Meanwhile, a small sign of life for Anderson’s teammate Christophe Pourcel, who was seventh in moto two after 15-17-29 scores to start the season. “It’s tough to come back with my neck injury,” said Pourcel, who was injured before the Toronto supercross back in March. “It’s been hard to get back on the bike and race. When I practice, my neck is sore, and you can imagine how rough it is during the race. It’s super tough with this track, too. I always get tight. I got a bad start in the first moto, then broke my lens in half and crashed, so I decided to stop and change the lens because I didn’t want it to explode in my eyes. Then I tried to regroup for my second moto. I got a good gate on the outside, got a good start, and ran the pace for a little bit and ended up in a good spot. I had a lot of pain in my neck by the end of the moto. It was tough, but I’m going to keep pushing, and hopefully I’ll be all healed in a couple weeks."

Also improved was Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki’s Broc Tickle, who logged an uncharacteristic 14-18 last week at Hangtown. This time he went 8-13 for tenth. “Glen Helen was better than the week before,” said Tickle in a team statement. “I qualified 10th in both practices. In the first moto, I got about a 15th-place start, passed a couple guys and then a couple guys crashed so I ended up eighth. The first moto was good. I felt like I had a good flow going. In the second moto, I wanted to improve a little bit and see where I could be a little better. I wanted to pick it up in the second and pass some more people. I got the same type of start in the second moto but both my legs started cramping so I just kind of settled in and rode it out. I’m looking forward to Colorado. Last year I got fourth overall and it was a good race for me.”

While almost all of the factory riders in California have logged time at Glen Helen, most point out that the track prep and layout are totally different for practice days, so it’s not a huge advantage when Lucas Oil Pro Motocross comes to town. The addition of those huge hills for the race day makes a big impact. “I think it’s most important to be patient and not try to be a hero down the hills,” Trey Canard said in a Honda HRC statement. “If you push it too hard, one small mistake could cost you the race or your season. You want to try to be as smooth as possible and find the right line up and down. Bike setup is also very important but we can’t really set the bikes up too much for the hills because you also have to ride them everywhere else.”

“There really isn’t a huge change made to the bike to adapt to the hills,” confirmed Canard’s mechanic, Brent Presnell. “We’re able to test a lot at Glen Helen and although we don’t run the full hills on practice days, we’re able to keep an eye on things and test some stuff. We know the hills do a number on your forks, so it’s important to have a solid setup there.”

As for the overall performance of the Honda riders, team manager Dan Betley summed it up: “I’m really happy Trey seems to be turning around his starts. In four motos, he has had three solid starts. Now he can go to the line not second-guessing or overthinking it because he knows he’s capable of getting good starts. He was riding well today; unfortunately, he went down again in the first moto, but he was still able to come back and finish in the top ten. Cole rode well too and is making definite improvements. He’s still figuring out the big picture and how he needs to step up to the next level, and I think he’s on track. He’s working very hard. The track was pretty treacherous in my opinion and a little over the top, but everyone has to ride the same track.”

We saw an absolute hero effort from Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett, who saddled up and rode the first moto just five days after a plate was surgically installed over his broken collarbone. When you’re riding in that condition, the last thing you want to do is crash. On a hill. On the first lap. But that’s what Baggett did in moto one. He came from last to sixteenth. Incredible.

Lap Times

450 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	4	2:26.867	10	2:32.376	Ken Roczen
2	1	2:28.241	5	2:31.432	Ryan Dungey
3	3	2:30.283	5	2:33.391	Eli Tomac
4	2	2:30.732	6	2:32.857	Jason Anderson
5	9	2:30.861	2	2:38.503	Marvin Musquin
6	6	2:31.658	6	2:35.765	Josh Grant
7	5	2:31.949	3	2:35.426	Cole Seely
8	35	2:32.435	5	2:34.006	Weston Peick
9	7	2:33.433	4	2:37.116	Trey Canard
10	10	2:34.705	3	2:38.357	Phil Nicoletti

Wow, Roczen nearly a second-and-a-half quicker than Dungey, but Dungey was two seconds faster than anyone else! By the way, Roczen's lap times went into the 2:50s after he lost the air in his fork.

450 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:29.604	3	2:32.654	Ken Roczen
2	3	2:30.350	9	2:33.716	Eli Tomac
3	2	2:30.476	4	2:33.923	Ryan Dungey
4	5	2:31.557	4	2:36.292	Jason Anderson
5	4	2:32.202	3	2:35.815	Trey Canard
6	6	2:34.859	3	2:36.413	Josh Grant
7	7	2:34.940	2	2:37.115	Christophe Pourcel
8	9	2:35.077	8	2:38.805	Phil Nicoletti
9	8	2:35.288	8	2:37.048	Justin Barcia
10	10	2:35.333	7	2:38.899	Cole Seely

Roczen sprinted early to establish the lead, but just like last week Dungey started to heat up and match him for a few early laps--he was slightly quicker than Roczen on laps four and five. But Roczen responded by going a second quicker on lap six, and two seconds quicker on lap eight, which was enough to build a comfortable advantage. You can tell Dungey is trying though!

