NEW BERLIN, New York: Aaron Plessinger returns to the the SuperMotocross (SMX) lineup this week at Unadilla MX, his second return from injury in less than three months.
“I figured why not come out to Unadilla, last three rounds, give it a shot, and see where we end up,” Plessinger told NBC Sports on Press Day for Round 26 of the Pro Motocross series.
Plessinger was forced to retire from the Monster Energy Supercross series after suffering a hard crash in Birmingham, Alabama, in Round 10 of the SMX World Championship. He was 10th in the championship standings at that point and had little to lose by taking the remainder of the season off.
Plessinger’s return to racing with the start of Pro Motocross. He finished eighth at Fox Raceway with moto results of eighth and ninth, but did not look comfortable on the bike.
“No, I was comfortable, but it’s just such a hard thing to do to come back mid-season,” Plessinger said. “Even though it is the start to a new season, like outdoors or whatever, it’s just tough to take a break. And when I did that in Alabama, I had to take almost a month and a half fully off because with my hips; I’d torn stuff in my hips. So it’s not like I could ride a bicycle or do anything. All I could do with my legs was walk. I was just training my arms pretty much. So it was like race myself into shape kind of thing.
“And I feel like things were starting to look up and then it was smacked down with a foot peg to the butt. So yeah, that was really tough because as soon as things were starting to go my way, it just kind of turned it on its head.”
Plessinger found his flow at High Point and scored his first overall top-five of the season. The following week, things began to fall apart again. On the first lap of Moto 1 at RedBud, Plessinger crashed hard and injured his hips again.
“Really my expectations are just get a good start [in Unadilla], run up front for a little bit, and after that, just try to stay where I am. Where I end up is where I end up. It’s not like it really matters for the points or anything. I just want to get out there, put on a show for the fans, make the team look good, and have a good time doing it.”
Plessinger puts himself at 75 or 80 percent this week, but believes the final three rounds are important to provide some momentum for the SuperMotocross Playoffs.
“I’ll use this as a little bit of training for that as well,” Plessinger said. “There’s no better training than racing. There’s nothing like it, so might as well get back out here and run the intensity and get the heart rate up a little bit.”
