Red Bull's Moto Spy Episode 3: Aaron Plessinger

"Moto Spy,” is a series where each episode follows a different rider through one day of racing the 2016 AMA Pro Motocross Nationals, with an in-depth perspective that pays tribute to moto’s classic “The Great Outdoors” series of the early 2000s.

They say home is where you make it (Source: Joe Dirt). In motocross, riders all have their favorite tracks. As Josh Grant welcomes the Glen Helen National every year, Aaron Plessinger eagerly ticks off the days on his calendar until the Muddy Creek National in Tennessee. Though he is an Ohio native, the Yamaha’s star sophomore spent most of his teen years south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and thus raced countless laps on the tacky Tennessee soil of Muddy Creek. For Plessinger, home is a track he could probably ride with his eyes closed.

At his first National at Muddy Creek in 2015, Plessinger led for the first time in his professional career. Though he finished sixth overall, Plessinger and crew were ecstatic — he’d led a Pro National. A few weeks later at the final round of the series in Indiana, even closer to his roots in Ohio, AP cleared another milestone when he took his first win as a professional. Aaron approached the 2016 Muddy Creek National with one goal in mind: win. He was no longer a greenhorn in the 250 class, and had even stacked his resume with some more wins in the 2016 Supercross season. He and the rest of the class knew that he is one of the fastest 250 riders in the country right now.

Unfortunately, motocross is a sport that often follows the principles of Murphy’s Law — anything can and will happen. Plessinger’s day in Tennessee was one to forget. He was fast, but spent far more time on the ground than he wanted to. That’s motocross — even on a day when the pieces all seem to be together before the race, the floor can fall out from underneath. Aaron passed more riders in the two motos at Muddy Creek than he did throughout the entire Supercross season, going from 23rd to 14th in the first moto, and 37th to 13th in the second after a first-turn crash.