April 7, 2018 Lumen Field

Seattle, WA

The track was extremely muddy for this race.
Things got ugly early, with the first heat race of the night claiming many victims. Mitchell Oldenburg had the early lead, but the mud sucked him off the bike and he gave up the lead to Adam Cianciarulo. Cianciarulo and Shane McElrath went back and forth a couple times, with McElrath taking the lead, but getting stuck in the mud for a while. Cianciarulo then took the lead, but not for long as he got stuck in the mud and then burned up his clutch and was unable to finish. Chase Sexton inherited the lead but lost it when the mud took out his front wheel, giving the lead and the win to Phil Nicoletti. The win was Nicoletti’s first career heat win.
The second 250 heat didn’t feature much drama at the front, with Aaron Plessinger taking an early lead and holding it for the win, with second place finishing nearly a minute behind.
In the 250 main, Aaron Plessinger took the holeshot and was never challenged for the win. Joey Savatgy was near the front when the mud spit him off the side of the track, and it took him awhile to get going again and fell back to 17th place. Chase Sexton hung on for a career-best second-place finish.

In the first 450 heat, Marvin Musquin quickly took the lead from Cooper Webb and led the rest of the way to grab the win.
The second 450 heat was more drama-filled. Blake Baggett took the early lead, but Jason Anderson took the lead, then dumped it in the mud. Baggett retook the lead and then Anderson fell again and dropped to eighth. Eli Tomac then snuck past Baggett and began to pull away. Anderson only needed about one lap to move back up to second place. But Tomac had pulled away and was never challenged.
Jason Anderson took the holeshot and looked like he would cruise to the win, but the mud kicked him off the track about halfway through the race allowing Tomac to get by. Anderson put a little pressure on Tomac but couldn’t get past and Tomac took the win. Chad Reed burned his clutch and willed his bike a foot past the finish line for a seventh-place finish – his best of the season.d