Honda HRC’s Cole Seely appeared to have a second straight podium in his grasp, holding third for eleven laps (4-14), before losing the position to Jason Anderson. Anderson told us after the race that he thinks Seely made a mistake. “He just made a little bobble. It was really one of the easier passes that I’ve ever done. He rolled a whole section I think.”

In a team statement, Seely said that his shoulder, which he had surgery on last season, got tight. “I was third or fourth outside the box, which made me a little nervous, but I just really dug deep for that start. I came out fourth, passed for third and ran there for a good chunk of the race before my shoulder that I had surgery on last year got tight and Anderson closed in on me and make the pass.”

Frustrating night for HRC Honda’s Trey Canard, who got a bad start and then crashed while trying to come through. He finished ninth. “There were some good steps in the right direction, but obviously I’m disappointed,” he said in a team statement. “I just have to get better on the starts and I won’t be in trouble like I have been. We’ll keep working and come back next week.”

Team manager Dan Betley added. “It was a tough night for Trey. We struggled with the start in the main. He was fairly far outside but still managed to get a good jump out of the gate, but unfortunately he lost it after that, which put him in a bad position for the race. He was about 14th at the start and was trying to make his way forward when he went down and fell back again. We’ve made some positive changes with the bikes the past two weeks and the riders are happy so we just need to keep building.”

Justin Brayton and Chad Reed’s streak of consecutive top tens to begin the season ended in Arlington, as they finished eleventh and twelfth, respectively. Only five riders—Dungey, Roczen, Seely, Anderson and Eli Tomac—have finished inside the top ten at every round this year. 

BTOSports.com KTM’s Davi Millsaps told us on Saturday that he injured his thumb last week and didn’t know how things would go in Texas. He ended up riding well by taking a solid seventh, but the injury will be something to keep an eye on as the season moves forward.

450SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	50.625	3	51.488	Ken Roczen
2	2	50.754	5	51.581	Ryan Dungey
3	4	51.014	5	52.568	Cole Seely
4	5	51.176	7	52.689	Eli Tomac
5	3	51.259	7	52.388	Jason Anderson
6	6	51.634	10	52.407	Marvin Musquin
7	7	52.174	4	53.195	Davi Millsaps
8	8	52.253	4	53.119	Christophe Pourcel
9	9	52.370	4	53.662	Trey Canard
10	16	52.404	2	54.217	Mike Alessi
11	10	52.408	6	53.811	Jake Weimer
12	18	52.418	5	54.819	Justin Bogle
13	12	52.466	16	53.143	Chad Reed
14	17	52.478	2	53.389	Vince Friese
15	21	52.576	3	55.362	Weston Peick
16	14	52.733	6	54.147	Wil Hahn
17	13	52.914	4	54.229	Andrew Short
18	11	53.115	13	53.988	Justin Brayton
19	15	53.256	8	54.336	Phil Nicoletti
20	19	54.639	4	56.793	Nick Schmidt
21	22	55.198	3	56.767	Alex Ray
22	20	55.630	5	59.209	Deven Raper

It doesn’t get much closer than this Roczen/Dungey matchup. Above you can see their best laps were only about a tenth apart. Here are each of their laps side by side:

Lap	Ken Roczen	Ryan Dungey
2	51.088	51.94
3	50.625	51.477
4	51.084	51.153
5	51.119	50.754
6	51.31	51.449
7	50.966	50.931
8	51.268	51.951
9	51.115	50.814
10	51.333	51.252
11	51.728	51.204
12	51.338	51.244
13	51.586	51.512
14	51.415	51.316
15	51.905	51.518
16	53.943	54.185
17	51.575	52.351
18	51.701	51.444
19	51.693	51.469
20	51.483	52.081

Now let’s look at the segment times, specifically segment four, the final stretch before the finish. The final rhythm section was tricky. In practice, riders started figuring out how to go double-over a-table, then quad-over-table, then double. But that required nailing that first double over the table perfectly. When riders started rushing things during the actual races, they couldn’t get that first jump right every time. “A couple of little mistakes I think for both of us,” said Roczen. “We didn’t hit the quad a few times.”

Late in the race Dungey was making a real run at Roczen and got close, but he wasn’t as consistent through that rhythm lane, and that helped bail Roczen out. Here are their times through that final segment for the last four laps:

Segment 4, last four laps:

Lap	Roczen	Dungey
17	17.5	18.1
18	17.6	17.6
19	17.5	17.8
20	17.6	18.2

Conversely, Dungey was quicker through the first segment of the track, including the sweeper after the finish.

Segment 1, last four laps:

Lap	Roczen	Dungey
17	6.2	6.1
18	6.2	6
19	6.2	6
20	6.2	6.2

That first segment helped Dungey get close. The final segment helped Roczen hold him at bay.

250SX West Region

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	2	51.705	4	52.698	Christian Craig
2	1	51.875	4	52.529	Cooper Webb
3	3	52.064	6	52.932	Zach Osborne
4	10	52.218	3	53.360	Joey Savatgy
5	4	52.420	7	53.011	Colt Nichols
6	5	52.820	5	53.669	Mitchell Oldenburg
7	7	52.862	6	53.991	Jimmy Decotis
8	6	52.874	5	54.108	Alex Martin
9	16	53.216	8	55.268	Kyle Cunningham
10	8	53.283	4	54.128	Chris Alldredge
11	9	53.339	4	54.385	Kyle Peters
12	17	53.491	4	55.771	Cole Thompson
13	11	53.560	7	54.440	Michael Leib
14	12	53.634	5	54.474	Fredrik Noren
15	14	53.674	5	54.663	Hayden Mellross
16	13	53.741	7	54.515	Cole Martinez
17	15	54.103	6	54.700	Mitchell Harrison
18	19	54.511	4	55.918	Trevor Reis
19	18	54.582	5	55.751	Scott Champion
20	21	55.559	5	56.030	Noah McConahy
21	20	55.639	3	57.783	Chris Howell
22	22	56.144	2	*56.144	Austin Politelli

*Politelli completed just one timed lap.

More News and Notes

We’ve spoken with Christian Craig and Joey Savatgy regarding the crash that shook the 250SX West Region. Each offered their side of the story and our own Jason Thomas weighed in on it as well, but the biggest benefactor from it all was Cooper Webb, who took his first win since Round 3 in Anaheim and reclaimed sole possession of the points lead.

“It was shaping up to be a freaking awesome battle, but unfortunately Joey [Savatgy] went down,” Webb told Race Day Live’s Jim Holley. “Christian [Craig] was riding awesome and put in some solid laps. I charged late and made it stick.”

With the 250SX West Region heading into break, Webb is actually taking some time off, telling Holley, “I’m actually headed on a cruise ship here in 24 hours.” Remember, Webb’s off-season was jam packed with races in Europe, Australia and Japan. He’s earned the break!

A quiet third went to Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne, his first podium since a second at Anaheim II. It wasn’t an expected result, as Osborne had a big crash in practice and wasn’t sure how he would perform in the main event. “I had a pretty big crash in the second practice,” said Osborne in a team statement, “so I was a little nervous going into the night, especially because I hadn’t ridden all week. I got a great start in my heat race and won so that turned things around for me. I ended up on the podium in the main and was right in the mix. It’s definitely a good way to go into the break. I’m going to focus on getting my ribs healthy and then I’ll be back for more.”