Tomac's second-moto ride was his best this year, but it's hard to measure where he stands against Roczen's pace. His laps in the opening five laps weren't that close but he was buried in traffic while Roczen was alone out front (Tomac ran a 2:37 on lap two, which was a whopping seven seconds off of Roczen's time on that lap). For the second half of the race, they were within a second on lap times, until the last two laps when Tomac backed it way down. If he can start closer to Roczen we'll see if he can actually match him. Maybe this weekend?  

250 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:30.635	13	2:32.143	Cooper Webb
2	4	2:30.865	7	2:33.762	Jeremy Martin
3	2	2:31.345	7	2:32.575	Alex Martin
4	3	2:31.580	3	2:33.391	Austin Forkner
5	6	2:32.150	3	2:35.989	RJ Hampshire
6	5	2:32.359	9	2:34.124	Aaron Plessinger
7	9	2:32.792	12	2:35.883	Joey Savatgy
8	8	2:33.101	7	2:35.730	Zach Osborne
9	11	2:33.506	3	2:36.842	Adam Cianciarulo
10	10	2:33.537	7	2:36.487	Arnaud Tonus

Cooper Webb logged the fastest lap of the moto on the next-to-last lap of the moto. Alex Martin told us he got nervous while leading, but his worst lap was only two seconds slower than his first. The lap times show this result more of a case of Webb picking up the pace late than Alex falling off.

250 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	5	2:32.143	6	2:36.835	Austin Forkner
2	1	2:32.305	7	2:35.712	Jeremy Martin
3	2	2:33.133	6	2:33.133	Alex Martin
4	6	2:33.154	6	2:36.485	Aaron Plessinger
5	3	2:33.728	7	2:36.212	Jessy Nelson
6	4	2:33.897	7	2:36.294	Cooper Webb
7	7	2:34.202	4	2:37.009	Joey Savatgy
8	8	2:35.725	12	2:38.297	Zach Osborne
9	9	2:36.333	4	2:39.105	Martin Davalos
10	10	2:36.381	6	2:38.827	Mitchell Harrison

Whoa! The rookie with the best lap? Could this kid be a title contender in his very first season?

When Alex Martin realized he needed to get Jessy Nelson late to seal the overall win, he dug deep. Until lap nine, they pretty much matched each other lap for lap, but on laps 10-11-12, AMart took six total seconds from Nelson. Then they went the same speed again on the final two laps. 

250MX News and Notes

The 1-2 overall finish for the Martin brothers grabbed the headlines, but kudos to their Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha teammate Cooper Webb, who went 1-4 for third overall despite riding with a broken wrist. Webb, whom many didn’t even expect to line up for the Nationals, has been darned strong so far despite barely riding during the week while the wrist heals—he rode once between Las Vegas supercross and Hangtown, then rode the Hangtown and Glen Helen press days, and a few laps at our Chaney Ranch ride day last week. (His mechanic, Eric Gass, told us the Chaney ride was only equal to about a quarter of a normal day of riding.) The biggest issue for Webb right now is getting blisters due to a lack of ride time, and he struggled with that in moto two. Still, he’s second in points. Not bad for a salvage effort!

Somehow, Joey Savatgy went from one of the largest points leads we’ve ever seen after one round (15 points) to not even having the lead after round two! Starts of sixteenth and fifteenth led to 9-7 finishes and seventh overall. “Today didn’t quite go our way,” said Savatgy in Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki statement. “We started the day off on the right foot by qualifying well but couldn’t quite get my starts dialed in, which hurt us in the long run. It’s a long season and this is only one race of many, so I’m looking forward to rebuilding and heading to Colorado.”

Most hotshot rookies out of the amateur ranks enter the pros with a little too much hype, but Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner has done a good job of logging quiet but effective rides. Like, really effective. He finished third in moto one, then started moto two in third before passing Jessy Nelson for second, which he held until a brief fall on lap eight. His 3-5 was enough for fourth overall, which actually made him the top non-Yamaha rider in the 250s. He’s also sixth in points, second of the non-Yamaha riders. If this kid sneaks in a win and catches fire, look out.

“Today was great,” Forkner said in a team statement. “Practice went really well. When it came to the motos, I had two great starts and my first podium. In the second moto I felt much faster and was catching the lead group until I went down and finally ended fourth. Overall, to be beat by two, two-time champions isn’t bad at all... I learned a lot today and I’m looking forward to Colorado.”

Last week, Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne overcame a terrible start in the second moto to net a fourth, powered by the fastest lap time of the moto. This week he was buried off the start again, and dug out 8-8 scores. “I had a decent day,” Osborne said. “At the same time it was kind of disappointing with two starts outside the top twenty then just battled all day for eighth. I’m just going to keep plugging away and hopefully get some momentum going.”