Making his debut in the 2019 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship today is Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Dean Wilson, who missed the first six rounds after a shoulder injury suffered late in the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Unfortunately, as Deano returns, Racer X broke the news this morning that Zach Osborne, Wilson’s rookie 450 Class teammate, will not race this weekend. After a practice crash earlier in the week, Osborne tried to give it a go in the first qualifying session but finished 41st. The team said they expect Osborne to return at the next race, which will be the Spring Creek National on July 20. Osborne earned his first 450 Class moto win last weekend in the second moto at Southwick and finished second overall after 3-1 moto finishes. Through six rounds of his first season in the premier class, Osborne is fourth in the 450 Class points standings—30 points behind Tomac.

In the 250 Class, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo reclaimed the top spot in the 250 Class after his 1-2 moto finishes at Southwick to claim his fifth overall of the 2019 championship. Cianciarulo has a 23-point lead over Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper, who finished 2-3 for third overall at Southwick. Cooper’s teammate Dylan Ferrandis won the second moto at the ‘Wick after finishing third in the first moto, just edging out Cooper for second place. 

GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton will miss this weekend’s race, after he announced on Instagram yesterday that he is “not going to race until I’m ready to win and be back to my normal self.” Sexton won the first moto in Florida two weeks ago but hasn’t been the same since. He DNF’ed the second moto of Florida,  finished 13th in the first Southwick moto and DNS’ed the second moto. Through six rounds of 2019 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship—the first moto at the Florida National—and sits in fifth place in the 250 Class points standings, with 167 points, and had four top-five overall finishes through the first four rounds.

450 CLASS QUALIFYING

RedBull KTM’s Cooper Webb was this morning’s fastest qualifier—the first time in the 2019 championship. The second session was red flagged for an injury but the session resumed to complete the several remaining minutes. In that session, Webb and Tomac took off out of the starting area as if it was an actual moto. The two traded times for the top spot before Musquin took over the top spot in the session. Jason Anderson briefly had the fastest time in the session but finished sixth-fastest overall in the combined sessions. Joey Savatgy made his way into the top five in qualifying—let’s see if the 450 Class rookie can translate this speed into the motos. Although Dean Wilson qualified 15th overall, he said he has completed "race" motos at practice and is excited to be back racing.

250 CLASS QUALIFYING

Dylan Ferrandis was today’s fastest qualifier in the 250 Class. Ferrandis was able to put down a heater in the second session that gave the Frenchman his first Pro Motocross fastest qualifier of his career. Afterwards, Ferrandis said he will need to focus on getting good starts this afternoon once the first gate drops. He was practicing starts from the inside-most gate— the start still follows the setup of the 2018 Monster Energy FIM Motocross of Nations where it’s a 180-degree right-hand turn into a straight, left-hand 180-degree turn, then another straight away—let’s see if he takes that inside-most gate pick come the first moto. Adam Cianciarulo was looking fast early in the day but went down in the second session and lost his glove—yes, he actually did, no, we don’t know how he did it. Cianciarulo qualified third fastest overall. Michael Mosiman, who missed last weekend’s Southwick National after a practice crash, is back in action again today. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider qualified seventh overall. We’ve seen the track take a few hostages throughout the morning, mostly in the deeply-rutted turns. The starting straight and turn looked pretty gnarly by the end of the session but the track crew will fix it up for the motos.

450 CLASS MOTO 1

Cooper Webb grabbed the holeshot as he went through the line side-by-side with Justin Bogle and Blake Baggett for the first gatedrop from RedBuuuuud but Bogle stole the lead early. Eli Tomac got off to a great start, as he right on the tail of Webb and Bogle, and Marvin Musquin went down in the turn following LaRocco’s leap, where the bike landed on him. Track crew members were able to get the bike off of Musquin and the Frenchman appeared uninjured as he remounted his KTM 450 SX-F and took off. Musquin would eventually finish in seventh position—not bad after being trapped under his bike for several seconds on the first lap and getting up at the very rear of the pack. Webb and Tomac battled back and forth early on as Bogle led for the first four laps. Tomac got around Webb on the outside of an off-camber turn and then used the same spot to get around Bogle on the next lap. Unfortunately for two other Monter Energy riders, their days came to a pause, as Joey Savatgy was forced into the pits and Justin Barcia’s bike locked up and “Bam-Bam” needed assistance to push his bike off the track. Baggett and Bogle battled late but slipups from Baggett, who was catching his teammate, allowed Baggett to finish fourth. Jason Anderson finished second and Webb finished third behind Tomac, who eventually ran away with his sixth moto win of the 2019 championship—his 40th of his career.

