Well so much for that. Last week Ken Roczen was finally dealt a straight-up loss as Eli Tomac put in a huge charge at Southwick. That made it appear there just maybe, perhaps, might have been a hole in Ken Roczen’s game. And maybe, just perhaps, Tomac could log a second-half charge to tighten up the points standings? Well, no. Roczen completely shut everyone down this time at the Spring Creek National, round eight of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, logging perhaps his most dominant day yet in what has already been a dominant season. Kenny was fastest in qualifying by nearly two seconds—his first fast qualifying award of the season—and made short work of the field in moto one to take a big win. Then he blew minds in moto two. There, he collided off the start with Trey Canard and found himself mid-pack going into turn one. He sliced up to around tenth, then ripped his way through everyone in front of him within about one lap! Even more incredibly, Roczen bent his shift lever on the first lap, so he could barely shift the bike and had to be extra careful not to stomp it into neutral landing from jumps, or blow the bike up from missing shifts. After the race, Kenny actually said he was struggling with the shifter—all while checking out from the field!
“I was really far back, and I think someone roosted me and I almost went over the bars. I think I dabbed my foot and bent the shifter down,” said Roczen, of Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s RCH Suzuki. “From then on it was a bit of a struggle. It was bent up and close to my foot peg, so I would accidentally hit it. I would try to stay in third but it was too low of an RPM at times, so I would have to get second, it was a bit of a struggle at times. But yeah, we came up to the front and put a gap between us. I just had to ride a smart race.”
Trust us, those quotes don’t accurately reflect how fast Kenny was going in that second moto. He might have been struggling with the shifter, but everyone else was dropping far into the distance as he pulled away, anyway. So what was the difference between this week and last?
“I have a completely different fork pretty much,” he said. “I don’t know what changes they made to the internals or whatever, I was just kind of messing around a little bit. I think it was working pretty good. The first moto I actually didn’t (feel the changes were working well). For me there’s a fine line where it’s working pretty good. We’re trying to figure out why they can get inconsistent toward the end of the moto, because at the end of the moto it feels a little worse. I had a little bit of a harder week, for me. I changed these forks, and I think if I had these forks last week things might have gone better for me. The important thing is we’re fixing things, but at the same we try not to go too crazy.”
As for Tomac, he was okay but not on the same level as he was at Southwick, and ultimately he made some mistakes that bumped him back to third overall on the day. Ahead of him came Marvin Musquin, who scored his first-ever runner-up finish in a 450MX race, the Red Bull KTM rider logging his best race so far this year. He was third for much of moto one and caught Tomac when Tomac made a mistake, but ended up third. In moto two Musquin led early but was passed quickly by Roczen. Tomac got to third he didn’t make up a ton of ground on Marvin, and then Tomac bobbled, which let Musquin put second on lock. His 3-2 scores edged Tomac’s 2-3. Musquin credited some bike changes for riding better today, and he was especially happy to do so well on a rough track, instead of the more technical circuits that usually favor his style. “I love this track, that’s one thing, but the other thing is it’s a rough track and really demanding,” he said. “I’m really happy to have two consistent motos and show I’m getting stronger physically, and getting better with the bike. Today was a good day. I had a really good practice and I was looking forward to the motos. I knew I just needed good starts and I was capable of going top three right now. Eli and Ken are one step on top of me, they’re faster, but we’re trying to get better and trying to get faster.”
Tomac took this one on the chin. In the first moto the Monster Energy Kawasaki rider led Roczen but bobbled and gave up the inside, allowing Roczen to get through. In the second moto his start wasn’t great, but he was ahead of Roczen until Kenny basically gobbled up everyone. To Tomac’s credit, he made no excuses. “Just kind of a mixed day,” he said. “First moto I had a really good start, almost got the holeshot, got the lead, had some clear air for awhile. I was riding tight for awhile, feeling okay, not great, made a mistake and Kenny got me there. He put a few seconds on me pretty quickly. Moto two rolls around, not as good a start, but shoot, I even saw Kenny there in the sand rollers just go by me, so no excuses there for that, he was able to get through the pack. He put it down there right away and we didn’t. I wasn’t as good in the second moto as the first, and I made some goofy mistakes. Made two big mistakes in that second one, and that was it.”
Mixed day for some others. Justin Barcia came in with some momentum after a podium last week at Southwick, but his day was so-so. Fourth in moto one, the Autotrader.com/Monster Energy JGR Yamaha rider was running fifth in moto two until a small crash pushed him back to seventh. He repassed Phil Nicoletti and Trey Canard to retake fifth, but the damage was done—Rockstar Energy Drink Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel put in a solid day with 5-4 finishes to edge Barcia’s 4-5 for fourth overall. Pourcel was smooth and consistent in both motos.
