Despite the fact that Eli Tomac won five consecutive overalls entering round six at Southwick, and despite the fact that he had built a 32-point lead, the racing in the 450 Class the last few rounds has been excellent. Southwick was no exception, as Tomac and Marvin Musquin dueled again in the first moto. Tomac built a huge lead in the second moto, but a pair of mistakes cost him the overall, which went to Musquin for the first time in 2018.

The 250 Class continues to be wild, with a handful of riders capable of winning a moto or overall. Dylan Ferrandis used a late run in between Alex Martin and Austin Forkner to clinch the second moto win and his first career overall. Martin and teammate Shane McElrath rounded out the podium.

Let’s dive into the lap data to figure out how these races were won and lost with this week’s Sign of the (Lap) Times. First, our traditional lap time charts. 

450 MOTO 1

LAP RANK	FINISH	BEST LAP	ON LAP	AVG LAP TIME	RIDER
1	1st	2:14.772	7	2:16.628	Eli Tomac
2	2nd	2:15.350	7	2:18.778	Marvin Musquin
3	4th	2:16.010	3	2:22.378	Ken Roczen
4	3rd	2:16.021	2	2:20.028	Justin Barcia
5	5th	2:17.490	6	2:20.415	Blake Baggett
6	6th	2:19.063	3	2:23.860	Benny Bloss
7	11th	2:19.071	2	2:25.945	Chris Canning
8	7th	2:21.772	7	2:24.546	Lorenzo Locurcio
9	8th	2:22.251	2	2:25.553	Cooper Webb
10	18th	2:22.793	2	2:30.184	Justin Bogle

450 MOTO 2

LAP RANK	FINISH	BEST LAP	ON LAP	AVG LAP TIME	RIDER
1	2nd	2:12.736	2	2:21.798	Eli Tomac
2	1st	2:16.338	3	2:20.893	Marvin Musquin
3	4th	2:18.322	2	2:25.387	Ken Roczen
4	3rd	2:18.836	3	2:22.692	Justin Barcia
5	5th	2:19.025	3	2:23.738	Blake Baggett
6	6th	2:20.193	3	2:26.308	Benny Bloss
7	20th	2:20.845	2	2:32.676	Justin Bogle
8	7th	2:22.594	3	2:27.606	Lorenzo Locurcio
9	8th	2:22.810	2	2:29.497	Phil Nicoletti
10	11th	2:23.748	4	2:29.326	Weston Peick

250 MOTO 1

LAP RANK	FINISH	BEST LAP	ON LAP	AVG LAP TIME	RIDER
1	4th	2:14.978	6	2:18.659	Dylan Ferrandis
2	2nd	2:14.987	5	2:17.754	Alex Martin
3	3rd	2:15.112	5	2:18.185	Aaron Plessinger
4	6th	2:15.489	2	2:19.908	Shane McElrath
5	1st	2:15.738	4	2:17.748	Austin Forkner
6	5th	2:15.754	4	2:19.264	Chase Sexton
7	17th	2:16.166	4	2:23.514	Justin Cooper
8	32nd	2:16.973	6	2:19.213	Joey Savatgy
9	7th	2:17.687	3	2:20.312	RJ Hampshire
10	20th	2:18.439	2	2:27.392	Jimmy Decotis

250 MOTO 2

LAP RANK	FINISH	BEST LAP	ON LAP	AVG LAP TIME	RIDER
1	7th	2:16.796	4	2:21.600	Aaron Plessinger
2	1st	2:16.827	5	2:19.448	Dylan Ferrandis
3	20th	2:17.857	2	2:20.511	Austin Forkner
4	2nd	2:18.069	4	2:20.737	Alex Martin
5	12th	2:18.086	6	2:21.823	Jordon Smith
6	2nd	2:18.286	2	2:19.981	Shane McElrath
7	5th	2:18.474	4	2:21.556	Joey Savatgy
8	8th	2:18.962	4	2:23.443	Colt Nichols
9	3rd	2:18.953	2	2:20.532	RJ Hampshire
10	14th	2:19.303	3	2:24.923	Chase Sexton

Tomac vs. Musquin

As we said above, the first 450 moto was bonkers. It had everything you’d want to see in a matchup between the titans of the class. Tomac would attack and Musquin would fight him off. Tomac would regroup, go at Musquin again, and the Frenchman would still fight it off. Eventually Tomac made the pass with two laps left and Musquin crashed trying to retake the lead.

How did their lap times compare down the stretch? Let’s look:

Lap	Eli Tomac	Marvin Musquin
10	2:17.755	2:17.809
11	2:18.769	2:17.500
12	2:16.751	2:17.725
13	2:18.093	2:17.625
14	2:16.913	2:17.451
15	2:16.262	2:17.590
16	2:15.387	2:42.080

Forkner vs. Martin vs. Plessinger

As good as Tomac vs. Musquin was, the first 250 moto had a three-rider race to the finish between Austin Forkner, Alex Martin, and Aaron Plessinger. A couple late mistakes would cost Plessinger down the stretch and Forkner stood tall against a late push by Martin.

Let’s take a look at their times:

Lap	Austin Forkner	Alex Martin	Aaron Plessinger
11	2:18.237	2:17.300	2:17.193
12	2:18.907	2:18.439	2:16.669
13	2:17.933	2:18.246	2:18.887
14	2:19.035	2:18.773	2:18.450
15	2:18.883	2:18.703	2:19.225
16	2:18.749	2:18.980	2:24.779

Plessinger put down an insane 2:16.669 on lap 12. It was more than two seconds faster than Forkner and just under two seconds faster than Martin. It allowed him to get into contention, but mistakes on the final two laps would cost him the win. 

Also, every time Martin and Plessinger would gain time on Forkner, he’d respond with a good lap—especially on lap 13, when he dropped down to a 2:17.933.

Martin vs. Forkner vs. Ferrandis

We all know about the controversial ending to the second 250 moto by now, but we have yet to look at the lap times down the stretch. 

In the three laps before Martin tried to make his pass on Forkner, both he and Ferrandis were gaining significant time on the leader. In fact, on the lap prior to the pass attempt, Ferrandis gained nearly two full seconds on Martin and three full seconds on Forkner. Even if the crash had not happened, it’s clear Ferrandis would have been a factor late in the race anyway. He was coming!

Check out their times leading up to the crash:

Lap	Alex Martin	Austin Forkner	Dylan Ferrandis
7	2:20.768	2:19.806	2:19.700
8	2:21.047	2:19.496	2:22.252
9	2:18.262	2:20.515	2:18.300
10	2:19.596	2:21.231	2:19.291
11	2:20.424	2:21.274	2:18.943
12	2:30.153	4:20.438	2:21.067