By Aaron Hansel and Jason Weigandt
Ryan Dungey | Red Bull KTM | 2-4 for second overall in 450MX
Overall it was good. Practice went really well, we got some good times, and we made a few adjustments. Nothing crazy. We felt pretty good from the get-go. Got a decent start in the first moto and was able to find some good lines. Ruts aren’t really my best thing; especially this track where the ruts are really tough, and I was working on standing and all those good things. In the second moto we had a good start and I tried to make a pass for the lead but my front got stuck in a little rut. It was on the little hip jump so it was kind of awkward and the rear got kind of caught sliding in the rut, and once it let go it kicked and kind of sent me in the air in a pitch. Thought I had it saved, it wasn’t like it was too far gone, but once I hit the soft dirt I tucked the front. Just tried to rebound from that. Coming back through the pack you don’t want to crash, and thankfully we were able to put a charge in and pass as many guys as we could. I got up to fourth and saw [Cole] Seely but I just couldn’t get to him. With all that happened in the second moto, I think overall it was pretty good.
In motocross and supercross, so many guys have been behind you and many times they scratch their heads wondering what they have to do to beat you. Is that how you feel about Roczen right now?
No, not necessarily. It’s just a matter of time. This off weekend comes at a good time; we can keep building off it. We’ll have a little bit of a break but we can also keep working on progressing and improving. The guys are going to keep working on their end, I’ll keep working on my end, and we’ll get there piece by piece. Just keeping getting more comfortable on the outdoor setup and work on a few things. It’s not like we’re too far off. And it’s racing. I think people look at me like, “Jeez, what’s your problem?” Well, it’s racing, you get challenged. What would it be if you didn’t? You keep perspective and the enjoyment. We had a little mishap out there today and thankfully we can walk away and be healthy. That’s important.
Has Roczen’s pace and fitness caught you off guard a little bit?
No. I’ve raced Kenny multiple years. Last year, with the injury he had coming in, it made it easier to get a little bit of a cushion in the points, but at the end of the year he was back in tip top shape and running strong. And he’s made some adjustments to his bike that he likes, and that’s the goal as a team, to keep building. He’s a good rider, we’ve gone back to the 2014 days of us battling and putting in hard charges. I feel like we’re in a good spot to make good improvements and good gains and get back to where we belong, for sure.
Do you get any rest and relaxation during this weekend off or is it right back to business?
The weekend is off, so that’s a good part, but we kind of maintain right through the week. We get a nice little weekend. We’ll make a good weekend out of it and do something we haven’t gotten to do in a while. I’ll spend some time with my wife and have a nice low-key weekend. –Aaron Hansel
Eli Tomac | Monster Energy Kawasaki | 5-2 for third overall in 450MX
Racer X: Talk about the starts.
Eli Tomac: Right now they’re not acceptable at all. I’m getting totally worked. If you want to win races or battle for the lead you have to be up there closer, which is something I haven’t done yet. The second moto was more promising as far as the riding itself, but I have to beat them to the first turn.
You crashed out of the season here last year. Was that on your mind coming here?
To be honest, yeah. In practice and on press day, that section, how do you not think about it? But I got through it, put the past behind, and got through the day. It’s something we conquered.
You were getting more comfortable on the bike in supercross. Are you still working toward that in motocross?
Absolutely. I don’t think anyone has a perfect bike, you can always get better. There were some small changes between the first and second moto and I was able to do my thing. We went in the right direction there, and we’ll keep trying to get better. That’s all you can do.
Are you getting closer with setup?
Yes, it’s much closer now. I can go out there and ride like I want, and that second moto I felt like I did. We’re getting a lot closer there. –Hansel
Jeremy Martin | Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha | 1-3 for second overall in 250MX
Racer X: Is this how you want a championship to go: just good, clean, hard racing, with just a couple points separating the top guys?
Jeremy Martin: Yeah, you know I’m going for my third one and it gets harder ever year. Obviously I’m the guy, and there are a lot of guys who are hungry. I’m pumped on the day. In the first moto I got a good start and Cooper [Webb] and I were just battling, and I was getting smashed by roost. I was like, ‘God, I gotta make a move!’ I was able to make a move, but the track was tricky—the ruts were really deep. It’d be good one lap, but you’d come around the next lap and the top of the rut would fold and there’d be a big dirt clod right in there. It felt like hitting a big rock. I was able to capitalize on a mistake from Joey [Savatgy] when he went down, and I had a gap. I saw they were catching me but I just tried to maintain and save energy for moto two.
Alex [Martin] and Joey had a bit of a gap on you at the end of moto two. Had you just settled into third?
I gave it everything I had in moto two. I felt pretty flat to be honest. I tried to do some things better with me, and I just didn’t have the speed really. I got stuck behind [Shane] McElrath, and then my brother passed me hootin’ and hollerin’ as he went by, and I was like ‘Okay, he’s got the flow.’ I was able to get Shane and tried to hang with Alex, but I just couldn’t push. I didn’t have that extra energy I needed. I’m looking forward to this two-week break and recovering, getting some motos in, and having a week away from the dirt bike. Going to go back to Minnesota and breath some clean air instead of that California smog, so I’m a happy camper.
