In 250SX action, the west region resumes tonight after not racing since the East/West Showdown in Atlanta. Adam Cianciarulo won that race to extend his lead to fifteen over Dylan Ferrandis, who has yet to win a race this season. Shane McElrath and Colt Nichols, are right on Ferranadis’ tail, with McElrath just two points out of second and Nichols only five. It’s anyone’s guess who’ll end up in second place when the roost settles tonight. For a full refresher on the 250SX West region, go here.

In other news and notes Josh Grant makes his return to racing tonight as a fill-in rider for Aaron Plessinger, who is out with a broken heel. Mike Alessi, who’s been filling in at Smartop Bullfrog Spas Honda for Vince Friese (the team is also missing Malcolm Stewart), was scheduled to have his last race tonight before getting ready to race in Canada, but plans have changed. He'll now race tonight, Houston, and Nashville.

Qualifying – Session One

Adam Cianciarulo was fastest early on, but James Decotis, then Dylan Ferrandis, spent brief amounts of time on top of the board. Then Cianciarulo came roaring back to the top with a 46.743. A few laps later Cianciarulo took a digger in the whoops, but got back up pretty quickly. Then, a few laps later, he got sideways again in the same spot but managed to save it. When the session ended it was Ferrandis who was fastest, by a good amount, with a 46.196 over Cianciarulo’s 46.743.

When the 450SX Class rolled out Eli Tomac looked good right away and not surprisingly, was the fastest rider early on. It wasn’t long before he beat his own time by about half a second, but then Ken Roczen threw down a 46.489, which would hold for the remainder of the session. The real story from qualifying so far is the difficulty of the whoops. Plenty of riders went down in them, and even more bypassed them over and over, slowly rolling by while eyeing them. Afterward Roczen remarked on how tough they were, calling them sketchy.

If you’re following the return of Josh Grant, who’s filling in for Aaron Plessinger, the first qualifier wasn’t great. Grant went down twice. The first one was in a left hander but he got up right away. The second was when he was exiting the whoops and it looked like it shook him up a little bit. He got up but spent the remaining forty seconds of the qualifier sitting on a Tuff Block. He ended up sixteenth-fastest. Cooper Webb didn’t have a great session either and ended up eleventh fastest, about a second slower than Roczen, after hanging around in thirteenth for a while.

The dirt, which usually ruts up here in Seattle, is much harder than it’s been in the past. Spots felt soft during track walk but it’s not breaking down and rutting up at all like in previous years. It’s definitely not a typical Seattle!

Qualifying – Session Two

Colt Nichols got the final qualifier of the day going by setting the fastest time early, then immediately lowered his time again on the next lap. Dylan Ferrandis wasn’t having it though, and forced his way to the top with a 46.190. He then proceeded to beat his own time, logging a 45.907. Ferrandis looked like he was in attack mode out there and was flying the whole time. Even his second-best time, a 46.033, was better than everyone else’s fastest lap! Adam Cianciarulo busted out a fast lap at the very end, a 46.206, but it wasn’t enough to match Ferrandis.

In 450 action Tyler Bowers was fastest at first, but it didn’t take long before Marvin Musquin, Ken Roczen, and Eli Tomac set faster times. Musquin’s 45.292 would hold for quite a while, but with two minutes left Dean Wilson uncorked some speed and logged a 45.281. Eli Tomac tried to sneak a heater in on the final lap, but a 45.536 was the best he could muster, which was third fastest.

A few different options emerged in one of the rhythm lanes during this session. The most commonly used rhythm was double-triple-triple-single, but Cooper Webb, Dean Wilson, and Zach Osborne (and maybe more) were able to go double-triple-quad. Not to be outdone, Justin Hill pulled out a double-quad-triple through the section. Hopefully we’ll get to see these different options in play tonight.

Times were significantly faster in this session, which is probably due in part to whoops section that had been tamed down just a bit since the first session. Don't worry, they're still pretty tough! Plenty of the guys looked like they were having a hard time getting through cleanly, especially when the started to get worn down. Jerry Robin went down in them, as did Cianciarulo, in the same place he did in the first qualifier. And in the 450SX Class, just like in the first session, there was a seemingly never-ending parade of guys bypassing the whoops and eyeing them up as the rolled by.

