Slaw
Defending 450 Pro Motocross Champion Chase Sexton made his long awaited return to racing on Saturday at RedBud having missed the previous four rounds after crashing in the opening moto of the series at Fox Raceway.
After the crash, details around his absence were scare. Following the opener, the team reported he would miss round 2 at Hangtown, but said that he did not sustain any broken bones, but was “banged” up.
On Friday at press day, Sexton told Racer X that he was dealing with “lingering stuff” but it was not an injury.
“I was dealing with some lingering stuff, not like an injury, but more like with my body, probably even before supercross,” he told Racer X. “Then going through 17 rounds you kind of like you get worn down and nothing seems to get fixed and it gets a little bit worse and then going outdoors it was worse. I had that crash and then I’m like, well, I’m 50 points out now at this point, I might as well just take the time off and. People don’t really realize they only get a month off really after the season’s over, so it’s not that much time to really digest and like fix some problems. So I was able to use that to my advantage and take that time off and now we’re back. Trying to get some SMX points.”
Sexton’s return was promising. After a fifth in the first moto, the Illinois native charged to the front and was second late in the moto before a tip-over relegated him to fourth in the moto and fifth overall.
After the race, he said the following about his return in a KTM press release.
“First race back at RedBud wasn’t great results-wise, but I didn’t really expect a whole lot coming into the round. Second moto, I was pleasantly surprised that even if I wasn’t riding great, that my speed was still pretty good. I’m happy with the day – onward and upward from here to build into SMX and try to win some races.”
Meanwhile, teammate Aaron Plessinger was unable to line up for the second moto after finishing sixth in moto one. Per the team, Plessinger was sick this weekend and developed a fever that would ultimately end his weekend early.
