Holding the red-plate and thriving amongst the pressure that accompanied it, Ohio’s Aaron Plessinger would showcase remarkable sprint speed following the makeshift practice start in the latter stages of day-time qualification; though his overall lap-times (including the first session) didn’t necessarily correlate, with the effort that was put in final sessions of the day. Nevertheless, Plessinger was a self-declared racer at heart and proceeded to advance to another level of competition for the first moto shortly thereafter. As his wheels leapt from the grate and onto the start straightaway, the number seven was located around the top-six but had quickly advanced to fifth after passing Jorge Prado. He was behind Jason Anderson from lap three and the minutes thereafter, but “AP” couldn’t help but defend his position from the veteran Eli Tomac who eventually took over his current position before lap eight concluded. Now into sixth, he could sense that Jett Lawrence was behind him...but never faltered as the Honda rider came within a rather close radius; finishing the moto in sixth, respectively. The jump from the gate on behalf of the Ohio native in the second round was tremendous, and as Plessinger contended for the lead role, Jason Anderson appeared to object and counter with a rebuttal of his own. Webb was out front, but “AP” was only bike lengths behind as Anderson entered into second and pushed the Ohio native outside of the silver medal slot. Hanging onto third for a good portion of time, it wasn’t until only a few minutes remained when Jett Lawrence would pressure the number seven. And after blitzing to the inside of the initial whoop section with less than two laps to go, Lawrence’s momentum pushed Aaron to the outside; leaving Aaron in fourth at the final flag, despite him remaining on the rear wheel of the Australian. Residing third as the opening moments of moto-three transpired, he would be forced to keep Jett Lawrence at bay for as long as possible. The quadruple maneuver conducted by Lawrence would push Plessinger to fourth with just over seven minutes remaining. His pace was notable at this stage in the moto, but he made sure to keep an eye on that of Jett as the Australian worked his way around Chase Sexton as well. The running order remained the same into the final stages, with “AP” within just bike lengths of the Illinois native in front of him...until Lawrence crashed to the ground — allowing Aaron to take third in the moto, third overall, and a continued reign of the red plate!