Courtesy of RacerX

January 14, 2019 12:00pm

by Aaron Hansel

A back injury limited 450SX rookie Aaron Plessinger this off-season, but he still scored a sixth-place finish last weekend in the rain. This weekend he struggled and rode to an 11th.

Justin Bogle, the fill-in rider for Benny Bloss with the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS team, simply hasn’t had the practice time on the bike like the other riders had during the off-season. Bogle’s first day of testing on the 450 SX-F was on December 31, with A1 only a few days later. Bogle said the limited time on the bike has impacted his performance through the first two rounds.

We talked with both after Glendale.

AARON PLESSINGER | ELEVENTH IN 450SX

Aaron Plessinger: It was pretty rough. I didn’t really get a flow all day and struggled with bike setup. We changed a lot going into the heat races. I thought I rode pretty good for what it was. Considering the weather last week, this is kind of my first dry 450SX race. I think I rode solid, just didn’t get a good start. Then the restart did me dirty! I was pretty happy with the way I rode and getting out of here healthy is pretty important.

Racer X: On the restart, is it hard to get the blood flowing again?
That was my first one. It was a little weird, but I think the blood is pumping pretty good the whole time. You kind of cool down, your heart rate comes down a little bit, but you’re still in that race mentality, you’re still in it. It doesn’t change much, you just have to get that heart rate back up right off the bat. 

You’re two races down in 450SX now. Are there any specific things you can point at so far as being different than 250SX?
[Laughs] There’s not too many things different; overall you’re still racing dirt bikes. But going into the heat race, I was the ninth-fastest guy and they were all pretty much factory guys in front of me. It’s a lot… It’s a lot more. A lot more factory guys and a lot more speed. Cooper Webb and I, I was trying to catch him for tenth place. Usually when I was chasing him in the 250 days it would be for first. There’s a lot more talent out there.

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RacerX 2019 Glendale Supercross Insight