00:00His finishes on paper, I don't believe are a reflection of how well he's actually riding.
00:06Now, he did have some good qualifying times earlier today, so I expect him to do a little bit better this weekend.
00:15A lot of work on starts, says the team manager, Ridge Simmons.
00:17They brought him back to Florida, as Will mentioned at the top of the show, specifically for this, to work on the starts for the 32.
00:24Here it is, 450s.
00:25Well, not good for Cooper this time, but another hole shot artist that's got another hole shot.
00:33It's Jorge Prado to the lead again.
00:38No surprise by Prado, but Hunter Lawrence, also a great starter, has one of the best first-lap average of this field right now.
00:48And talk about a championship runner, he's one of those guys.
00:51Aaron Plessinger, been a little quiet to start the year, running strong in third, but he does not triple that rhythm.
00:57And that allows Hunter Lawrence to get back away from the seven.
01:02One lap down, and more experience up front for the Spaniard, the four-time MXGP champion.
01:09You know, that first turn narrows up if you're looking at the screen when they're coming towards you on the right-hand side.
01:14And that's what Hunter Lawrence did.
01:16He really moved over to the right, and he pinched off Justin Cooper and Ken Rockson.
01:23That's why those guys are so far back right now.
01:25Well, Ken's worked his way up.
01:27Six and seven.
01:27Well, this is what Rockson does early, R.C.
01:29He makes moves.
01:30Now look at Plessinger.
01:32Yeah, Plessinger.
01:34Showing some good intensity early on right here.
01:37Love to see it.
01:39Obviously, the fans love it as well.
01:41And AP looked good in qualifying practice as well early on today, and it's great to see how well he's riding here tonight.
01:48And Rockson has made his way all the way up now to fourth.
01:51Crowd going nuts for that.
01:53And this to Cowboy.
01:54Plessinger moving forward.
01:59Oh, they love this charge for the 94.
02:0194.
02:07It wasn't a great heat race for Lawrence last week either.
02:10The next fantastic main event he nearly won it.
02:13And he said, honestly, for him, he feels that the heat is much tougher for him than the main.
02:18Well, that's because, I mean, his forte is a little bit better from halfway on until the finish.
02:24And, I mean, these heat races are a full-on sprint.
02:27It's like the 50-yard dash versus the 100-yard dash.
02:31Completely different mindset for the most part.
02:37Watch his battle for third and fourth.
02:39Will, what are you hearing on the 94?
02:42That he's happy with you.
02:43Okay.
02:44Everyone said he's happy.
02:45Well, I'm just actually kind of looking at the sort of dynamic between Ken Rockson and Hunter Lawrence in front of him.
02:50And, Ricky, the whole idea of bikes set up this early in the season, everyone's almost expecting from A1 that there's going to be a lot of changes.
02:58Well, Ken Rockson's happiness that I spoke of, a lot of it comes from the fact that he has not touched his motorcycle since late last year in the Supercross season.
03:07That's how happy he's is.
03:09Clicker here and a clicker there.
03:10And then, in contrast, they haven't been chasing by any means over at the Honda HRC.
03:16But Hunter Lawrence, they started off with a certain setup in A1.
03:19They thought that was good due to testing, coming in, and now they're sort of moving off that mark.
03:23And I spoke to Hunter Lawrence's mechanic, Cameron Cameron, and said, how does that work?
03:27Why is it tempting to sit in that same spot?
03:30And he said, no, because the gains that you make when you get it right, Ricky, he said, are well worth the ones that you miss.
03:36And he did say that for them, they're moving in the right direction.
03:41Well, at this level, as you know, a little bit goes a long way.
03:45But also, if you chase it too much, you can dial yourself backwards sometimes.
03:50But, hey, I want to give a mention to Jorge Prado.
03:53Not a spectacular finish.
03:55For him to rebound so far, he was good earlier today, and now coming out with a hole shot and riding as well as he is doing to bounce back.
04:04That says a lot about the mental side of things, and this is what I would like to see from a two-time world champ like this.
04:11Like, incredible finish at the opener.
04:13Okay, that's great.
04:15Now nothing goes, nothing doesn't, nothing really is spectacular last week.
04:19How do you rebound from that?
04:21Well, he's answered the bell right here.
04:24When he gets starts, he knows what to do with it as he's battling his teammate.
