Benny Bloss left the 10^th round of Monster Energy Supercross in Indianapolis believing he had broken his collarbone after a crash had ended his night. After getting it checked out the following Monday, it was revealed that it was not actually broken, rather there was a joint issue. Bloss gave it a go in Seattle and ended up having one of his best races of the year with a 12^th place finish.

“I had a crash last weekend, was told I broke my collarbone,” Bloss said in an Instagram post prior to Seattle. “I got checked out on Monday and turns out I just have a joint issue, so the show goes on.”

Go on he did as Bloss had a strong heat race mixing it up with several top guys. When the main event came around, the strong start Bloss had in his heat race was simply not there and he crossed the line at the end of the first lap in 21^st place. Despite dealing with injury, Bloss put his head down and picked off rider after rider as he made his way up to 12^th place and he was not too far behind Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Malcolm Stewart by the time the checkered flag waved.

“My start was awesome in the heat race,” said Bloss after the race. “Halfway down the straight, I wasn’t really sure where the guys on the inside were going to be because I was lined up on the outside, and we beat them to the corner. I was so stoked on that. I actually stayed up there for a bit. I felt awesome. It was really good to ride up there. It makes it 40 times easier when you start up front. I was hoping for that in the main but had the exact opposite. I spun as soon as I hit the plastic on the gates and then my holeshot device got stuck down, so I was dead last. I came all the way up to 12^th. I honestly have not ridden that good for a whole 20 minutes of a main event in multiple years. I’m so stoked on the day, the night, as a whole I couldn’t be happier really.”

Having put together a complete main event that Bloss could feel happy about while battling injury, there was obvious signs that Bloss had also found another step up in his race bike. The Liqui Moly Beta Racing Team hasn’t had the smoothest first year racing in the 450SX class. With Colt Nichols missing a large chunk of the season due to a rotator cuff injury just before Anaheim 1, Bloss has been tasked with carrying the flag for Beta.

Given that it’s Beta’s first foray into Supercross, there were bound to be growing pains. But thanks to a strong 10^th place finish at Daytona and more noticeable improvements of late out of Bloss, it seems Beta is finding their footing as the season progresses.

“We’re making a lot of progress with the bike every week. We changed some stuff that has made a pretty big power difference about two weeks ago. That’s helped with some starts and stuff, as well as suspension changes. Just keep making changes, keep making changes, and we’re seeing progress every weekend which is awesome. We started out this season rough, kind of like we had expected, but I’m pumped with how the bike is working.”

There likely couldn’t be a better time for Bloss to be trending upwards either as this weekend’s 12^th round is also Bloss’ home race in St. Louis. The Missouri native has never cracked the top 10 in his home state before, but this coming weekend presents a big opportunity for Bloss and Beta to make that happen.