Photo by: Hoppenworld
I am not superstitious at all, but if ever there was a team that was feeling a little cursed, it would be the Yoshimura / Suzuki team in 2016. James Stewart has seen just one checkered flag the whole season and looks to be out with a separated shoulder from a big crash in the first moto of Hangtown. The other Yoshimura / Suzuki pilot, Blake Baggett, has actually had some flashes of brilliance in between injuries in 2016, but his injury-riddled season took another turn for the worse at Hangtown as well.
In moto one at Hangtown, Baggett had possibly the ride of the day. After rounding the first turn around fifteenth, the sophomore 450MX rider latched on to the back of Monster / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac and battled his way up to finish third in front of Eli. It was a ride that showed incredible fitness and tenacity that we have not seen from Blake since his 250MX days. It was definitely a ride that could have proven to be a game changer for the #4’s confidence, but then the black cloud reappeared in moto two.
In moto two Blake got his typical bad start, and while trying to make a run at HRC / Honda’s Trey Canard for sixth early in the race, he got sideways, high-sided and hit the deck. The crash didn’t look like much, and Blake soldiered on to finish the moto in nineteenth, but we now know from Blake’s update on Instagram that he suffered a broken collarbone, another tough blow for the boys in yellow.
Check out Blake’s Instagram post below.
