KTM’s Ian Harrison on Plessinger at Spring Creek: “We will look into this and find out what we can do to help him.”
For the second consecutive round of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Aaron Plessinger did not start the second moto. Last week at the RedBud National, Plessinger finished sixth in the first moto, but was not able to lineup for the second moto. His 6-DNS landed 12th overall. After the race, he took to Instagram to provide an update, saying, “I’ve been dealing with a little bit of a sickness I kept telling myself wasn’t happening. Finally caught up to me.”
Then at the Spring Creek National over the weekend, Plessinger pulled out of the first moto and once again did not lineup for the second moto. His 39-DNS landed 41st overall.
Plessinger pulled into the mechanics' area and stopped, putting his hands onto his bars and dropping his head.
Plus, Tom Vialle had a big crash in the second 250 Class moto that ended the #16’s day early. Add in Julien Beaumer being out as he deals with the after effects from his crash at High Point Raceway, and the team has hit a few bumps in the road. At least Chase Sexton is back at the races again, as the 2024 450 Class Pro Motocross Champion landed 3-3 finishes for third overall in his second race back after he missed a handful of races following his crash at the opening round.
Ian Harrison, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager, said the following in a post-race release from the team.
"Practice in Millville went well for us and looked a little better than last week, but then it become more difficult in relation to Tom and Aaron. Tom actually had a good first moto, he recovered from a mediocre start all the way back to sixth place, which was nice. Then in the 450 moto, it was a good race for Chase, and Aaron was up there, but definitely had some issues and he had to retire, so we will look into this and find out what we can do to help him. Second moto in the 250s was tough – we lost Tom in the whoops at the back, and that was the end of his day. We went into the second 450 moto with Chase, and he had a good six laps before losing touch with the leaders, but I feel like we are making progress there, and I think we can improve on this by next week."
Lots of riders are dealing with injuries throughout the season, but these "health issues" that Plessinger, Jason Anderson, and more, have been dealing with are seeming to come up more often now as we near the eighth straight month of the long SuperMotocross World Championship (SMX) season. Plessinger finished 2-3-3-2 in the final four rounds of Pro Motocross last year. Can he figure out this illness and return to the podium to finish off the regular season as we ramp up for the SMX Playoffs in September?
