Photo by: Hoppenworld

The Alessi family is known for stirring things up off the track, but at tonight’s Atlanta Supercross, MotoConcepts’ Mike Alessi brought it onto the track. In the 450SX heat race, RCH/Suzuki’s Broc Tickle passed Mike on the final lap and, one turn later, was repaid with an attempt by Alessi to put him into the front row of the stands. It was far from a legit pass attempt and fell more under the description of takeout. Both riders went down, and after reviewing the tape, we now hear the AMA levied a $4000 fine and probation for the remainder of the season for the #800.

Screenshot of the take-out on Tickle
Screenshot of the take-out on Tickle

Fortunately for Mike, he went on to have his best main event of the year—finishing a very solid 6th—so he did have something to smile about. Overall, though, drama like this the last thing the Alessi family and the MotoConcepts team needed after the crazy incident at the 2013 Washougal National. It also did not help that it was against the RCH/Suzuki team which is partly owned by the entertainer Pink—who sent out a tweet about it to her 22.4 million followers. We’ve always liked Mike, but for some reason this stuff seems to follow him around.

Update: Statement released today (2/24/2014) by the AMA:
“After a review of the incident that took place between rider Mike Alessi and rider Broc Tickle in the 450SX heat race, the race director determined that Alessi violated rule A2, c. 17 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, rulebook. As a result of this violation, the race director assessed Alessi a penalty of $4,000 and placed him on probation for the remainder of the 2014 season. There was no appeal.”

You can check out the tweets sent out by RCH manager, Kenny Watson, RCH co-owner, Carey Hart, and Pink, as well as video of the incident below.

 

 

 

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