Elsewhere Blake Baggett, who broke his collarbone last week, rode to sixteenth place from nearly dead last, even battling briefly with Justin Bogle for fifteenth. Not a good moto for the JGR crew. Phil Nicoletti did well, placing tenth, but both Justin Barcia and Weston Peick DNF’d after running well within the top ten. Barcia had an electrical issue and Peick crashed hard enough to keep him out of the second moto as well.

450 Moto Two

After a heartbreaking loss due to a mechanical problem in the first moto, Ken Roczen would not be denied in the second. He got a good start and ripped into the lead and started sprinting away. Dungey tried to follow, moving into second right away and giving chase, but Roczen wasn’t having it. Dungey was able to keep him within five seconds for a while, but as the moto wore on the gap just got bigger and bigger, eventually growing to nearly twenty seconds. Dungey rode to a lonely second. There was quite a bit of action in third place though. Trey Canard held the position for a while before coming under fire from Jason Anderson, who finally took over the spot. But then Anderson swapped hard on a small uphill jump, nearly rocketing into Canard. Anderson went back to fourth, and his pace seemed to slow slightly after that.

At this point Eli Tomac had worked his way up to fifth after an absolutely terrible start and started reeling in Anderson, just like Anderson had done to Tomac in the first moto. After getting by Anderson, Tomac caught Canard and the two put on a tremendous battle. Tomac was finally able to make the pass, but Canard fought back and regained third. Tomac retaliated immediately, scrubbing a jump and passing Canard in the next turn and sprinting away. That’s as far as he would get though, as about twenty seconds separated him from Dungey. Roczen won the moto but Dungey took the overall.

250 Moto One

Tristan Charboneau got the FMF Glen Helen National going by holeshotting the first moto, but Alex Martin quickly took over the lead and started building a gap. Behind him Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin were working on Charboneau, and when they both got around him it looked as though they were going to hunt down Alex. Only that didn’t happen. In fact, A. Martin was actually able to extend his lead, eventually getting it up to seven seconds at one point. At this time J. Martin was all over Webb for second, but some sort of mistake in an area out of view caused him to lose a few spots. With J. Martin off his back Webb was able to focus on catching up to A. Martin, and when the two-lap board came out Webb was all over him. He made the pass on A. Martin, and when the white flag came out he’d built a two-second gap. Webb would go on to win the moto with A. Martin taking second. Austin Forkner, pretty much all by himself out there, rode great to take third. Joey Savatgy suffered from a terrible start, roughly eighteenth, and just wasn’t able to make up much ground in this one. Bad news for GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig, who had a big crash after getting together with Jordon Smith and DNF’d with a broken tibia and fibula.

250 Moto Two

Jeremy Martin got out to the early lead in this one and immediately started sprinting away from Jessy Nelson in second. It looked like Martin was going to try to disappear, but Austin Forkner got around Nelson before that happened and started matching the champ’s pace, even turning a few faster laps here and there. He managed to get the gap down to below two seconds but a mistake at the top of a hill knocked him down to sixth. Had he held onto second he would have taken second overall in just his second career National. Forkner’s error handed second back to Nelson and third to Alex Martin, although Webb, who’d hunted  down A. Martin in the first moto for the win, was running fourth. If he could catch A. Martin again he’d win the overall. But A. Martin was flying and even caught Nelson with about two minutes to go, putting himself in position to win the overall. Webb wasn’t out of contention, however, and started closing in on Nelson. But then Nelson turned the speed back on and maintained the gap, allowing A. Martin to win his first ever National. And if that wasn’t enough, he’ll also be sporting the red plate next weekend, as Savatgy's 9-7 hands the points lead to A. Martin. Great day for Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha—the team completely owned the podium.

Practice – Session Two

Jeremy Martin and Joey Savatgy took turns holding the fastest times in the final practice session, but when the checkers came out neither one of them were on top. Instead it was rookie Austin Forkner, who topped the field by about two tenths. The track was a little slower in this session so his fastest time won’t hold up in the combined results, but even there he was only a tenth behind fastest qualifier Cooper Webb. We’ll see if he can produce that kind of speed this afternoon for both motos. Joey Savatgy was good in the second session too, actually beating his time from the first on a track that was definitely rougher. If the times from this practice are any indication of what the racing will be like we're in for a good day—the top five were separated by less than half a second!

The track must have changed a lot for the final 450 session because there was a pretty steady stream of riders pulling into the mechanic’s area for bike adjustments. Justin Brayton, Ryan Dungey, Trey Canard, Christophe Pourcel, Josh Grant, Ken Roczen, Andrew Short, James Stewart, Weston Peick, Justin Bogle, and more all pulled in for changes, some of them more than once. Even Eli Tomac pulled in for adjustments right after setting one of his fastest laps of the session! And speaking of Tomac, he set the fastest time yet again, almost two seconds ahead of Ryan Dungey. But the good news for Dungey is he was much better in the final practice, moving up to second fastest from seventh fastest. He was also faster in the second session than the first, while most everyone else was slower.

Don’t forget to check back here for updates throughout today’s motos. The action promises to be superb, and today’s track is a masterpiece. Watching riders scrub some of the steep downhill jumps is breathtaking and there is a massive jump in a far corner that’s giving riders more hang time than a picture frame. The track is also getting rough, and bikes are bouncing around like crazy in a few areas. Watching the best riders in the world race each other on this surface is going to be spectacular.

Practice – Session One

Round one of practice is in the books here at the FMF Glen Helen National, and if you’re Cooper Webb things are looking good. The Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha rider was the fastest 250 rider out there, recording his best time, a 2:27.136, on the fourth lap. But Austin Forkner and Jeremy Martin weren’t far behind, each throwing down laps less than half a second off Webb’s time. In fact, Forkner’s best time was only a tenth off. Some of the riders struggled with timing in a tricky rhythm section in the middle of the track, a few of them even casing some jumps pretty hard. It could prove to be a critical section in today’s motos.

In 450 action Ken Roczen was killing it, holding the fastest time for quite a while, but Eli Tomac busted out a heater on his final lap to edge Roczen out by about half a second. Speaking of Tomac, he was fun to watch during this practice. He was charging pretty hard most of the time and even battled with Weston Peick and Justin Barcia for a little while before pulling away from them. We’ll see if his speed carries through for the rest of the day on a rougher track.  Blake Baggett went out for practice but was by no means riding to his potential, which is understandable considering he broke his collarbone last week at Hangtown and had surgery on Monday. It’s crazy he’s even out here! He was fifteenth fastest. James Stewart is also riding hurt (he crashed at Hangtown and popped his shoulder out) and wasn’t pushing it. He ended up thirteenth fastest. Not a great session for Dungey, who ended up seventh fastest, but if you’re a Dungey fan don’t panic. The Red Bull KTM rider was in a similar situation last week but came out and set the fastest time in the second practice.