Several star riders returned to action at Millville. Honda HRC’s Canard was back after a neck injury and hurt nerve in his arm knocked him out of action after round three, and he rode well, taking sixth overall behind Barcia. Red Bull KTM’s Dean Wilson made his first start since tearing his ACL in supercross back in January. Dean went 11-11 for, you guessed it, eleventh overall. Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart was back and finally got to log a solid race, taking tenth in the first moto. He was running around thirteenth in moto two but blisters were taking a toll on his hands, and he didn’t finish the moto.
Let’s cheer for BTOSports.com KTM’s Andrew Short, who put in his best race of the season with 8-8 scores and seventh overall. If you don’t like Shorty, something is wrong with you. Short’s teammate Benny Bloss continues to ride well, too, going 7-10 for eighth overall. Roczen made much of the racing up front pretty boring (we’re being honest here) but the pack from fifth on back stayed pretty close throughout the day.
Scary moment for Weston Peick in the first 450 moto. He cross-rutted a jump and cased it, leaving Broc Tickle nowhere to go, and Tickle landed right on him. That was the end of the day for both. But we spotted ever-tough Peick standing at the JGR rig after the race with merely a small bandage on his hand, and he says x-rays showed the hand wasn’t broken. So he’s sore but otherwise, somehow, feeling okay considering how bad the crash looked. Tickle headed to the airport early and we’re still awaiting a report on his health.
The 250MX class at Spring Creek was expected to be a Jeremy and Alex Martin battle with their teammate Cooper Webb and that’s pretty much what we saw. The Yamalube Star Yamaha teammates were the class of the field and took the top three spots in the first moto and three out of four in the second moto, leading to a podium sweep. The only question was the order. Webb did major damage in moto one, starting behind both Martin brothers, but he then passed Jeremy for second and pressured Alex for the lead until late. Alex made a mistake, lost the front and went down, allowing Webb to slip by for the pass and moto win. But in moto two Jeremy Martin passed early leader Adam Cianciarulo to get the lead, and while Webb would eventually work up to second, he wasn’t able to put much of a dent in J-Mart’s lead. With a 2-1 versus Webb’s 1-2, Martin used his home race to collect his first overall win of the season. Alex Martin was 3-4 and got third.
Whatever Alex Martin has done to the moto gods, it must not have been good, because they have just not let him be able to win a moto this year. Martin led thirteen out of the sixteen laps in the first moto before tipping over and letting Webb by. The second moto he grabbed the holeshot, hit neutral in the right-hander after the sand whoops and crashed. Alex has five runner-up spots this year and five third places this season. The second moto saw Alex move up from around tenth to be all over Rockstar Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne for third at the finish.
Jeremy Martin admitted it was frustrating to let Webb by him and not be able to catch Alex in the first moto but after a setting change to his forks he felt much better and went on to win the second moto. Jeremy also commented that he wished Webb’s start would’ve been better in the second moto so he could’ve battled him.
“Coop’s been winning the last couple of races," said Martin. "You know his goal is to take home the championship this year for outdoors, his first ever one, but his goal was really to get a 1-1 performance in the Martin boys’ backyard. He got it (the overall win) here from me last year so it was nice to get him back and get the win this year.”
Martin has been struggling with bike settings this year, and commented in the post-race press conference that he has moved fro an air fork to a spring fork, but has needed time to get it working the way he wants. He felt the second moto here was the first time he had the bike right where he wants it, plus, his health is starting to come around. All around, this second moto was his best ride of the season.
Considering the Martin brothers’ parents own and operate the Spring Creek track, Cooper Webb did great to tie for the overall with Jeremy on the day and keep his points lead. Cooper took advantage of Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy stall and Zach Osborne getting tied up with that to zap both riders and move right into second in the second moto.
Savatgy admitted after the race that his race was indeed a rebound from a couple of poor races but that he’s also dealing with a few things health-wise. “If I don’t make it happen at Washougal then it (the championship) won’t happen.”
Osborne rode well to get a third in the second moto and in the first one he was fifth until he fell because of what looked like a rock in his chain/sprocket/chain guide area. The team worked on it for a bit but oddly enough it looked like it still had some restriction in it so that was it for the #16 for the first moto. Considering his terrible outside gate pick for the second moto, Osborne got a great start and hung tough.
Aaron Plessinger rode well in both motos to finish fifth overall. Both motos Plessinger was right outside the lead group and was just a tick off. Adam Cianciarulo led some laps in the second moto to add to his eight laps led this year before dropping back a bit in the second moto.
Rookie Austin Forkner of the Pro Circuit team had a great first moto in passing Cianciarulo and ending up sixth. Austin crashed in the second moto, came from around 20th to 11th and then crashed again with only a couple laps left. Afterwards he said that he hurt his ankle but nothing that he thought serious.
Motorcycle Superstore Suzuki rider Kyle Cunningham has come on lately and at Millville he got poor starts but came from the back both motos for 12-13 scores.