We’re only a couple races into the series and there are a lot of fast guys. At this point do you feel the front-runners for the championship are your brother, yourself, and Joey?
Yeah, for sure. We’re three rounds in and you can see who’s going to be strong. Obviously my brother’s going to be strong, Joey’s strong, Cooper’s strong, and I feel strong. But I don’t feel great. I don’t feel like I had the fitness I had last year, but you know what? We’ve still got a lot of racing left and I’m going to get better. I have a great group of people behind me and I’m excited. It’s been three rounds and I’ve been sick at round one and two. Round three is the best I’ve felt but I was still hacking after the motos. But you know what? I’m three points down, so to me that’s pretty dang good.
What’s life like in the rig? Is there a lot of competition between you guys?
It’s Star Racing. We got a lot of competitive guys and we all want to do good. When one guy is doing good it elevates the rest of the truck, really. Alex is riding really well, Cooper is riding really well, and it’s just about putting it together on Saturday for both motos, having that flow, finding good lines, and having a good time. –Hansel
Alex Martin | Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha | 8-2 for third overall in 250MX
Racer X: Was there a lot of pressure coming in here with the red plate?
Alex Martin: It was kind of out of sight out of mind. I just tried to not to think about it and not look at Instagram where everyone was tagging me with the red plate. It really did look good, I’d like to have it again in the future, but obviously it’s an unspoken weight on the shoulders. I just tried to go lap by lap. I qualified first in the first practice and just had an unfortunate mistake in that first moto.
In that first moto, was the pressure of being the number one guy helping you try to salvage as many points as you could? You seemed to ride at that “He’s a man possessed!” level.
The fitness is there and the speed is there, and I feel like I kind of rode like that at Hangtown in the second moto and in the first moto at Glen Helen. Even the second moto. For me it’s becoming more consistent to ride like that, but I was definitely pissed after that first moto. It was totally out of my control. I was fourth and running up to the lead and Aaron [Plessinger] just made that mistake and his bike just cleaned me out. I had nowhere to go. I was twenty-fifth when I got going, and I was like twentieth forever. I wasn’t even in the points for a long time. I just got lucky because there were a bunch of guys there and I was able to pick them off at the end. It was good damage control for the day, going 8-2, and I still ended up third overall. There are a lot of races left and we just had some bad luck in that first moto. Everyone kind of has their bad luck here and there so I think it’ll even it out.
Did you realize how far forward you’d gone in that moto?
No, not really. I was actually kind of getting depressed. I felt like I was in twentieth forever, then sixteenth. It was a lot of work for so few points, but then like I said, there was a pack of guys I just happened to come up on and capitalize on.
Third straight podium now. How hard are you working on this consistency?
Obviously 8-2 isn’t exactly consistent, but there are a lot of two’s in there I guess, so like I said, it’s a long season. The biggest thing for me, I need to get some better starts and put myself out of harm’s way. That’s kind of what happened today, getting taken out like that. It had nothing to do with me, just other people who took me down. With better starts you can stay away from all the mayhem.
That was a pretty intense battle with Joey in the second moto. Can you take us through it?
Yeah, I think I started sixth or seventh and I had to make my way around Cooper [Webb], Jeremy [Martin], [Martin] Davalos, and [Shane] McElrath, and then Joey [Savatgy] had a little gap on me and I was able to get up there. That’s the second time now that he’s stepped up his game as soon as I get up to him. It was a pretty epic battle and I’m excited to go back and watch it on TV. He had spots on the track where he could kind of get away from me and I was forced to take other lines to at least get along side of him or try to make a pass, but then I’d get out of shape or cross-rut and he was able to gap me. We were definitely yo-yoing back and forth. I tried to put on a little surge on that last lap and I got close but not close enough.
Does the elevation affect you physically at this track?
No, not really. I was kind of hoping it would be warmer today. It was only like 75 degrees or something, and it wasn’t humid. We’re at like six thousand feet here, so maybe for some people, but I didn’t feel it. Joey and I were sprinting in the second moto pretty much right down to the checkered flag, we were I think thirty seconds ahead of my brother, so I think our fitness was there.
Did lappers play a role at the end there? It looked like he might have been getting through them a little bit better.
There weren’t enough blue flags today I don’t think. There were a couple times where a guy would just follow Joey into a rut and I would just be behind the guy and lose two or three bike lengths and would be like, “Thanks buddy.” But it’s part of it, you know, and you just have to make it up somewhere else. But yeah, the lappers definitely jacked me up a few times.
You mentioned you wanted it to be a little hotter and more humid today. Does that mean you’re looking forward to the East Coast tracks where it’s hot, humid and nasty?