04:29And very happy to be back with the KTM folks.
04:31Here's what he said at the preseason.
04:34Well, I'm extremely happy to be back with the brand.
04:38I won all my titles.
04:40It feels amazing to be back home, and I had a great off-season.
04:44We worked very hard.
04:45We had a great three months of riding.
04:47Can't complain about anything, to be honest.
04:51I've been putting the work.
04:52The guys were always behind me, supporting me, and we know what we are capable of.
04:56So, coming into the season, let's hope to make all the rings.
05:01That's our goal, and that's it.
05:03Not much more.
05:07Comeback story.
05:08Great comeback story for him after a rough year last year.
05:11But I think he can tell what the crowd wants to see.
05:13Another charge from the seven.
05:15That's right.
05:15But did you notice what Prado was able to do there, Jason, as he started to go to the
05:20right-hand side of the whoops, and I almost felt like he sensed that was where AP was going
05:25to go.
05:26And not a lot of people have that kind of sense in them.
05:30No surprise, though, again, from the two-time world champ.
05:32But, again, incredible start here to the season and a great rebound from last week in San
05:37Diego.
05:38Love to see it.
05:39Yeah, he knows how to manage races from up front.
05:41He is one of the best starters ever, and you're probably going to get to see a lot more of
05:44that throughout the year here in Supercross.
05:48And, yeah, Blesinger has to go back to work.
05:50And now the 96 of Lawrence is starting to rally from third.
05:55No surprise.
05:57And this is one of the things, like I talked about even last week, what was impressive
06:02about Hunter's Ride is how he had that intensity early on.
06:06That's what he's going to need to do if he wants to have, give his best shot to win this
06:10championship.
06:11He had to have that early race intensity.
06:15We all know he's strong from halfway on.
06:19Prado, the podium at the first race here of the season two weeks ago and a heat race win.
06:26He's a guy without much Supercross experience at all.
06:29We're talking single digits.
06:30The amount of races that he's actually run.
06:33They do not have Supercross in Europe.
06:35Pretty impressive how well he has adapted and improved here in his second full year.
06:40And he missed most of last year.
06:42Oh, we got Justin Cooper trying to make up for that bad start, battling Craig for fifth.
06:48Coming up the inside.
06:49Turns down early.
06:50Great execution.
06:51Slides that rear end right around.
06:54Is able to get to the throttle a bit quicker than Christian Craig.
07:01Simple pass.
07:03Top box.
07:04You can see Plessinger starting to pressure his teammate again.
07:09White flag is about to come out though, RC.
07:11There you go.
07:13Great job for Prado also to not really be affected by the battle and the push from the seven of Aaron Plessinger.
07:23Just out there putting in his laps.
07:26Taking it one lap at a time.
07:28Whatever happens, happens.
07:29Doesn't look like he's overriding the motorcycle as well.
07:32He's riding his pace.
07:33And look, he's opening up a little gap.
07:35The team manager, Ian Harrison, said he was just wearing out bikes with the amount of laps he put in to get Supercross down in the offseason.
07:45And as you had mentioned, he didn't get to do that as much leading into last year.
07:49And yeah, how last year went.
07:51And a lot of us know how that relationship with Kawasaki ended.
07:55But it really wasn't apples to apples if you think about it.
07:59He had just a little bit of time of preparation.
08:01Then he gets hurt round two.
08:02He had several injuries, so much different scenario here.
08:08Oh, and he's figured out how to win both of those Supercross obstacles as well.
08:11Wait a minute.
08:12Crowd comes to life.
08:13Lawrence is up to second.
08:15Prado, another heat race win.
08:18And what has happened to Plessinger?
08:20Yeah, I saw Kenny was rolling that.
08:22Oh, no.
08:23Oh, no.
08:24Well, now in jeopardy, can he even get top nine or is he going to the LCQ?
08:28Look at his front wheel.
08:29Oh, my gosh.
08:29He's completely tweaked.
08:31That thing is crazy.
08:34Visor is gone.
08:36There goes Fortner.
08:37And Plessinger is going to salvage eighth place.
08:40Oh, that.
08:43We have the replay here.
08:44Oh, man.
08:49Oh, did he hit neutral?
08:50Did he hit neutral?
08:52Oh, no.
08:55Thank goodness he got on the backside.
08:57Absolutely.
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