By Chase Stallo and Jason Weigandt
Same winners in both classes two weeks in a row, but it’s interesting to see how they do it. Ken Roczen’s game revolves around the opening laps, where he routinely blitzes the field even if he doesn’t get a good start. He led all but one lap at RedBud even though he didn’t holeshot either moto-passing moto one leader Justin Barcia about a quarter of the way through lap one, and passing moto two leader Eli Tomac over LaRocco’s Leap near the end of lap two. In moto one, Roczen ran a 1:56.6 on lap two, the first recorded lap of the race. Eli Tomac ran a 1:58.2. No other rider was even under the two-minute mark. In moto two, Roczen ran a 1:57 on lap two, the first recorded lap of the race. Eli Tomac was the only other rider on the track to go under two minutes on that lap, with a 1:59.
Cooper Webb, meanwhile, does his best work late. His second-moto charges for wins at both Muddy Creek and RedBud are almost identical on paper. Last week, he tracked down leader Shane McElrath by dipping into the 1:56s on lap 16 (of an 18-lap moto), and a one 1:57 on lap 17. McElrath went 2:00 and 1:59. This weekend Cooper went 2:03.2 on lap 15 (of 17) and 2:04.5 on lap 16. This got him past race leader, Alex Martin, who went 2:03.9 and 2:05.4 on laps 15 and 16. Martin and Zach Osborne were actually faster on the final lap, but by then Webb had already pulled the trigger to get the lead he needed.
For Webb, in fact, leading early in the first moto was a bit new experience. “The first moto I got a really good start and had a really good battle with Austin Forkner the first couple of corners and got in the lead, which I haven’t done in a long time, was lead by the first lap,” he said post-race. “So the first moto was good. I rode a little tight after, like I said, not leading like that but it was good to kind of get that monkey off my back. I haven’t won a first moto in a long time so that was nice and it gave me a lot of confidence for the second moto.”
A second straight podium finish has vaulted Broc Tickle past the injured Ryan Dungey and Jason Anderson and into fifth in 450 class points. Tickle, who was twelfth in points after High Point, has moved up seven spots in the last two weeks following consecutive podiums—his first since 2012. What’s been the major difference for Tickle? One, he’s finally healthy after beginning the season behind the eight ball due to an injury in supercross and two, it’s a matter of confidence. And it all started with a holeshot at Muddy Creek. “That start last weekend gave it to me. It gave me the confidence. There’s been a few more for me and I’m ready to keep it going.” When asked if it was as simple as a holeshot to reinvigorate confidence, he said: “I mean, I guess. It happened and I’m here again. I don’t think anybody in this tent thought it would happen two times in a row. I knew I could do it, but could it happen? If you look at the past I haven’t done it before, since 2012.”
Near-breakthrough for Justin Barcia, who took fourth, just missing his first overall podium of the year. But Barcia was quick to tell us that, “Almost is nothing.” He podiumed moto one after starting ahead of Tickle, but the roles were flip-flopped in moto two and Barcia dug deep but couldn’t quite catch him, taking 3-4 scores for the day. Still, it’s better than recently, such as last weekend when Barcia’s bike blew in moto one (and after he’d already crashed into his teammate Phil Nicoletti while trying to make a hasty pass early in the race, knocking them both down). This week the bad luck went to his teammates. Phil Nicoletti had an engine problem ruin his first moto, and lost his back brake in moto two. He went 32-15 for 18th overall. Weston Peick had a big crash in moto one, landing him 33rd, and came back for 11th in moto two, giving him fifteenth overall.
After 6-7 finishes at RedBud, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel has six consecutive top ten moto finishes. He’s finished top ten in eight of the last nine motos after beginning the season with 17-15-29 finishes. “It’s good that my speed is coming back. It’s been good two weeks in a row,” he said in a team press release. “We have a couple more races to go, so that’s good. The top six or seven guys are so good, so it’s tough when you don’t get a good start and just have to fight the rest of the moto. It’s tough to make a pass when you’re riding with guys that are all the same speed as you. I’m just going to get some rest this week and will hopefully get a better start at the next race.” Pourcel was also the fastest qualifier in the 450 class for the second race in a row.
James Stewart announced on Instagram last week that he may return for Southwick this weekend, writing: “I've been blessed to have a team like @team_suzuki_racing that has shown me support thru this crazy year and will throughout the rest of my career. They've given me the time to be at home for the most important thing ever in my life with my son's birth "he better hurry up" and hopefully starting at southwick to use the rest of this season to get back in top form for one more red plate run next year.” When Stewart does return to action, it’ll likely spell the out of a good fill-in run for Matt Bisceglia. The former Horizon Award winner has five top tens in eight motos since starting with the team at Thunder Valley. At RedBud, he put in career-high 8-8 finishes for eighth overall. “It was a really gnarly track and the bike was working awesome,” he said in a team statement. “I had a really good pace going in that second moto. I was in fifth place until about halfway. It was not only a good day for me, but for Blake and the team as well.”
