First Timed Practice

Some track nips and tucks made the obstacles easier to clear (and safer) once timed practice began. The big triple-triple has a smaller landing on the second jump, and that reduces the risk for riders who try to clear it.

For 250SX West, Colt Nichols held the top time early but then Adam Cianciarulo took it away. AC was crushing the whoops, which are steep and peaked. Late in the session Dylan Ferrandis ran a heater lap and took the top time away.

In 250SX East, Martin Davalos led early until his teammate Forkner took away the top spot. Then Chase Sexton stepped up to grab the top time. Forkner tried to answer back but Blake Wharton was down in the whoops, which brought out some yellow flags, slowing Forkner’s lap (don’t worry, Wharton got back up and was okay). Forkner tried again just before time expired but couldn’t get a clean lap, traffic was everywhere. Sexton held on to take top time—the first time so far in 250SX East that Forkner didn’t top the qualifying board.

Last week’s whoops were skimmers, and the KTM crew of Musquin and Webb weren’t so quick through the section. They had it figured out this time as Musquin led the session early, and then Webb took the top time away. Dean Wilson then put in a heater to land the top time—and at the same moment, his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna teammate Zach Osborne went down on the triple triple. Zach was slow to get up but got back on the bike eventually.

Then it was Eli Tomac’s turn to log a flyer and it put him to the top ahead of Wilson. On the last lap Webb threw in another quick lap, but it was only good enough for second behind Tomac.

Second Timed Practice

Justin Cooper has this qualifying thing down. Late in the second 250SX East Region session, Cooper laid down a 47.978, joining West Region teammate Dylan Ferrandis as the only two riders thus far to dip into the 47s.

Chase Sexton held the top spot for most the session and finished second overall. Points leader Austin Forkner recovered from a crash in the whoops to take third over Alex Martin and Martin Davalos.

Jordon Smith also went down in the whoops and finished seventh in the session.

Adam Cianciarulo was fastest in the second West Region qualifying session with a 48.052. Colt Nichols and Shane McElrath followed.

Tough session for Dylan Ferrandis, who was fastest in the first session as he went down twice and finished sixth.

Ferrandis’ first session time was fastest in the West Region and fastest overall. Cianciarulo qualified second fastest in West Region followed by Nichols, McElrath, and Jimmy Decotis.

Cooper’s time was the fastest in the East Region with Sexton, Forker, Alex Martin and Marvin Davalos rounding out the top five.

For the second time today, Eli Tomac topped the 450SX qualifying session. Tomac improved upon his first session time and dropped down to a 47.915 to capture the fastest qualifying time.

Marvin Musquin was the only other rider to dip into the 47s, setting the second fastest time of the day with a 47.966. Dean Wilson was third fastest followed by points leader Cooper Webb. Joey Savatgy, Zach Osborne, Ken Roczen, Blake Baggett, Cole Seely, and Justin Hill rounded out the top 10.

250 Heats

In the 250SX East heat (East and West run separate heat races and come together in the LCQ and the main event) Alex Martin and Chase Sexton tussled for the lead early before Sexton locked it down. Forkner then made the move on Martin and started going after Sexton. Wilson Fleming crashed hard in a rhythm lane and brought out the red flag and a  staggered restart. On the restart, Forkner immediately jumped inside Sexton at the end of the first rhythm lane and block passed him to take the lead. Twice, though, Forkner almost went down hard in the triple triple section. It was close to yard sale crash, twice, but he saved it and maintained a small gap on Sexton. Martin Davalos then made his way around Alex Martin for third. Anthony Rodriguez brought it home ninth for the final east transfer spot.

In the 250SX West heat, Shane McElrath jetted off to the lead ahead of Colt Nichols and RJ Hampshire. RJ made a quick move on Nichols to take over second, but Nichols got him back. Jacob Hayes was next in the order and then Adam Cianciarulo. Nichols pulled away from Hampshire and started to close a bit on McElrath, which Cianciarulo pressed Hampshire for third. Hampshire went down on the top of the over/under bridge and Mosiman and Hayes did a good job jumping over him. Hampshire got up and found himself in a last-lap battle with Dylan Ferandis, who was coming from way back. Ferrandis made the pass by out drag racing Hampshire to the checkers.

Nichols closed on McElrath all the way to the end, but Shane held on to take the heat race win. 

There’s a stacked deck when you put all of the West riders in one heat for nine transfer spots. Some good riders aren’t going to make it, and in this case it was Jimmy Decotis and Cameron McAdoo who missed the transfer spots and will have to go to the LCQ.

450 Heats

Blake Baggett grabbed the holeshot in Heat 1 while Zach Osborne, Adam Enticknap and Alex Ray all went down in turn one. Marvin Musquin fought past his teammate Cooper Web to take over second. Marvin tried to make a run at Baggett but they exchanged fast laps, Marvin would close, then Baggett would pull back away. In the closing laps Marvin finally closed down to Baggett’s rear wheel. Then Webb, who Marvin passed earlier, came back to life and snuck inside of Musquin to pass him on the last lap. Baggett held on to take the win, but Musquin made a run to try to get back around Webb. He started jumping the whoops, and it was faster than Webb’s skim across the top. Musquin almost got Webb back in the last turn, but Webb held him off for second.

Credit to Osborne, who came from down in turn one to sixth.