250SX Heat One

Adam Cianciarulo got the night going by taking the holeshot in the first 250SX heat and immediately started distancing himself from the field. Behind him a battle for second broke out between Garrett Marchbanks, Cameron McAdoo, and Jimmy Decotis. Marchbanks ended up inching away from the group, and Decotis was able to initiate a pass on McAdoo in the whoops and finish it off in the following corner. Then he went after Marchbanks, again making up a lot of ground in the whoops, and eventually taking over second. Cianciarulo took the win, with Decotis, McAdoo, Michael Mosiman, Marchbanks, Mitchell Harrison, Justin Starling, Dylan Merriam, and Bradley Lionnet all transferring to the main.

250SX Heat Two

Jacob Hayes jumped out to the early lead, but Chris Blose blew by him in the whoops. One lap later RJ Hampshire blew off his bike in the whoops while running around fourth or fifth. Up front, meanwhile, Colt Nichols had moved into the lead and was trying to check out. Dylan Ferrandis, who’d passed Blose for second, tried to give chase but Nichols was just too fast and there wasn’t enough time left anyway.  Nichols took the win, with Ferrandis, Blose, Hayes Enzo Lopes, Hampshire, Logan Karnow, Martin Castelo, and Brandan Leith wrapping up the remaining transfer spots.

450SX Heat One

Blake Baggett blasted out of the gate to take the holeshot in this one with Marvin Musquin, Ken Roczen, Cole Seely, and Carlen Gardner in tow. Roczen quickly went around Musquin and went after Baggett. He dove to the inside in a right hand turn and blocked Baggett to take over the lead. Musquin then started applying the pressure on Baggett, showing him a wheel in every turn before finally slicing past right before the whoops. Seely was next to pressure Baggett, but he bobbled in a corner, which allowed Zach Osborne to squirt by. Osborne then used a quad in a rhythm where most guys were triple-singling to make up ground on Baggett two laps in a row. At this point he was all over Baggett and made the move in a right-hand 180-degree corner. Up front Musquin had closed back up on Roczen and was all over him on the last lap. Had he been just one length closer he may have been able to make a move stick, but Roczen held on for the win. Transfer spots went to Roczen, Musquin, Osborne, Seely, Baggett, Tyler Bowers, Justin Bogle, Justin Barcia, and Carlen Gardner.

450SX Heat Two

Cooper Webb shot out to take the holeshot in this one but Eli Tomac wasn’t far behind. A couple laps in Tomac pulled up next to Webb in the whoops, but Webb inched back out in the second half of the set. Time and time again Tomac would get close in the first half of the whoops, only to see Webb jump away in the second half. The two were so close you could have literally thrown a blanket over them for much of the race. On the final two laps Tomac wasn’t able to get through the whoops super clean, which allowed Webb the breathing room he needed to win the heat. It also allowed Dean Wilson and Joey Savatgy to close on Tomac, but Tomac held on for second. Webb, Tomac, Wilson, Savatgy, Chad Reed, Justin Brayton, Justin Hill, Kyle Chisholm, and Mike Alessi filled the transfer spots. 

250SX LCQ

Deegan Vonlossberg took the lead initially, but less than a lap into it Robbie Wageman went by. Wageman started inching out a lead, but the race ended up getting red flagged when Gage Schehr went down hard. On the rerack it was Jerry Robin in the lead with Wageman close behind in second. Killian Auberson ran third, with Mathias Jorgensen holding down fourth. As the race wore on Chris Howell started closing on Jorgensen, taking huge chunks out of the gap in the whoop section. Howell then bumped Jorgensen off the track right before a triple, but Jorgensen hammered down and got back on the track in front of Howell and was able to hold on to take the final transfer spot. Up front Wageman had gotten around Robin for the lead. Wageman, Robin, Auberson, and Jorgensen filled the transfer spots, but stay tuned, there’s a good chance Jorgensen will get penalized for making up time off the track.

