Justin Cooper continues to impress as a rookie. One week after grabbing the holeshot in both motos and finishing third overall, the Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha rider was fastest in the first 250 qualifying session. His 1:57.808 was nearly a full second faster than second place Austin Forkner.

After a rough week at High Point, GEICO Honda was back in form. Teammates Jeremy Martin and Chase Sexton sit third and fourth after session one. Shane McElrath, always good at Muddy Creek, is fifth.

Alex Martin, Dylan Ferrandis, Jordon Smith, Joey Savatgy, and RJ Hampshire rounded out the top ten. 

Tough session for points leader Aaron Plessinger. He sits 12th. And shout out to Racer X contributor Ryan Sipes. Riding a 125, Sipes is currently 28th.

Second Qualifying Sessions

After rain hit early in the morning, the track began to dry out and develop lines in the second qualifying session. Hence, the drop in times. Eli Tomac’s 1:51.405—fastest in 450 Class—was more than four seconds faster than Justin Barcia’s top time the first timed session.

Barcia bettered his time by more than two seconds, setting a 1:53.159, but it was only good enough for third fastest. Marvin Musquin slotted into second with a 1:52.034.

Blake Baggett and Justin Hill were both in the 1:53s as well, and finished fourth and fifth. Ken Roczen, Phil Nicoletti, Benny Bloss, Brandon Scharer, and Weston Peick rounded out the top ten.

Wow, Justin Cooper! The rookie dropped a heater late in the second 250 session to capture the fastest qualifier. His 1:52.503 was nearly two full seconds faster than Shane McElrath, who finished second.

Jeremy Martin and Joey Savatgy were also in the 1:54s. They finished third and fourth. Chase Sexton rounded out the top five.

In just his second race back, Dylan Ferrandis was sixth, followed by TLD/Red Bull KTM teammates Alex Martin and Jordon Smith. Points leader Aaron Plessinger was just ninth fastest. Austin Forkner rounded out the top ten.

250 Moto One

Huge first 250 moto at Muddy Creek in regard to the title chase for Jeremy Martin. The two-time champion pounced on mistakes by Aaron Plessinger and Alex Martin and cruised to the first moto win in Tennessee.

Despite qualifying outside the top ten, Plessinger grabbed a key holeshot. It lasted just a few corners, though. Plessinger lost the front end entering a corner and fell outside the top ten. Alex Martin inherited the lead with brother Jeremey in tow.

Mistakes would ultimately cost Alex as well. He made a mistake on the huge uphill and went off the track. It allowed Jeremy to take the lead a few corners later. Alex stayed close, but another mistake in the back section cost him a spot inside the top ten. Cameras didn’t catch the crash well, but it was a strange one.

Jeremy would take control of the moto from there and cruised to a 5.9 second win over rookie Justin Cooper. 

North Carolina native Shane McElrath is always good at Muddy Creek, and this year is no different. Shane took his first moto podium of the year with a third. RJ Hampshire and Austin Forkner rounded out the top five.

Tough moto for points leader, Aaron Plessinger. After his crash, he worked back to tenth, but couldn’t get around Chase Sexton the entire moto. He finished ninth.

Joey Savatgy took sixth ahead of Jordon Smith, Sexton, Plessinger and Colt Nichols, who is making his 2018 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross debut.  

450 Moto One

Make it eight moto wins of nine for Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac. After an early battle with Ken Roczen in the first 450 moto at Muddy Creek, Tomac took off and cruised to a 7.9 second win.

Roczen was able to clip Tomac to grab the holeshot. Weston Peick, privateer Jeremy Hand, and Phil Nicoletti followed. High Point moto one winner Marvin Musquin lost the front end in the same corner that claimed Aaron Plessinger and dropped outside the top ten.

Justin Barcia was the one on the move early. He put a slick pass on Weston Peick to take over third and put in an early run at leaders Tomac and Roczen.

After stalking Roczen for the early part of the moto, Tomac finally took over the lead on lap five. Barcia knew he couldn’t let Tomac get away and got around Roczen a lap later. Despite moving into second on lap six, Barcia wasn’t able to make a run at Tomac, who ran away with the moto win late in the race. Barcia finished third, with Roczen rounding out the podium. Blake Baggett finished fourth.

Musquin made his way all the way back to fifth. Peick, Phil Nicoletti, Justin Hill, Benny Bloss, and Henry Miller rounded out the top ten.

250 Moto Two

A wild and crazy second 250 moto at Muddy Creek—and an unlikely overall winner. First, here is what we know so far on Jeremy Martin, who went down hard early in the moto and was shown holding his back.

According to Racer X’s Steve Matthes, Martin is fully responsive and has full movement and is on the way to the hospital. We will post more once we know. The crash was not shown on the broadcast and we did not see it, so we’re not exactly sure what happened.

The racing was absolutely bananas. Alex Martin was the early leader in this one and was followed by his TLD teammate Sean Cantrell and Dylan Ferrandis. In just his second race back, Ferrandis was aggressive all moto. He attacked Martin hard, but Martin was stingy and wasn’t giving up the lead.

Ferrandis made another charge late in the moto, but once Martin held it off, it looked like the moto win was his as he held a decent lead with two laps remaining. Then disaster struck. Martin swapped going into the turn right after the finish line—the same one that got Aaron Plessinger and Marvin Musquin—and coughed up the lead. Martin did get up in second but was passed by teammate Shane McElrath with a lap to go. Ferrandis held on for the moto win in just his fourth moto of the season.

Remember how we said the moto was crazy and had an unlikely winner? Well, despite not winning a moto, McElrath took the overall, the first of his career. And it was at his hometown race! McElrath’s 3-2 moto scores were enough to claim the overall over Ferrandis (11-1) and Chase Sexton (8-4).

Aaron Plessinger finished fifth in the second moto and was followed by Jordon Smith, Joey Savatgy, Cameron McAdoo, Austin Forkner and Michael Mosiman.  

450 Moto Two

Eli Tomac’s overall win streak has reached five. But it wasn’t easy, and for much of the moto it looked like Justin Barcia would capture his first overall of the season.

Ken Roczen grabbed his second holeshot of the day and was followed closely by Barcia, Marvin Musquin, Benny Bloss, and Weston Peick. Meanwhile, Tomac got a horrid start and was buried in 19th.

Barcia wasted little time and passed Roczen for the lead on the opening lap and was followed quickly by Musquin. Musquin was aggressive early and took over the lead on lap four. Musquin slowly pushed his lead to three seconds and then five. Barcia did make a late run to cut it back down to three, but never challenged for the lead. The moto win is the second of the season for Marvin. 

Tomac put in a tremendous charge. By lap 2 he was already into 11th and charging. He made it all the way to third late in the race and made a charge at Barcia. But once Barcia responded with quick lap times, Tomac backed it down a notch. Barcia rode strong at the end of the race to capture second behind Musquin.

After a good start, Roczen finish fourth. Blake Baggett, Weston Peick, Justin Hill, Benny Bloss, Phil Nicoletti, and Kyle Cunningham rounded out the top ten.

Tomac took the overall, his fifth straight to begin the year, over Barcia and Musquin.