The 250 class in the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship is stacked full of talent. Over the first eight motos of the series, we had five different moto winners and three different overall winners, and we knew if Star Racing / Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger could get his starts dialed in, he could easily be the next moto and overall winner. At the 2017 Tennessee National, Aaron ripped two holeshots and converted that into his first moto and overall win of the year.

Before this season, Aaron had only won at Indiana’s Ironman National, but on Saturday, he showed that with good starts he can win anywhere. In moto one, the #23 went wire-to-wire for a dominant first moto win of 2017. After pulling the holeshot again in moto two, Aaron was caught and passed by the red plate holder in the 250 class, Zach Osborne, but with Zach finishing 5th in moto one, the overall win went to the Yamaha rider.

Because of a very inconsistent start to the 2017 season, Aaron sits fourth in the Championship 47-points behind Osborne, but there’s nothing that will turn a season around quicker than winning. After his first win of 2017 was in the record books, Aaron answered some questions from the press in the post-race press conference.

Aaron, this was a breakout ride for you. I noticed in that first moto, you lined up pretty far on the inside gate and that gave you the first moto holeshot. Did that set the tone of the day for you—because you qualified in 13th so that holeshot probably made it a little bit easier on you?

I definitely didn’t feel good this morning. I wasn’t flowing, I wasn’t getting the track down right, and once I got the holeshot, I just put the hammer down and nobody caught me. They were pushing hard and it made me push hard. It was a good moto. In the second moto, I got off to a holeshot again. If you’ve been around here long, you know that’s unheard of for me. Zach was riding good; He got by me and he pulled away pretty good. I just rode it in for a second and took the overall [win].

 

Your team has won the last three titles, but all those riders have left. Cooper Webb moved up [to 450] and Jeremy Martin moved over [to GEICO / Honda]. Was there any pressure on you where you felt this year, “I’ve been around a couple of years and I got to keep this going for them.” Did you think of things that way?

Kind of, but not really. If that got into my head, I knew it would probably make me ride a little worse than what I’ve been riding. I just try to keep the pressure off me and go at it moto by moto and one step at a time. It’s been pretty good right now.

We feel Aaron is one of those riders we feel will be much better suited for the bigger 450.

The track, they couldn’t rip it deep before practice because they knew it was going to rain. Do you think that affected the track conditions in the motos because I know they ripped it after practice. Was it not as rough as it maybe could have been, and did it seem like it affected it?

It was definitely a good track to get a good start on. In practice, it was pretty much wide open. In the race, it got a little rougher, but there wasn’t too many ruts on the track. I think if they would have ripped it a little deeper and not worried about the rain so much, it would have been a little better I think.

 

We’ve joked a little bit—it’s kind of been a running joke—about you only being able to win races in Indiana. You finally broke it.

Yeah, definitely. I haven’t won a race outside of Indiana. Well, actually Seattle [SX] this year. We broke it in Seattle, but this is pretty big outdoors, and I’m glad to get that monkey off my back. (laughs)

 

Taking the win here at Muddy Creek with the Cody Gragg Memorial race, does that make it mean more to you? Having the trophy delivered, was that by his mom?

Yeah, definitely. It’s definitely a special race. Me and Cody were pretty much best friends, and to have his mom deliver the trophy, it meant a lot to me.

 

Is there something you changed with the starts, or did it just work out? Like is this repeatable? Can you keep getting holeshots?

I’m pretty sure I can. Me and Swanny [trainer, Gareth Swanepoel] have been really working on them and really getting after it, so it’s paying off now.

Aaron’s form in the ruts is something we could watch all day.

There’s been no specific bike change, technique change or anything?

A little bit of a change in technique and a little bit of a focus change. Yeah, it’s doing me pretty good.

 

That inside gate was pretty hot in the first moto, though. Did you find some dry dirt or something to help you gain some traction lining up that far on the inside?

I was looking at the gates down the line, and they all had holes in them. When it came my turn to pick a gate, I picked the one with no hole in it.

 

I guess we’ll have to bring it up. How’s everything going from last weekend [penis injury at High Point]? We can’t make this super serious, so I guess we’ll have to dive back into last week’s drama. (laughs)

We’re doing pretty good. We’re hanging in there (laughs). We’re progressing as the weeks go forward.


Photos by: Hoppenworld

Author

Dan Lamb is a 12+ year journalist and the owner of MotoXAddicts.