Marvin Musquin finally got himself a moto win at Saturday's GEICO High Point National, and it was well worth the wait. The Red Bull KTM rider has been largely overshadowed by his dynamic young teammate Ken Roczen the past couple of years, even though he was the first of the two to win an outdoor overall (Unadilla last year). Even now it's Roczen who's shown the most speed in the 250 Class—but then he's had problems closing the deal at both Thunder Valley and Muddy Creek. On Saturday the German was brilliant in the first moto, then simply got beat in the exciting second moto by the Frenchman. A distant third place went to Zach Osborne.
And that's where the caution lights should go off in our brains. All three of the podium finishers in the super rough second moto were Grand Prix racers. Osborne, who hails from Virginia, has spent the bulk of his pro career in Europe and has plenty of experience racing both Marvin and Ken. He was the fastest American in the second moto.
Musquin and Roczen had a heated battle in second moto at High Point.
Simon Cudby photo
In both motos, Roczen and Musquin were nearly perfect—Ken's startling blitz from ninth to the lead in the first two laps was incredible—and faster than everyone else as the day wore on and the track wore down. GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac just couldn't get any real forward momentum going until the end of the moto, and defending champ Blake Baggett was beaten by two rookies in Joey Savatgy and Jeremy Martin.
Right now there's a world championship going on in the 250 Class here, and the rest of the world is winning it. If Jeffrey Herlings were here, Americans might have been shut out of the podium at High Point.
