By Chase Stallo and Jason Weigandt
You don’t want to say Ken Roczen knocked himself out of championship contention in Atlanta, but it’s going to take a lot to make up 31 points on Ryan Dungey. Two violent crashes this weekend—including one in practice, where Roczen slammed into the stadium wall, and another that sent him flying in the main event—took the wind out of Roczen’s sails. “The whole night, actually the whole day was kind of gnarly,” said Roczen in a RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki team statement. “The automatic thing, when you tuck the front end or have a problem like I did, you end up holding it wide open because you’re almost crashing. I just whiskey-throttled and crashed really hard. I got lucky that I didn’t get hurt. After that, the handlebars on the bike were bent really bad so it was hard to really do much after that. There’s no give up in this team. I’m really lucky that I didn’t get hurt and still picked up three points [with an eighteenth-place finish]. It could have been a lot worse.”
The night was just as bad for another title contender—GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac. Tomac also went down in the main and finished twentieth—the second time this season (Anaheim 1) that he’s finished twentieth. "I'm fine, just really frustrated because I was fast all day," Tomac said in a team statement. "I just made a mistake out there in that slick part of the track and lost the front end. It was slicker than it normally is and I just got caught. I didn't get the greatest of starts but managed to get past some guys and get up to fourth. I was pushing as hard as I could to close the gap on third so I could be in podium contention and that's when I lost it. Nothing I can do now but try again next week."
A tough start to 2015 continued for Davi Millsaps, who injured his back in the main. He finished twelfth. “Today was really tough,” said Millsaps in a Monster Energy Kawasaki statement. “It started great, I felt comfortable on the track, but I crashed and jacked-up my back. I rested it for the afternoon and just pushed through the pain all night. Nothing has quite fallen my way, but I’m optimistic that we’re continuing to move forward and we will find our place at the front.”
Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson’s top-ten streak to start the season has reached eight after a seventh in Atlanta. “I got a good start, but got a little wide in the first corner and ended up seventh,” he said in a team statement. “I’m only one point out of fourth overall, which is good. Looking forward to coming back to Atlanta next Saturday. I’m just going to keep plugging away.”
Broc Tickle’s top-ten streak since coming back from injury continued last weekend. Since his returned at San Diego, Tickle has gone 9-9-6. “I worked on my starts last week but I didn’t have it for the main. My start ruined me,” he said in a Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s RCH Suzuki team statement. “I think I could have been a little better, results-wise, with a better start. Overall though, I’m pretty pumped with my finish. I think I was eleventh or twelfth after the start and passed my way all the way up to sixth. I think that’s the best I rode all year so I’m stoked about that. My bike was working really, really good. I’m going to go down to Kenny’s farm this week and plan to work on my starts some more. I’ll work on more of what I practiced last week and see if I can improve.”
Josh Grant has finally awoken, officially, from his early season slumber. After going 18-19-20-21-22 in the first five races, he’s rung up 12-8-10 scores since on his Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports’ Kawasaki.
According to a statement from Yoshimura Suzuki team manager Mike Webb, Blake Baggett was dealing with dizziness and an illness in Atlanta. “I think the fact that he was battling dizziness added to his struggles during the night and made his finish more impressive,” he said. Baggett overcame a bad start to work up to eighth. “I spun it a little bit coming off the gate and was I think sixteenth or so coming out of the first turn,” Baggett said. “I plugged away from there and tried to get the tire to the ground and get some traction and work our way forward. The track was really technical tonight. I came away with an eighth, so I’ll go back and do a little testing and come back ready for Atlanta II.”
Jake Weimer has been Mr. Consistency lately on his Monster Energy/Team Tedder Kawasaki, although we’re not sure if the actual results thrill him. He’s finished 15-15-14-15 at the last four races.
Justin Barcia was back at the races for team Autotrader.com/Toyota/JGR Yamaha. Still recovering from a hip and pelvis injury after a big test track crash a few weeks ago, Barcia might be able to return for Daytona in two weeks. He signed autographs and chatted with the press on Saturday—we’ll have more from him later in the week.
