By Steve Matthes and Aaron Hansel
Ken Roczen | Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki | 2nd in 450SX
Race weekend was really good for the team. We made a bunch of changes to the bike after practice and we won the heat race. That gave me some confidence for the main event. Grabbed another decent start. Made a couple passes on the first lap, got up to [Ryan] Dungey, we were battling pretty hard the whole time. I felt like I was faster on some parts of the track, but we got into lappers, and they kind of separated us a little bit. I tried to make another charge at the end but it wasn’t enough. It was okay though because we were riding good all night, and that’s what it’s all about. Overall, Santa Clara was good for us. We’ll go back to Florida, put in a good week, and come back strong for Indy. – Courtesy RCH
Chad Reed | Monster Energy/fly360/Chaparral Yamaha | 4th in 450SX
Racer X: Tough to make any time up—they knocked the whoops down, it was a short race.
Chad Reed: Yeah, to comment on the track, in practice, I thought it was pretty decent. But in the night show it was just so fast. When I hit third gear, and it was just everything I had in third gear, wide open. In the whoops. That’s not racing to me. They did a lot of track work, and the first few laps were just balls out. I mean, no excuses, I need to go balls out. But it just takes the thinking out of it. Dung and Kenny, they were fast. I think it was the fastest they went all season long. I felt like I rode well, that was my everything, and they dropped me and [Jason] Anderson and everybody, pretty good. Got a little work to do on that side of it. But when you think about our world, we had a really solid day. No big changes on the bike. I’ve been working hard on my starts, switched to the hydraulic clutch, and as you can see it helped a little bit.
That’s the main reason you switched to the hydraulic clutch—starts?
Yeah. I didn’t have a good feel with the clutch coming over the line. Luckily Byrner [Michael Byrne} has one on his bike, I tried it—stalled it. [Laughs] Luckily, the guys at the Yamaha shop had some, too. Rinaldi [GP team] as been running it for years, that helped. You know how the factories are, they want to try it for a month to make sure it doesn’t do anything, but I think the fact that it was Rinaldi’s helped us. – Steve Matthes
Eli Tomac | Monster Energy Kawasaki | 7th in 450SX
Racer X: On this track, your night was done with a bad start. Had to be frustrating.
Eli Tomac: Really, really, frustrating. Terrible, terrible starts. I don’t know what I was doing, felt like I was spinning off the pad and wasn’t going forward while everyone else was. I felt good in practice but I feel like I didn’t bring that to the night show. You had to get the starts to get up there. –Matthes
Zach Osborne | Rockstar Energy Husqvarna | 2nd in 250SX
Good race. To win the heat race, holeshot the main and lead eleven laps is solid. I just came up a little bit short. Caught two lappers in really bad spots and that chewed my lead down. Then he [Cooper Webb] went straight down the inside of me. Kind of a bummer there, but at the same time it was a positive result.
Yeah you had a pretty good gap late into it and then all of a sudden it was gone.
Yeah, it was quick. The track was basic and there wasn’t much separation, and turning mistake-free laps was important, and that’s something I typically excel at. Felt like I had a good chance and maybe let one escape. But other than that it was a good day.
How was that start? It seemed different.
I think it was pretty good actually. I like it when it’s shorter. Last year the start here was huge and I got taken out. I like the slower starts and I think they favor the guy with good technique a little more. It’s so short you have to be on point. – Aaron Hansel
Joey Savatgy | Monster Energy /Pro Circuit Kawasaki | 3rd in 250SX
It was all right. Didn’t get a good start, and that’s basically the gist of everything. Didn’t get a good start and didn’t put myself in a position to win. Felt good and felt like we had fast laps but got held up by some lappers there at the end. A few guys were a bit harder to pass for me than they were for Webb, but all in all it is what it is. We came out of here with twenty points and we still have a shot at the title. It’s never over till it’s over; I just made it a little harder on myself. Overall I’m happy, though. I rode well, just didn’t get a good start. That’s basically it.
You had to come through his teammates. How was that?
He got around his teammates a lot easier than I did. They know a title is on the line and I don’t blame them for getting out of his way. They put up a lot more a fight with me, but that’s expected. If I had teammates in the same position I’d hope they would do the same thing. And if I’d have gotten a good start I wouldn’t have had to worry about any of that anyway. All I would have had to worry about was doing my laps. We’ll move on and come out swinging in Vegas.
You were both coming through traffic and picking off the same guys, and at the end it looked like you might have been inching up on him [Webb].
Yeah, in the middle, maybe laps eight to eleven I got the gap down to 1.3 and it was over two. I was clicking the laps off and started catching him, and he was catching Osborne and we were all getting bunched up. The blue flags were out, and whether some people didn’t see them or just didn’t want to move. At the end of the day I didn’t get the start I needed and that’s the reason we didn’t win. –Hansel
Kyle Cunningham | Motorcycle Superstore Suzuki | 12th in 250SX
Finally got a good start in the main. The heat went all right, got a bad start, but felt like I rode better than I did all day. Made some changes recently with the bike and we went in the right direction. I’m really happy with all the guys from Motorcycle Superstore Suzuki, and all their hard work has been great, especially my mechanic Austin.
Went into the main, didn’t have the greatest gate pick and picked an outside gate and got a really good jump and started up front. It’s been a while since I’ve been up there at the start of a race and I rode a little bit tight. I got together with Jordon Smith there at the end, he came up inside and I got the bad end of it. Sucks on the last lap, but I’ll take it for what it is and take the positives. Still a little banged up from Toronto so we’ll go get some things checked out before the next round and see what we have to do and keep working hard. –Hansel
