By: Steve Matthes and Kyle Scott
Ken Roczen | Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki | 3rd in 450SX
Made a little mistake with about a lap to go. I think otherwise I could have brought the heat a little bit on Chad [Reed]. It’s hard coming from the back. Bottom line, the track is tough out there. The whoops were something else today, so you really had to keep your focus. But we need difficult tracks. We’re going to come back and we’re going to keep trying, that’s for sure.
Is that the missing ingredient so far, starts?
Definitely. Three rounds and I’ve just been getting bad starts. My heat race start actually wasn’t bad. We’re just going to keep working them and working them. That’s all I can do. I’m doing everything I can to be the best that I can be. That’s all I can do.
Speed’s there.
Speed’s there, fitness is there, everything is solid so far. I’m really happy with the team. We’re working great together. We’ll come back and be at the top.
Talk about your pass on Eli?
He went down so obviously I got a little bit lucky there. You never want to see anybody go down. Just before that I made a mistake and after the second set of whoops I had to go double, double, single which cost me big time. I think I should have been a little bit more patient there. I think I could have either way passed Eli or passed Reed.
Was that a mistake in the whoops that cost you?
No, I went too far to the inside. I went through the whoops super slow and just had to go double, double, single. – Kyle Scott
Eli Tomac | Monster Energy Kawasaki | 4th in 450SX
Racer X: Man, going for second, washed out, and I guess that’s a tough deal. Up to then seemed like a nice race except for your start.
Eli Tomac: Yeah the start, once again it’s like you’ve got to get top two in your heat race to get the good starting pad. All of our gates are pretty jacked, and that’s what I’m going to blame it on, although I probably shouldn’t. The line coming out of the gate is so important and there were probably only three good gates and they get taken up.
And with that right hand first turn, you had to be inside maybe five or six spots or you were done.
Done. I was lucky to even tuck and came out like I did, you know? I probably was in fifteenth but I came out tenth on the first lap. But, big improvement on the race side of things, at least I was a podium-speed guy. Heat race I was right there again, it’s kind of like whoever starts in front of who… Man, I don’t know, I made ninteen laps, I didn’t make it twenty. Kind of sucks to have the washout like that.
Did you change your line or something there when you washed out?
That wasn’t really a spot where you could make a pass. I wasn’t trying to set anything up. It was kind of a freak deal. That turn did have a little bit of a breaking bump in it, and I think I must have hit it at the wrong angle, as the bump was falling away I just happened to be leaning and my front end washed.
Did you see Reed go for the three-three?
Oh yeah! I never saw anyone do it during the day, and the sucker pulls it out on lap eight! [Laughs] I was like holy crap!
He says he saw Peick do it in the semi.
[Laughs] Well, I guess someone else did do it. I don’t know what to say, he was getting a little bit of time on my right there. It gave him some room on me every lap. I got crazy close to him on lap 18 and 19, but I blew it on lap 19.
The good news is you were the only guy doing that quad, it was gnarly, but I don’t know if it was any faster.
Yeah, I don’t know. It was easier to do for twenty laps, I’ll tell you that. It loaded my bike better for the sand, too, so I was loving it. I think it you timed it all the way to the end of the sand it was maybe a tenth faster—it was crazy close. – Steve Matthes
Cooper Webb | Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha | 1st in 250SX
Racer X: Pretty intense battle with you and Christian. Do you feel like any of it was a little over the line with you guys stopping each other up?
Cooper Webb: No, I don’t think. It was a fun race.
A lot of line changes.
It was a lot of back and forth. The biggest thing is I just didn’t want to get caught up behind him too long and then Zach [Osborne] catch us and us have a three way [battle]. But it was cool. I think obviously we were respectful and nothing over the edge. But I definitely wanted to make it stick and try to get away.
You got him good right in the half of the start straightaway and then he messed up his rhythm and then you took off.
Yeah, I knew I had to make it stick because he was fighting back and forth. So I just wanted to make it stick and make sure he couldn’t come back.
When you were guys were going back and forth Osborne caught back up, and then you guys were getting into it.
That’s what I was worried about, Zach catching us and making it a three-way battle. It worked out, though.
How’s Alex [Martin] doing? He had a pretty rough night.
I think he’s all right. I talked to him a little bit. He’s all right. He said he had a big one but he’s all right.
I saw you give Chad Reed a high five first thing after your win. You guys talk at all a little bit?
Yeah, he helped me out a little bit with some setup today and the bike and everything like that. I was just giving him some lines.
So you feel pretty good? 75 points, three for three.
Yeah, I feel really good. Dream come true really, three in a row. Looking forward to the black hole in Oakland next week. – Scott
Zach Osborne | Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna | 2nd in 250SX
Racer X: Did you change your bike setup from practice to the heat to the night show?
Zach Osborne: Believe it or not, I didn’t.
Because it didn’t look like you weren’t getting through the whoops as easy.
I know. Before the last practice we made a change to the shock and it made a huge difference, way better, but then I feel like at night traction wasn’t quite as good and it was too stiff. I feel like I rode pretty terrible in my heat race. We made some changes after the heat race with some clickers and kind of reevaluated things and it went better in the main.
Bad starts tonight, Webb was right in front of you.
Yeah, it’s going to take a holeshot and a perfect fifteen to beat him. I’ve got to get my starts better. Last year my starts were really, really good all year. I think I got three of the seven holeshots all year, and the other ones I was right there. Starting with him in fifth or sixth and coming through the pack with him isn’t going to net a win.
You saw Craig and Webb together and some of that tomfoolery, you had to be like, “Perfect, guys, thank you.”
Yeah, and I maybe relied on that a little too much. I thought for sure they were going to cross each other too much and both go down. I should have went for the attack a little sooner, and I just didn’t. But last week I went for it and crashed away second. This time I’m walking away with second, so it’s a positive. – Matthes
