While the Grand Prix riders involved in the 2018 MXGP Motocross World Championship series raced away at the Autodromo Internazionale e Dino Ferrari at Piazza Ayrton Senna da Silva in Imola, Italy, back in Southern California, Aaron Plessinger was finishing up and finalizing his testing and training for what will likely be the most important race of both his life and career as in seven days’ time the gate will drop on the opening moto of the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations at RedBud MX in pastoral Buchanan, Michigan. It’s been one hell of a year for the racer from Hamilton, Ohio, Plessinger winning both the AMA 250SX West Region Championship as well as the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship 250MX National Championship. But that was then and this is now, and in the fierce reality that is professional motocross a rider is often times only as good as the last thing he does, and, well, upwards of 60,000 American motocross fans are hoping, expecting and demanding a win of Plessinger and his Yankee teammates Justin Barcia and Eli Tomac at the Motocross of Nations next Sunday afternoon in the Midwest.
On Sunday evening, and as the 22 year-old Plessinger was beginning to pack his bags for the slog back to Michigan, we spent a bit of time with the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star/Yamaha Racing 250cc pilot who will defend the American way of moto life from such competitors as Jorge Prado of Spain (Prado won the MXGP of Italy at Imola on Sunday), Ben Watson of Great Britain, Calvin Vlaanderen of Holland, Hunter Lawrence of Australia and Jago Geerts of Belgium.
No, I was actually at the Jason Aldean and Luke Combs concert. They played last night in Irvine. It was really good. My mechanic was going to the show so we figured we go on up there. It was awesome. It was a good time.
On Wednesday.
Oh yeah. I’ve been staying pretty busy. It has been a busy three weeks getting ready for this race. Yeah, I’ve been outing my motos in and getting ready for it.
Yeah, it’s been a little bit. It has felt like a long break, for sure. I’m really ready to get going.
Oh yeah. I’m more than excited. I don’t know… I think every time I think about it I get more and more excited about it.
I haven’t watched it just yet. I’ll probably catch up with it a little bit later. Yeah, Jorge Prado has been ripping, for sure. He and Pauls Jonass were going at it pretty good before Jonass got hurt. Prado will be a tough one.
Uhm, not really much about most of them. Obviously, Dylan Ferrandis and I race against each other. Hunter Lawrence came over here during the middle of his outdoor season in MX2 and was testing with Honda. He got to ride over at Pala and we got to ride with him a little bit. He’s a really good rider. I’m excited to see how it shapes up because those guys are really fast and they have some good skills and I can’t wait to see what they’ve got for me.
Yeah, definitely. I think the 450 guys can do wat they do and we’ve just got to do our best on the 250s, you know? We need to pass as many guys as we can coming off that start because I don’t know if we’ll match up to the factory 450 guys off the start. Those bikes are pretty fast. I mean we’ve got some fast 250s, but the 450 bikes are unreal up there. Yeah, we’re just going to have to dig deep and rip for 35 minutes and hopefully we come out ahead. I’m wanting a moto win! I hear they’re calling for some rain next weekend, so anything can happen.
Oh yeah. It’s a little sandy up there in Michigan, so it can handle a little more rain that Ohio can. You know I’m always down for a little mud.
Yeah, Justin Barcia and I have been riding quite a bit together and we did some motos at Pala together and we were on it, man. He was pushing me and I was pushing him and it was a good time. It was definitely beneficial for the both of us and I think we did some good motos and got some good work in, so I’m excited to see how Justin does too.
We’re both ecstatic about this race. I’ve haven’t seen Eli, but you know that guy, you know he’s putting in the work. He’s always putting in the work.
Yeah, it was kind of hard to get tickets and all that late notice, but yeah, I think a lot of people are going to be coming from Ohio up to Michigan and dressed in red, white and blue for you.
Yeah, it’s going to be unreal. I think they said that there will be close to 65,000 people there or something like that. That’s about 40,000 more fans than the National this year. I also know camping sold-out about two months ago, so it’s going to be one of the biggest races in the United States in a little while.
Yeah, obviously in qualifying I’m going to go for it, for sure. I’m going to try and establish my place in the MX2 class and then on Sunday, hopefully we get a real good gate pick. I’m just going to get the best start that I can and do whatever I can to get past the guys I need to and hopefully we’ll end up in front.
Oh yeah. It’s definitely fun pressure. I think we’ve got the best team on the track and I think we’re going to win it. That’s my prediction. I think we’re going to win it and I think RedBud is just going to blow the top off itself!
For more on the 2018 MXoN - CLICK HERE!
Type to Search
CLEAR SEARCH
Afghanistan