Indeed Blake Baggett was much better in his second race since returning from a shoulder injury. The former 250 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Champion and two-time World Champion Marvin Musquin were locked at the hip for much of the motos. Musquin edged Baggett with 5-6 finishes to Baggett’s 7-5. In a team statement, Baggett said they went in the right direction with bike changes in the second moto. “We had a good weekend,” he said. “We made some bike changes and it definitely made it better for the second moto and my RM-Z felt pretty good. It was a solid race for my second weekend back.” Baggett’s one shoulder, with a surgically repaired collarbone, has healed up, but he’s dealing with rotator cuff problems on the other side, which he thinks may be caused by overcompensating and crashing while trying to gut out the day at Glen Helen.
Following a fifth overall finish and collecting thirty-one points on the afternoon, Musquin passed the injured Cole Seely to move into third in 450 class points. The next active rider, Broc Tickle in fifth, is twenty points back. Despite his hard charge in both motos, Musquin says he’s disappointed in his starts (he rounded the first lap in 13th and 9th). “I didn’t get the best starts today and I’m disappointed with how both races went at the beginning but I am happy with my riding towards the end,” he said in a KTM press release. “I’m going to work on getting better starts so I can see what I’m able to do from there.”
Honda HRC was without both Cole Seely and Trey Canard at RedBud, as Seely is out for the remainder of the season after having a plate and four screws inserted into a broken right pinky finger, and Canard continues to recover from a bulging disc in his back. The team said that Canard tried to ride last week before deciding to sit out RedBud. According to the team, his condition will continue to be evaluated on a week-by-week basis.
The lone factory Honda representative in the 450 class was Justin Bogle on the GEICO Honda machine, and he at least shined with two holeshots. The rest of the day wasn’t Bogle’s best, as he barely hung inside the top ten with 10-9 finishes and ninth overall. “Practice went pretty good, qualified best I had this season,” said Bogle, who qualified sixth. “Holeshot both motos and ended up 10-9 for ninth on the day. Disappointing day for the most part, as soon as I start riding the race like I've been starting I'll be set!”
Hard to believe but Tyler Bowers’ appearance at RedBud was his first Lucas Oil Pro Motocross race since 2009. Bowers is on the factory Monster Energy Kawasaki in place of the injured Wil Hahn and Josh Grant. Bowers told us he’s been riding some motocross anyway just in case the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team—that he rode for in supercross—would need an injury replacement, or in case Grant’s troublesome ankles finally shut things down. Turns out Grant has gone out, so Bowers got his regular Pro Circuit-built KX450F practice bike swapped out for a full works bike with about two weeks to get ready. He rode okay, logging 16-20 scores for twentieth in the 450 class. “I am still working on myself and getting to where I need to be, but I finished both motos strong and I’ll be even better next week at Southwick,” said Bowers in a team statement.
While Bowers has missed seven years of American motocross racing due to focusing mostly on AMSOIL Arenacross, he did spend several years racing moto down in Costa Rica—although he told us tracks down there are much, much different than in the U.S. Another rider can relate. BLUE Buffalo/Slater Skins Yamaha’s Ben LaMay will miss Round 7 of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross at Southwick to race a round of the Coast Rica Motocross Championship. LaMay, who went 17-16 for sixteen overall at RedBud, will return at Round 8 at Millville. To read more about LaMay juggling both series, check out his interview here.
Lap Times
450 Class Moto 1
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 1:56.678 | 2 | 2:01.173 | Ken Roczen |
2 | 3 | 1:58.008 | 2 | 2:02.251 | Justin Barcia |
3 | 2 | 1:58.251 | 2 | 2:01.818 | Eli Tomac |
4 | 4 | 1:59.354 | 3 | 2:02.776 | Broc Tickle |
5 | 33 | 2:01.305 | 3 | 2:04.834 | Weston Peick |
6 | 5 | 2:01.878 | 15 | 2:02.972 | Marvin Musquin |
7 | 6 | 2:01.969 | 9 | 2:04.057 | Christophe Pourcel |
8 | 10 | 2:02.025 | 3 | 2:05.463 | Justin Bogle |
9 | 7 | 2:02.261 | 9 | 2:04.457 | Blake Baggett |
10 | 32 | 2:02.263 | 3 | 2:05.002 | Phil Nicoletti |
450 Class Moto 2
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 1:56.555 | 3 | 2:00.648 | Ken Roczen |
2 | 2 | 1:58.367 | 3 | 2:02.673 | Eli Tomac |
3 | 3 | 2:01.740 | 4 | 2:03.197 | Broc Tickle |
4 | 4 | 2:01.979 | 5 | 2:03.484 | Justin Barcia |
5 | 9 | 2:02.076 | 3 | 2:06.360 | Justin Bogle |
6 | 5 | 2:02.227 | 8 | 2:04.037 | Blake Baggett |
7 | 6 | 2:02.808 | 5 | 2:04.370 | Marvin Musquin |
8 | 7 | 2:02.843 | 8 | 2:05.402 | Christophe Pourcel |
9 | 8 | 2:03.409 | 8 | 2:05.811 | Matt Bisceglia |