Cole Seely grabbed the holeshot in Heat 2 ahead of Dean Wilson and Justin Brayton. Wilson and Brayton went back and forth several times for second, but the real battle was coming behind them. Eli Tomac caught up to Chad Reed, and, as he usually does, Reed used his experience to magically appear in every line Tomac wanted to use to pass him. Eli tried over and over, Reed defended the pass attempt each time, and finally Chad held Tomac up so much that Joey Savatgy tried to get inside and pass them both at the same time! Reed attempted to block Savatgy, too, but that slowed his drive into the whoops, and Savatgy was able to jump through and just barely make the pass. A corner later, in the sand, Tomac tried to pass Reed around the outside, but Reed then shot out wide and knocked Eli down. This held up Roczen, who was next in line, and allowed Aaron Plessinger to sneak through. Tomac picked it up in a very frustrating surely, eighth place.

 Up front, Seely rode a superb race and held on for a solid win. Seely was quick in practice last week until he got hit in the chest by a big rock, and was unable to race. He appears to be back on pace here.

250 LCQ

You know 250 LCQs are always crazy, but when you make it an East/West LCQ, well, it’s out of control. The heartbreaks here went to the JGR Suzuki duo of Enzo Lopes and Jimmy Decotis. They started second and third, nearly hit a few times, and then Decotis fell in the sand and dropped out of a transfer spot. Lopes look solid in second but then went after the leader Josh Osby. He took the lead for about one second, but then clipped a tough block, which knocked his foot off the peg, and he went flying over a berm. Osby held the lead again but the pack was coming—with Jordan Bailey slicing his way through traffic to get into second. He nearly got Osby at the end, but settled for second.

Marshall Weltin was sitting third for awhile by Cameron McAdoo snuck by, and then Kyle Cunningham passed him late for the final transfer spot.

250 Main Event

Forkner and Cianciarulo battled for the holeshot—the battle everyone wanted to see—and Forkner managed to maneuver to the inside and get the lead. Chase Sexton hung even further inside in turn one and also got inside of Cianciarulo as well to take second.

The battle lines were drawn—Forkner trying to get away, Sexton trying to apply pressure, and Cianciarulo chasing. Dylan Ferrandis got in on the fight, too. Nearing the halfway mark, Cianciarulo found his groove and started closing on Sexton, then went to work on him in the whoops. It took three tries, but he finally figured out a passing line and grabbed second. Then he started closing on his teammate, and the battle between the two points leaders was on. Cianciarulo used the same move on Sexton to get Forkner—he jumped the whoops, switched from left to right, and got inside in the next turn to make the block pass. Ferrandis had followed Cianciarulo up to Forkner’s fender, and a lap later he used the exact same block pass to take second away. Ferrandis gave Cianciarulo a run for a few laps, but eventually Adam pulled away to take a huge win—passing Sexton and Forkner to score this victory for the West.

Ferrandis was second while Forkner’s early-season win streak ended with a third, but he was the top East rider to add to his points lead. Sexton was fourth, he was in the battle early, but lost the lead pace in the second half of the race. Justin Cooper was fifth. Shane McElrath had a terrible start but logged a strong ride to get back to sixth and try to salvage some points, he also passed Colt Nichols along the way, which will help him in the championship if Cianciarulo falters.

"First and foremost those guys are riding so good—Austin and Chase, their pace was unreal," said Cianciarulo. "For me it was about learning what they were doing and learning what they were doing better than me. That’s what I’m most proud of. I felt pretty bad all day, bad in practice, terrible in my heat race. I told myself on the line, just do your best the whole time. I can't even describe how I feel right now This is one of the best races of my career."

“It’s a little bit of redemption for me, last year I ended my season last year because of a stupid mistake," said Ferrandis, who broke his jaw over a triple here last year. "Maybe I was thinking about that a little bit, because I was tight during the day. For sure I would have liked to have finished in front of Adam because he’s leading the championship, but it’s a good night for me. It’s okay—I’m happy."

"I had a pretty rough day of practice, I crashed twice, pretty hard in the whoops and pretty hard, and just wasn’t feeling them tonight," said Forkner. "I wasn’t really feeling it there, and I just wasn’t willing to go any faster. That’s where they were faster. At least I was able to extend my lead on the East guys. So, on a not so great of a day, after the crashes I had today, I’m happy to finish up here. Wish I could have run with those guys, they caught me about 10 minutes in and I just didn’t want to go ay faster and have what happened to me in practice happen again." 

Webb the holeshot over Musquin and Roczen but Roczen’s rhtthm in the first lane cost him some time and Blake Baggett slid into third. Webb was feeling it for the first few laps nbut then Musquin started to close. In the whoops, Marvin was jumping through more quickly than Webb and set himself up on the inside, they momentarily bumped and Musquin lost time. Musquin kept charging and closed back in on Webb again, with Baggett right behind, then Plessinger and Roczen. Last week’s winner, Eli Tomac, started 13^th and had a tough time making up ground.

Webb was faster than Musquin on the first half of the lap, Musquin faster on the second half. It would bring them over the finishline jump nearly together, but then Webb would pull back away in the sand. With nine minutes to go, Musquin made it worse when he bobbled in the sand and coughed up second to Baggett.

Musquin tried to get Baggett back, but Baggett held tough, and even closed on Webb for a bit. With seven minutes left, Plessinger tipped over in the sand, losing fourth place to Roczen.

It was a tense battle down the stretch, with Baggett keeping heat on Webb, and Musquin keeping heat on Baggett. They exchanged mistakes, good and bad sections of the track, time in lapped traffic and more. At any moment, the race could have tipped in a different direction, but Webb never falted under fire, and held on to take the win. Baggett gave him a run but finished just behind in second, with Musquin just behind him in third. Roczen ended up losing ground and took a distant fourth, Plessinger picked it up for fifth ahead of Tomac, Brayton, Wilson, Savatgy and Seely.