The Triple Crown format at Atlanta Supercross provided plenty of talking points and one that stood out was the Austin Forkner/Zach Osborne collision.
Austin Forkner claimed his second Eastern Region 250SX Supercross win on Saturday. And the battle between the pair during the second Main Event in Atlanta would turn out to be pivotable. Forkner and Osborne finished the night tied on points, with Forkner getting the overall. This incident certainly impacted the result.
But did Austin Forkner purposely cross-jump? That was the question on many race fans minds over the weekend with a number of comments supporting the opinion that the super-talented rider did.
Forkner has now weighed in on the incident, posting on social media last night that it wasn’t intentional.
The 19-year-old American first explained the issue he had with his brake in the second Main Event of the night. “Epic night last night!! First one was ok just rode tight really, second one was mine to win but about 5 laps in I clipped a tuff block and ripped my rear brake off which is why I basically started dropping anchor.
Forkner then got into the Osborne collision. “Then me and the #1 got together and basically to sum that up I was jumping to the left to block the inside in the next turn and I lost my balance and jumped over too far (as you can see by my body English on the bike) more than I intended too.
“It wasnāt intentional as I almost got caught up in that also. Obviously I wouldnāt want to do anything that would potentially cost me going down and hurting myself as well. After that it was just trying to minimise mistakes without the rear brake.
“That third one was intense too as I didnāt help myself with the start I had and guys were going down everywhere and I ended up having to make that last lap pass to get it done so Iām stoked on the win because I had to push so hard in that last one at the end. Thanks team!”
What are your thoughts? Does his explanation stand up? Share your thoughts with us below, on Facebook and Twitter or email the author andrew.hill@jpress.co.uk