“The last weeks have been a little rough and we’re just looking for some momentum…I was feeling good and that’s the way we want to start,” he said on the podium afterwards.

250 CLASS MOTO 1

Alex “Troll Train”  Martin took the first 250 Class holeshot early before trading spots with Adam Cianciarulo and Dylan Ferrandis. Ferrandis made a pass on the inside of AC at the very bottom section of the track and the two got together coming off of the single out of the turn, causing AC to land on the outside of the track. He came back onto the track behind Ferrandis but lost time. Alex Martin made a pass on Cianciarulo but wasn’t able to catch Ferrandis, who pulled away from the field and finished with an 18-second lead. Ferrandis had the speed in qualifying earlier but knew that he had to get a good start to have a clear track ahead of him. Once the gate dropped, he did just that.

“It was great to get a good start,” Ferrandis said afterwards on the podium.

Martin and AC then came together going over the finish line jump, causing Cianciarulo to land on the side of the jump, outside of the track banners. He accelerated to regain his third-place position—behind Martin but in front of Joey Crown. Crown, who is making his 2019 Pro Motocross debut, was running with the front pack early and was caught off guard when Cianciarulo reentered the track and took his line away from him going into the 180-degree left-hand turn. Around the halfway mark was pushing his bike on the side of the track. Crown was officially awarded 39th place. Martin then started having problems of his own, as his bike started steaming late in the moto and on the last lap, his third broke down THREE TURNS from the checkered flag as his engine blew up before the turn leading into LaRocco’s Leap. Such a bummer for “Troll Train” for him to go the entire race and then have it taken away just short. Martin officially finished 19th. Hampshire, who took over third place by passing AC and Colt Nichols, finished the moto second. Justin Cooper had an early tip-over that resulted in the Monster Energy/Yamablube/Star Racing Yamaha rider to lose a few positions and seconds on the leaders. Cooper finished fourth.

Upon completion of the moto, officials announced that Cianciarulo will be penalized two positions for accelerating while off the track. He finished in fifth but it will officially be marked as a seventh-place finish.

450 CLASS MOTO 2

Baggett got a hot start out of the gates and grabbed the holeshot, leading the first lap until Roczen made his way around two Bogle and Baggett to take over the lead. Roczen led seven laps before Musquin took the lead and didn’t look back. After fighting from the back of the pack in the first moto, Musquin was in a good position in the first several laps, which allowed him to stay at the top of the class before finally taking the lead and checkered flags.

“It feels so good,” Musquin said on the podium, “I’m so glad I ended up the day like that…Man it feels so good to win a moot, and riding like I was riding it feels so good.”

Tomac came through the first lap in seventh but fought his way through the pack for a second-place finish. But it wasn’t easy, as Tomac had to pass both Webb and Anderson, who have both proved to resist Tomac’s passes by riding the wide bike. For a little while in the moto Anderson was taking line after line away from Tomac, right when it looked the defending champion would make a move. With four laps to go, Tomac finally made a pass stick on Anderson and he quickly caught Roczen, who was running in second place.

“I feel like I’m just off a tick, speed wise,” Anderson said after holding off Tomac but not being able to keep being towed along with him afterwards.

Tomac goes 1-2 to take the overall win here at RedBud. It’s his 20th career overall in the 450 Class—tying him with James Stewart for fifth all-time.

Roczen, who finished 6-3 for fifth overall, said afterwards that he had thrown up in late in the first moto.

“Obviously I haven’t been myself, but I go out there every weekend—I want to leave it all on the table,” Roczen said on the podium.

250 CLASS MOTO 2

Martin grabbed his second holeshot of the day and led four laps before finishing in third place, after Ferrandis got another great start and passed the JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing rider to take over the lead. Ferrandis led the final 12 laps before taking his second win of the day to take his first overall of the 2019 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Ferrandis’ last overall win came on August 11, 2018, at the Unadilla National, where he finished 1-1.

“Getting ready for outdoors after indoors was tough…I just gelled with the track and had a lot of fun and was able to go fast…I just felt good on the track,” Ferrandis said afterwards.

He said he had been struggling to get it focused on Pro Motocross after supercross and early in the season he was getting impatient with his results. Today, he put it all together—fastest qualifier, great starts, strong riding throughout the entirety of both motos—and he was glad it paid off. With his win today, he took over second place in the points standings, as he now has a one-point advantage over his teammate Cooper.

Behind Ferrandis, Cianciarulo finished 5-2 for second overall and Cooper finished 3-6 for third overall. RJ Hampshire and Hunter Lawrence rounded out the top five overall in the class.