frustrating when you know you have the speed and you’re behind those guys. Luckily, I was able to regroup for the last moto and we put ourselves in a better position off the start, I was more outside and I was top three right away. I was really happy about my riding tonight except for the starts in the first two motos. It was great to put myself on the 2nd overall, which is good considering my first two results of the night. I’m losing points on the championship [to Jason Anderson] – that is the bad point of today – but the riding is good.”
Rocky Mountain ATV*MC – WPS – KTM’s Blake Baggett had a strong start to the day as well, earning a 3rd place finish in the first Main Event of the night, followed by a 4th place finish in the second race. However, Baggett went down in the third Main Event and wasn’t able to finish the race due to a wrist injury.
It was a tough day for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Broc Tickle, who experienced bad luck in all three races of the night, resulting in 19th place overall.
Tickle: “All around it was a tough night once racing started. Basically, out of three starts I had three crashes, so not a good night. Not sure what ladder I walked under this week as I feel like I just kept having bad luck with every race. It’s definitely not how I wanted my Atlanta Supercross to go. It’s such a shame because I had a good week training and made some positive bike set-up changes. I was really happy with how it all went this week so definitely not the results I was expecting tonight.”
Next Race: Daytona, Florida – March 10, 2018
Combined Main Event Results 450SX Class Atlanta 2018
1. Jason Anderson (2-1-4), Husqvarna
2. Marvin Musquin (4-5-1), KTM
3. Eli Tomac (5-3-2), Kawasaki
4. Justin Brayton (1-6-6), Honda
5. Christian Craig (6-7-5), Honda
Other KTM
7. Blake Baggett (3-4-18), KTM
19. Broc Tickle (22-14-19), KTM
Standings 450SX Class 2018 after 9 of 17 rounds
1. Anderson, 207
2. Musquin, 165
3. Baggett, 150
4. Brayton, 144
5. Tomac, 137
Other KTM
9. Tickle, 118
20 Bloss, 39
Combined Main Event Results 250SX East Class Atlanta 2018
1. Austin Forkner (1-2-1), Kawasaki
2. Zach Osborne (1-3-5), Husqvarna
3. Jordon Smith (3-4-6), KTM
4. RJ Hampshire (7-5-4), Honda
5. Jeremy Martin (6-10-1), Honda
Other KTM
14. Sean Cantrell (14-15-13), KTM
26. Anthony Rodriguez (10-13-21), KTM
Standings 250SX East Class 2018 after 9 of 17 rounds
1. Osborne, 70
2. Forkner, 68
3. Hampshire, 57
4. Smith, 55
5. Nichols, 54
Other KTM
14. Cantrell, 26
16. Rodriguez, 21