BTOSports.com KTM’s Justin Brayton also came to Atlanta to greet fans. He’s a few weeks off from returning to racing—his comeback could come after Daytona, perhaps Indy, but it’s hard to say for sure until he’s back on a bike.
Onto the lap times!
450SX Class
Look at those top times! Trey Canard goes fastest of all on lap twelve! Weston Peick is second fastest of anyone! What ever happened to the days when the guy with the fastest lap won the race? These are the good old days!
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 3 | 48.811 | 12 | 49.711 | Trey Canard |
| 2 | 5 | 48.864 | 2 | 50.699 | Weston Peick |
| 3 | 1 | 48.886 | 3 | 49.839 | Chad Reed |
| 4 | 2 | 49.017 | 12 | 49.761 | Ryan Dungey |
| 5 | 4 | 49.589 | 7 | 50.558 | Cole Seely |
| 6 | 20 | 49.638 | 3 | 52.923 | Eli Tomac |
| 7 | 6 | 49.700 | 6 | 50.532 | Broc Tickle |
| 8 | 18 | 49.829 | 4 | 51.428 | Ken Roczen |
| 9 | 8 | 49.848 | 10 | 50.932 | Blake Baggett |
| 10 | 7 | 49.944 | 7 | 51.092 | Jason Anderson |
| 11 | 15 | 50.027 | 11 | 51.578 | Jake Weimer |
| 12 | 9 | 50.422 | 6 | 51.643 | Andrew Short |
| 13 | 11 | 50.819 | 3 | 52.656 | Phil Nicoletti |
| 14 | 13 | 50.872 | 7 | 52.579 | Mike Alessi |
| 15 | 10 | 51.155 | 9 | 51.968 | Josh Grant |
| 16 | 12 | 51.250 | 5 | 52.392 | Davi Millsaps |
| 17 | 16 | 51.467 | 2 | 53.764 | Kyle Chisholm |
| 18 | 14 | 51.551 | 5 | 52.816 | Josh Hill |
| 19 | 19 | 52.087 | 3 | 55.129 | Zack Feeberg |
| 20 | 17 | 52.224 | 6 | 53.782 | Nick Wey |
| 21 | 21 | 52.801 | 5 | 57.288 | Ronnie Stewart |
| 22 | 22 | 54.080 | 5 | 57.806 | Cade Clason |
250SX Class
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 1 | 50.284 | 7 | 51.106 | Jeremy Martin |
| 2 | 2 | 50.413 | 5 | 51.356 | Marvin Musquin |
| 3 | 4 | 50.625 | 9 | 52.136 | Martin Davalos |
| 4 | 7 | 50.635 | 6 | 52.619 | Matt Lemoine |
| 5 | 5 | 50.692 | 7 | 51.921 | Joey Savatgy |
| 6 | 3 | 50.779 | 3 | 51.872 | Justin Bogle |
| 7 | 6 | 51.078 | 6 | 52.571 | Vince Friese |
| 8 | 10 | 51.184 | 11 | 52.129 | Arnaud Tonus |
| 9 | 11 | 51.442 | 8 | 52.729 | Mitchell Oldenburg |
| 10 | 8 | 51.488 | 3 | 52.549 | Anthony Rodriguez |
| 11 | 9 | 51.723 | 4 | 52.646 | RJ Hampshire |
| 12 | 12 | 52.071 | 8 | 53.479 | Gannon Audette |
| 13 | 13 | 52.245 | 3 | 53.854 | Kyle Peters |
| 14 | 14 | 52.369 | 7 | 53.930 | Dakota Alix |
| 15 | 15 | 52.460 | 3 | 53.769 | Brady Kiesel |
| 16 | 18 | 52.529 | 6 | 54.370 | Justin Starling |
| 17 | 16 | 52.552 | 7 | 54.231 | Jimmy Decotis |
| 18 | 17 | 52.833 | 3 | 54.253 | Nick Gaines |
| 19 | 20 | 52.869 | 3 | 54.702 | Daniel Herrlein |
| 20 | 19 | 53.074 | 3 | 55.321 | Jace Owen |
| 21 | 22 | 53.726 | 3 | 55.446 | Zack Williams |
| 22 | 21 | 55.222 | 7 | 57.563 | Levi Kilbarger |
Matt Lemoine is really making a case for "fast as a factory rider" with these times.