[Update: Jorgensen was penalized one spot for cutting the track, handing the final qualifying spot to Howell.]

450SX LCQ

Ben LaMay holeshot the final qualifying race of the night, but it wasn’t long before Josh Grant started pressuring him. But then Grant got wobbly in the whoops, stalled the bike, and took several moments to get it started again. When he got back underway he was out of qualifying position, but was on the move with two laps to go. He was closing on Austin Politelli in fourth, but he got out of shape in the whoops again and ended up crashing away his shot at transferring to the main. LaMay took the win followed by Ryan Breece, Alex Ray, and Politelli.

250SX Main 

The start of this one was marked by a pileup in the first turn involving Dylan Merriam, RJ Hampshire, Cameron McAdoo, and several other riders. Adam Cianciarulo managed to avoid the carnage though came into the first turn poised to take the holeshot. But he came in just a little hot, bobbled and handed the spot to Colt Nichols. Moments later Nichols made a mistake in a rhythm lane and crashed hard exiting the section. He was unable to rejoin the race. Up front now was Dylan Ferrandis with Cianciarulo just under two seconds behind. Jimmy Decotis and Jacob Hayes ran third and fourth, but Hayes dropped a couple spots when he crashed after Michael Mosiman block passed him. A few laps later Hayes was rolling the track and ended up dropping out. Up front Ferrandis continued to lead, but Cianciarulo wasn’t letting him check out. The two yo-yoed a bit, but Cianciarulo was never close enough to think about putting a move on Ferrandis. Then Cianciarulo lost nearly a second when the two went through some traffic with about four minutes remaining.  Cianciarulo was able to reel Ferrandis back in after a couple laps though, and when Ferrandis had a particularly bad run through the whoops Cianciarulo was suddenly within striking distance. But then Ferrandis somehow stretched it back out! A mistake in the whoops from Cianciarulo a lap later gave Ferrandis an even bigger cushion with one lap remaining. Cianciarulo put in a valiant effort on the last lap and was able to close right back back up on Ferrandis, and when Cianciarulo went for a block pass in the final turn the crowd let out a collective gasp. Cianciarulo was about half a bike length short though, and Ferrandis was able to hang on for the win. The Frenchman let loose with a huge arm pump over the finish line, extremely happy to take his first win of the season. Decotis finished third, with Mosiman and Chris Blose rounding out the top five. Credit to Hampshire for coming back to sixth after going down in the first turn.

450SX Main

Zach Osborne came away with the holeshot but Marvin Musquin wasted no time in yanking the lead away. Ken Roczen and Cole Seely were next to fly by Osborne, followed by Eli Tomac and Joey Savatgy. The backward slide for Osborne continued when Cooper Webb and Dean Wilson freight trained past. Elsewhere Justin Brayton and Chad Reed had gone down and both left on the Alpinestars Medical Mule. Up front Musquin continued to lead and had stretched his lead to about two seconds over Roczen. Seely continued to run third, but he was dealing with a hard charging Tomac, who was finally able to get the position from Seely. Savtgy made a pass on Seely next, but ended up washing out and going down. The top three of Musquin, Roczen, and Tomac were pretty spread out, but behind them Cooper Webb had worked his way up and was reeling in Seely for fourth. With seven minutes remaining Webb put a move on Seely right before the finish line and went to work to see if he could gain any ground on Tomac. Seely, meanwhile, slid backward, losing spots to Savatgy, Wilson, and Baggett. With two minutes remaining Tomac made a few mistakes, which allowed Webb to close within a couple seconds, and on the final lap Tomac only had a second-and-a-half on Webb, who continued to close. Tomac did what he needed to do though and was able to come into the final turn just out of Webb’s reach. Musquin took his second consecutive win, with Roczen, Tomac, Webb, Savatgy, Wilson, Baggett, Osborne, Seely, and Tyler Bowers rounding out the top ten. Stay tuned on final race results, however. When the medical flag was out for Brayton and Reed it looked as though Musquin may have jumped through that section, which is a violation of the rules. We’ll provide updates on this situation as soon as they become available.