10 | 10 | 2:04.300 | 5 | 2:05.945 | Benny Bloss |
250 Class Moto 1
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 2:00.882 | 15 | 2:02.305 | Cooper Webb |
2 | 2 | 2:01.503 | 12 | 2:02.321 | Joey Savatgy |
3 | 3 | 2:02.155 | 12 | 2:04.081 | Alex Martin |
4 | 4 | 2:02.443 | 4 | 2:04.687 | Jeremy Martin |
5 | 5 | 2:02.628 | 5 | 2:04.658 | Zach Osborne |
6 | 6 | 2:02.779 | 5 | 2:05.468 | Austin Forkner |
7 | 8 | 2:03.242 | 3 | 2:05.290 | Mitchell Oldenburg |
8 | 7 | 2:03.623 | 4 | 2:05.163 | Adam Cianciarulo |
9 | 10 | 2:03.695 | 6 | 2:05.738 | Aaron Plessinger |
10 | 9 | 2:04.007 | 11 | 2:05.079 | Shane McElrath |
250 Class Moto 2
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 2:01.676 | 4 | 2:03.852 | Cooper Webb |
2 | 2 | 2:01.864 | 6 | 2:03.711 | Zach Osborne |
3 | 3 | 2:02.434 | 4 | 2:03.993 | Alex Martin |
4 | 4 | 2:02.486 | 3 | 2:05.445 | Jeremy Martin |
5 | 5 | 2:02.611 | 3 | 2:05.943 | Shane McElrath |
6 | 16 | 2:02.876 | 6 | 2:07.810 | Joey Savatgy |
7 | 7 | 2:03.608 | 4 | 2:06.428 | Martin Davalos |
8 | 8 | 2:03.940 | 5 | 2:06.514 | Adam Cianciarulo |
9 | 11 | 2:03.993 | 8 | 2:06.398 | Aaron Plessinger |
10 | 10 | 2:04.154 | 15 | 2:06.409 | Austin Forkner |
More News and Notes
A confidence boost at Muddy Creek carried over for Broc Tickle, and it seemed to do the same for Shane McElrath, who led laps in the second 250 moto—two to be exact—the second straight week he’s led. Although he went off the track while leading, McElrath fought back to fifth. After a slow start to the season, McElrath has moved into eighth in 250 class points. Before the race, McElrath and his Troy Lee Designs/KTM team trainer Tyla Rattray credit the turnaround to working on intensity during the week.
Aaron Plessinger had nearly identical moto scores at RedBud (10-11) but his rides in each were vastly different. In the first moto, the second year pro had a top five start before fading back to tenth. In moto two, he was 36th (!!!!) after the first lap after doing an endo on the start straight. He sliced through 26 other riders and finished eleventh. One good, one bad, yet very similar scores altogether.
Another building week for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo. Mistakes have robbed him a chance at good finishes the last few rounds, but this time was mistake free en route to sixth overall on Saturday. He was quickest in qualifying as well, which he said set him up for a good day. “The weekend was a step in the right direction. I’ve had good starts and been going fast lately but a few errors have hindered my results a bit,” he said in a team statement. “I was the fastest in qualifying again which is always good for my confidence and the motos were all about focusing on riding my race. I’m a little upset with my starts but this was a really good building week heading to Southwick.”
Arnaud Tonus also had his best day of the season, finishing ninth overall thanks in part to a season-high sixth in the second moto. “Every weekend has been better than the last and I felt really good in the second moto today,” he said. “I’m very happy with how I rode, I just need a little work on the starts and I’ll be at the front where I belong. There’s still work to be done but we’re moving in the right direction.” Tonus told us on Saturday morning that his shoulder injury from supercross is pretty much healed up, but he’s still building his strength up after last year’s bought with Epstein-Barr.
GEICO Honda’s Jordon Smith wasn’t able to build off his success at Muddy Creek. Crashes held him back on Saturday. We’ll let Jordon explain: “After the weekend I had last weekend at Muddy Creek I had a lot of confidence and high expectations for the race. First moto I didn't get off to a good start and ended up falling on lap two. I also got together with someone and bent my gear shifter. It was really a struggle after that for the rest of the day. I had a couple more falls in that moto and ended up way in the back of the pack.
“Second moto I got off to a little bit better of a start, somewhere inside of the top ten I think. I made a few passes and then ended up falling on the first lap and went way back. I got up and tried to put a charge together but after another fall my day was pretty much over. It was definitely just the worst weekend I think I've had as a pro. I’m going to have to regroup this week and come back swinging for Southwick. I think it's a track that will suit my style so I think I should get a much better finish.”
Austin Forkner led for the first time in his young career in the first moto at RedBud. He hovered around third for a majority of the race before getting passed by the Martin brothers. He went 6-10 for eighth overall. “The first 20-25 minutes I was in third, unfortunately towards the end of the race I was pushed wide and passed by two riders at once and I ended up bringing it home in sixth. In the second moto I struggled a little at the beginning of the race and it held me back. I still came back for 10th so I’m pretty happy with that.”