More News and Notes:
Following a brutal crash in his debut, GEICO Honda rookie RJ Hampshire battled through injuries to record his second straight top-ten finish. "I feel lucky to even be racing here after last week's wreck," Hampshire said in a statement. "I was pretty beat up after the race. Once I got home I realized my injuries were pretty significant, enough that I couldn't really ride until two days ago. There were times tonight when it was hard to breath because of my lungs being banged up but I fought through it.” Hampshire, who finished ninth, admitted he was a little rusty last weekend. "I was definitely a little rusty but I felt okay overall. I just had it in my head that I wanted to put in fifteen laps and get some points. I know I didn't do my best, not even close, but I'm proud to get another top-ten finish for my GEICO Honda team. I'm pretty happy overall."
Fellow rookie Luke Renzland also had a tough second outing, failing to qualify after hitting his head after casing a triple in his heat. Renzland did not line up for the LCQ. “The first lap of the heat, we all bottled up in the second corner pretty bad, but I still decided to do the triple right out of the corner and I cased it real hard,” he said on Instagram. “I hit my head off the bars which blurred my vision really bad. I was running 6th all by myself for the next three laps, but I was off rhythm and feeling out of it from the first lap. Then I came around, and cased a simple jump and it ejected me over the bars pretty hard. I was able to get right back up, but my team, Asterisk [medics], and myself all made a mutual decision to take the night off. I should be ok to race next weekend, but I'll keep everyone updated along the way!”
A week after his first career podium, Joey Savatgy got a bad start and wasn’t able to close on the top four—finishing fifth. “I’m not too happy with tonight,” he said in a team statement. “The heat race was great, but I couldn’t get the start in the main event and that’s frustrating. There is no excuse to not be up front off the start. I have the best bike possible and the best team and I want to put them up front where we belong.”
Savatgy’s Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate Arnaud Tonus also struggled in his second race, finishing tenth. “My bike was really good tonight, but I didn’t get to show that,” he said in a team statement. “I got a bad start and had to double both the triples on the first lap and when I jumped off the landing of the second one, Joey tripled and we came together. From there I just tried to pass as many riders as I could.”
Tough outing for the entire MotoSport.com/GPI Honda team in Atlanta. After qualifying sixth, rookie Colt Nichols had his troubles in the heat and LCQ, and failed to qualify. He feel victim to a pileup in the whoops in his heat, which left him with nowhere to go except into the pile and down on the ground. Meanwhile, teammate Kyle Peters dislocated his shoulder in practice and was only able to manage a thirteenth. “Tough day/night went down hard in qualifying practice and dislocated my shoulder, just had to regroup and make the best of what I could... Looking forward to healing up and really showing everyone what I can do!!” Peters said on Instagram.
Another solid night from JAB Motorsports’ Matt Lemoine, who took seventh after a race long battle with Vince Friese. Not many noticed since the race for the 250 win was so good, but the two privateers were glued to each other nearly the entire way. Lemoine managed to get away late, but then a big mistake and near crash heading toward the finish-line jump slowed him, and Friese pounced to steal sixth. “My end results doesn’t show what I had going tonight. Lappers need to learn what the blue flag means,” Lemoine said on Twitter.
Friese, meanwhile, continues to do what he does: he has back-to-back sixths in the first two rounds on his SmarTop MotoConcepts machine. He nearly won a heat race over Savatgy, too.
