Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing’s Supercross rookie Blake Baggett turned in the strong ride in the greater New York City area on Saturday as 60,582 fans packed into the MetLife Stadium for the penultimate round of the AMA/ FIM World Supercross series.
Baggett’s result of fourth aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki RM-Z450 was his fourth top-five finish of the year and marked his best finish since his Daytona Supercross podium in early March; moving him up in the standings one more spot to fifth with just a single round remaining.
Baggett kicked-off his day at the Meadowlands by qualifying ninth in the combined timed qualifying sessions.
“After practice we definitely know what we need to work on,” Baggett explained. “We’ll make some changes to the bike before the Heat races and hopefully those will go in the right direction. We’ll see what I’ve got.”
Baggett made the Main via a second-place finish in the second Semi. From that point on things started going progressively better for the rookie.
It was a difficult start to the 20-lap Main – he was ninth on the first lap - but then a characteristic Baggett rally saw him move all the way up to fourth, just coming-up one position short of a podium result.
“It went pretty well,” Baggett explained. “I didn’t get the greatest start and was pretty buried, but I just plugged away and worked my way forward and I ended up getting up to fourth. Third was still a little bit in front of us. I was probably slowly inching up on them, but the track was technical today, which made it hard not to make a mistake in pretty much every rhythm lane. It was hard to get a full clean run in the rhythm lanes, much less a full clean lap. I’m going to keep working to close out the series strong and I look forward to Las Vegas.”
The 2015 Supercross season concludes this coming Saturday, May 2nd, at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Baggett will be attempting to remain ranked in the top-five in the final standings and fourth-place is even within reach.
450 Supercross Results: 1. Eli Tomac (Honda), 2. Ryan Dungey (KTM), 3. Cole Seely (Honda), 4. Blake Baggett (Yoshimura Suzuki), 5. Andrew Short (KTM), 6. Broc Tickle (RCH Suzuki), 7. Josh Grant (Kawasaki), 8. Kyle Chisholm (Kawasaki), 9. Jason Anderson (Husqvarna), 10. Weston Peick (Yamaha).
