Freddie Noren raced his Twisted Tea Suzuki RM-Z450 to his eleventh top-ten moto result of the 2023 motocross season. Noren qualified inside the top ten in the second qualifying session, but a nasty elbow injury from a first-turn crash in moto one turned his efforts heroic to deliver a top-ten moto and overall result. Noren remains firmly in eighth place in the championship points with two rounds remaining. "The track was super-high speed. I've never hit fourth gear on the Suzuki before, but this weekend I did," said Noren. "In the first moto, I let off a little early coming into the first corner, which probably kept me out of one first-turn crash. Then I tangled with another crashed rider, and I went down. As I was falling, I put my arm out and someone ran straight into it. Once I untangled my bike and got back going I tried to shake my arm out, but that hurt a lot, so I knew it was going to be a challenging moto. My bars were bent as well, but I just had to keep going. I think I passed the finish line on the first lap in 30th place. I gained back to 13th, which was a surprisingly good charge considering I had bent bars and an arm that wouldn't work properly. I was concerned I wasn't going to be able to run the second moto. I'm the type of person who will always try, so I went out on the sight lap. I couldn't fully extend or pull my arm in all the way. I knew it was going to be a challenge with a lot of pain. I had a decent start, passed a few guys, got up to ninth place, and actually rode really well. About halfway through the moto, both arms started going numb. I had to use all of my fingers to pull in the front brake and clutch. Overall, I'm super pumped with the team. They're doing a really good job and the bike's working really well. I'm happy with where I'm at right now, and I really just want to finish off the season strong and go into the playoff rounds healthy." |