It was one of the wildest nights of the season for Team Rocky Mountain ATV/MC -KTMWPS as round 5 of the 2019 AMA Supercross season made a stop at Petco Park in San Diego, CA this past Saturday night. With team bikes in HBD MotoGrafx’s special camo graphics for Military appreciation night, Justin Bogle used good starts for his best finish of the season thus far, while Blake Baggett collected another top-ten finish.
Blake Baggett took to the rain-soaked San Diego track for the only practice session of the day and found the fast line in the mud for the 4th fastest time of the day. Timing the gate perfectly in his heat, he lead the field into turn one. After sliding back a few spots in the difficult conditions, he remained strong to finish 5th, transferring to the main event. Blake put the power down in the main event and rounded the first turn inside the top three. He rode smart on the treacherous track, running inside the top five for over half the race until making a mistake in the deep mud going down. He quickly recovered and finished the night in 9th place. After five rounds, Blake moves up to 5th place in championship points.
“It was a tough one tonight,” said Baggett. “My starts were on and was feeling good on the bike. It’s just unfortunate that the track conditions weren’t ideal all night. The important thing is I leave here healthy, gained valuable championship points and I am ready to move on to Minneapolis next weekend.”
Justin Bogle looked comfortable in the mud, as he used a great start at the front of the field in his heat race.
He wasted no time overtaking the lead before the end of lap one and looked to have the race at hand with a nine-second lead until getting cross-rutted in the mud, sending him down late in the race. He quickly recovered, finishing 5th and transferring to the main event. Justin had the gate timed perfectly in the main event as he rounded the first turn inside the top three and then quickly moved into second place. Justin kept the pace of the leader, and It looked like a podium night until with under 4 minutes left to go Justin stalled the bike. He would get moving quickly, only sliding back to 3rd place. With 2 laps to go, Bogle moved right up on to the rear fender of Roczen for what was about to be a white flag lap battle for the podium. Unfortunately, at that moment a lapped rider would tangle with Bogle not realizing the race circumstances, causing him to get hung up in the bails. He would get going again back in 4th place, finishing out the final lap in that position.
“Tonight was fun” said Bogle. “My starts were there tonight and they helped me ride up at the front. I am feeling more comfortable on the bike and my confidence is growing every week. The podium was so close tonight and unfortunately, I ran into a little issue there at the end, but I like to take the good from things and a 4th place is certainly a big step in the right direction. We will carry this momentum into Minneapolis thisweekend, and look to get up on that box.”
Team Rocky Mountain ATV/MC – KTM – WPS will now travel to Minneapolis, MN and US Bank Stadium for round six of the 2019 AMA Supercross Series.