Yeah. You have to have the speed, you can’t rely just on fitness. It can be either muddy or ninety degrees and humid. Budds Creek is usually one of the hottest ones. I’m definitely looking forward to them, but at the end of the day these guys are all fast and you have to get the start to be up front with them. You can’t start in tenth and expect to be up there battling for moto wins. But I’m definitely looking forward to the east coast humidity and the rough tracks. –Hansel
Marvin Musquin | Red Bull KTM | 37-5 for fourteenth overall in 450MX
Racer X: Did you crash in the first moto?
Marvin Musquin: Yeah, I was struggling off the start. Starting in first gear here and in altitude. But I was fighting really good in the first turns. It was good. Made some passes. They watered right before so when you’re in the pack everybody’s trying to find lines and it gets sketchy sometimes. And then I went a little too wild on the big sweeper down the hill over there after the triple. Tried to get around [Justin] Brayton and I went off the track. I was stuck in the banners. It took me a while to get out of it. Man, from that I was like, ‘That’s going to be a tough one.’ And then get back on and made another mistake by the start here. I jumped in the rut and I hit the foot pegs on the dirt and then it kind of stopped me and went almost over the bars and crashed. Someone ran over me and then I was so far back. I had to pull off the goggles. It was a mess. Then I DNF’d. It was a horrible feeling. It’s been a while since I DNF’d a moto. You don’t want that.
Second moto obviously you get 30 something gate pick because you DNF’d the first moto, and then you’re like, “Okay, I got no choice. You’ve got to make it happen from the outside.” It was very difficult. But my first lap wasn’t too bad. A little bit shy in the first three laps and Eli [Tomac] got around me. And then [Ryan] Dungey got around me. As soon as I saw him I just wanted to do like practice. I was like, ‘Okay, now you got to go and try to follow him.’ I got a really good rhythm and way better lines and better flow and that’s all you need on those tracks. If you fight with the track, fight with the corners and the bumps, it’s not good. You get tired, you get tight. So I’m really happy about that second moto. I tried to follow Ryan and came back fourth and fifth me and him. It was awesome. I didn’t feel like I was pushing and taking risks. I was flowing more than before and that’s what I need. Really happy. First time top five in a moto, so that’s what I want.
How badly do you need that to just get something? If it did end with the first moto it would have been bad.
Yeah, exactly. All week long you do everything right. You try to do everything good and when you get to the races and you’re not doing what you want to do it’s difficult. I know it’s my first year and when you look at the top ten the guys in front of me sometimes, I know I want to be in the top three, I want to be on the podium. At the same time I got to learn and get better and better. So that’s what I needed. And on a tough track, it’s not like it was a good track for me or anything like that. – Jason Weigandt
Dan Betley | Honda HRC Team Manager | Cole Seely and Trey Canard
Racer X: Good riding. Your guys were fast today.
Dan Betley: Yeah, really happy with the whole team effort. The engine department and the chassis guys, everything. I couldn’t be happier. Could have ended up better obviously on the podium for the overall, but to have two guys on the podium for motos, awesome starts, second moto the 1-2 going for the holeshot was awesome. So I just see momentum building and I like what I see. Hopefully we’ll just keep it going into Mount Morris.
The starts have been pretty good in almost all the motos so far. Is that something you guys can point a finger at? We’ve upgraded this, or we’ve changed that? Or is it just working out?
No, settings haven’t changed much. Trey does better starts outdoors. I was expecting him to come around. And he has done some stuff personally, but as far as the overall package of the bike engine-wise, no. Not much has changed.
You didn’t find three horsepower or something crazy.
No. Honestly we’re to the point where it’s more about making the thing ridable than it is about making more horsepower.
Cole is showing some staying power here in these motos.
I think Cole has come to a point in his career where he’s realizing his weaknesses and he’s manning up and doing things to improve it. I’m really excited and happy to see that he’s doing that.
How did he feel when the moto was over? Dungey came from way back, but he closed and he actually fell back a little bit. So how did Cole feel? It had to be a nice little pat on the back for him.
Oh, for sure. Cole has kind of started up a new training program within the last week basically. He came in and I asked, “How you feel?” He goes, “I hurt in places I didn’t even know I could hurt!” So I wasn’t honestly expecting that kind of ride, and I already told him I’m not that worried about the results. Now’s the time to get ready for next year and start doing the work and it will pay off. So this is to me a big added bonus and benefit and I think his head’s in the right place. I’m happy.
Trey had one of those days where when he didn’t get the start in the first moto, but he rode better there than he did in the second moto where he had the lead. Was there anything going on is that just one of those weirdo deals?
Not that I know of. He was pretty frustrated with the day, and I don’t blame him. To be in that position and then to kind of fall off. And also I think to have your teammate pass you. So on all these teams, somebody wants to be the guy, and he has been the guy for a long time. So it’s hard for him. I’m sure he’ll rebound from it. It’s all good. But as far as those guys together, they’re such good friends and they work well together. There’s no hard feelings. –Weigandt
