Image: Octopi Media.

Rocky Mountain KTM WPS fill-in rider Benny Bloss earned a first-career 450SX heat race win at Salt Lake City 5 in his strongest Monster Energy Supercross performance yet.

Bloss was drafted back into the factory-supported KTM team prior to Daytona and has been going from strength-to-strength in Utah.

The 23-year-old has made an impact during the final stages of the series and 10th was a season-best at SLC4 last Wednesday. Bloss qualified second on Sunday and won the opening heat race, but went down while battling for ninth in the main event.

“Qualifying was good, I felt solid all day and I think I was top five in both practices,” Bloss said. “I got the heat race win, which was crazy – I’ve never even been in a position where I was close to a heat race win, so I really enjoyed that.

“I felt really good in the main. I passed [Vince] Friese, then he passed me back and then I was trying to make a pass on him and he just went straight, right into the side of me. It kind of messed up my bike a little bit, but I got up and ended up getting 13th. Stuff happens.”

Bloss – currently P17 in points – began the season with the Rock River Yamaha Racing team until being called in to replace Justin Bogle, who suffered a concussion at Glendale and hasn’t returned since.