On Friday last week at the SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) Playoff 1, Aaron Plessinger, Malcolm Stewart, and Jason Anderson all went down in a get together off a practice start during the final 450SMX seeded free practice session of the day. All three riders got up and going again, with Plessinger and Stewart stopping to see their mechanics before going back out to put down laps and learn the track. Luckily, the crash was not bad enough to keep any of the three from racing—a high speed crash from Anderson later in the session would sideline him for the motos the following day, not this practice start crash.
In the crash, Plessinger hit his right shoulder hard, which he noted in Red Bull KTM’s press release after finishing 6-11 for eighth overall.
“Charlotte was quite the struggle," he said. "I had a practice crash on Friday, which left my shoulder a little sore, and then today I felt pretty good. First moto, I got a pretty good start and made some passes, so ended up sixth. In the second moto, I was in good position again, but slid out and got up in last. I worked my way back up to 11th, so overall, we're leaving in one piece and we'll see what Texas brings!”
During today’s pre-race press conference ahead of SMX Playoff 2 in Texas, Swap Moto Live’s Michael Antonovich asked Plessinger about his week:
“The plan is to just get a good start and pray for the best. But 20 minutes isn’t that long. I think the shoulder can hold up for 20 minutes. And, yeah, we’ll see how we do. It was nice, we only got to ride one day this week cause all the rain down in Florida. So, that was a little nice. When I did ride, it did hurt just a little bit. But yeah, we’re gonna give it all I got.”
Aaron Plessinger acknowledged a shoulder injury at the first SMX Playoff last weekend: "We're going to give it all I got." @SuperMotocross #SuperMotocross #SMX #SMX2024
— Mitch Kendra (@mitch_kendra) September 13, 2024
Plessinger is currently sixth in the 450SMX standings and with double and triple points this weekend and next weekend he's looking to finish the season strong after a great summer in the AMA Pro Motocross Championship.
Note: Anderson is in for this weekend and noted his injury from last week's crash is a lower back injury.
But looking ahead, Plessinger, his KTM teammate Chase Sexton (MXGP), and Honda’s Chance Hymas (MX2) were selected to race for Team USA at the upcoming Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations event in the United Kingdom in early October. Hopefully this shoulder injury does not impact Plessinger significantly and he is able to get fully healed up by MXoN. We will see how the #7 races tomorrow and provide updates when possible.
Watch the full pre-race press conference below.
