By the Numbers:
At the WW Ranch National, Dylan Ferrandis earned his sixth and seventh moto wins of the season en route to his second consecutive round with double moto sweeps. This was his third 1-1 day of the championship and the seventh of his career. Ferrandis has totaled 22 career moto wins. Jeremy Martin’s 33 career moto wins leads the active riders in the class (and is tied with Broc Glover for fifth all-time), but Ferrandis continues to increase his rank on the all-time list, where he currently sits 13th. Next on his list is Christophe Pourcel and Eli Tomac at 23 apiece. Will Ferrandis join into a three-way tie with Pourcel and Tomac next weekend or will he earn two moto wins and jump the duo to join Blake Baggett at tenth all-time with 24?
In the first moto, GEICO Honda’s Jett Lawrence finished a career best second place—his third moto podium of the year. Unfortunately for Jettson, his second moto start only allowed him to charge to fifth and he ended the day just barely off of the overall podium in fourth overall.
Justin Cooper finished 4-2 to earn his first overall podium of the season. Cooper entered the 2020 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship with 12 overall podiums in 27 career starts but only has recorded one overall podium in his seven starts this season. After earning one top five moto finish in the first six motos of the year, Cooper has recorded four top-five moto finishes in the last eight motos.
In the second moto, Brandon Hartranft came from 32nd to 13th place, gaining 19 positions.
Also in the second moto, 19-year-old Jordan Jarvis became the first female to make it into an AMA motocross event using the modern qualifying process. She is the second female in the modern era to race a Pro Motocross national—Doreen Payne raced in the 500 class of the 1983 Denver National. Jarvis said her goal is to be a racer like anyone else—to work hard, to improve, to just keep getting faster and stronger. The female racer part? That’s just a bonus. Read about her day in Florida, her goals for this year, and more in this week’s privateer profile with JJ.
In the 450 Class, Zach Osborne earned his earned his second 1-1 victory of the season as well, doing so in his own impressive fashion. He had to track down and pass Marvin Musquin, and rookies Chase Sexton and race leader Adam Cianciarulo in the first moto. Then in the second moto he had to not only catch front runners Cianciarulo and Musquin again, but he had to hold off a hard charge from Eli Tomac.
These lap times were ridiculously fast compared to the rest of the field. Here is what I wrote on Saturday in the WW Ranch National race day feed:
Again, Tomac had a slight slip up on the last lap causing him to back it down and hold on for second but Osborne dropped a 2:15.368 on the last lap of the moto. Tomac’s last lap was a 2:18.804 and the only other last lap under a 2:22 was Anstie’s 2:20.443. Speaking of the Brit, Anstie put in a solid moto taking fourth place. Anstie would finish the moto fourth and his 13-4 earned him seventh overall on the day. He came from dead last at the start of the first moto. Impressive ride by the #103.
But upon further investigation, look at Tomac and Osborne’s last lap compared to rest of the fields’ final lap times in the moto.
Note: only including riders who completed at least 15 laps.
Rider | Final Lap time (lap 16 unless indicated) |
Osborne | 2:15.368 |
Tomac | 2:18.804 |
Anstie | 2:20.443 |
Noren | 2:22.134 |
Barcia | 2:22.265 (lap 15) |
Sexton | 2:23.297 |
Savatgy | 2:24.303 |
Hubert | 2:24.830 (lap 15) |
Baggett | 2:25.162 |
Musquin | 2:25.915 |
Craig | 2:27.367 |
Bowers | 2:27.583 (lap 15) |
Chisholm | 2:28.021 (lap 15) |
Ray | 2:28.044 (lap 15) |
Lesher | 2:28.063 (lap 15) |
Rodbell | 2:28.448 (lap 15) |
Ciancairulo | 2:28.854 |
Lane | 2:29.459 (lap 15) |
Bogle | 2:31.451 (lap 15) |
Masterpool | 2:31.799 |
Teasdale | 2:33.561 (lap 15) |
C Tickle | 2:34.053 (lap 15) |
Backaus | 2:34.162 (lap 15) |
Hile | 2:34.626 (lap 15) |
Martin | 2:43.758 (lap 15) |
Tomac made a mistake late in the race and then let up in his charge, but needless to say but Zacho wasn’t taking any chances until he crossing the checkered flag!
And speaking of Anstie, the Twisted Tea/HEP Motorsports Suzuki’s rider finished 13th in the first moto, gaining 27 positions in the moto after staring 40th, earning him the Battery Tender RC Hard Charger award. He got a much better start in the second moto and earned fourth place for seventh overall, his third top-ten overall finish this year.
In the second moto, Justin Barcia crashed out of second place and had to make a pit stop to fix up his bike. The Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing rider came through the first lap in 39th and would charge to 13th by the end of the moto—gaining 26 positions. Great ride by Barcia after losing so much time during the crash and pit stop.
Tomac’s 6-2 earned the defending champion his third overall podium finish of the season. This was Tomac’s 50th career overall podium finish and he is only the fifth rider in premier class history to grab 50 overall podiums. Check out Clinton Fowler’s stats on Tomac below:
Quotes from Around the Paddock:
Chase Sexton | 4-5 for 5th overall in 450 Class
“Today I qualified first in both practices, which was good. My speed has been really good. In the first moto I passed for the lead for about five seconds and then I got passed back, but overall, I feel like I’ve been riding really well. I got fifth overall today, which isn’t what we want, but I think we’re getting closer to the win that we want. I’m looking forward to the last two rounds.”
Said Honda HRC team manager Erik Kehoe:
“Chase continues to show great speed, qualifying first again this weekend. He had solid starts and raced in the top three in both motos. As a rookie in the 450 class, a 4-5 moto tally is another solid day for Chase to continue to progress and build on.”
Blake Baggett | 7-6 for 6th overall in 450 Class
“It was a good day overall. I had the speed, I didn’t get the best starts, the track was tough, and I didn’t move forward as quick as I should have. Still a good day and we will take the momentum into the last two rounds of the season.”
Max Anstie | 13-4 for 7th overall in 450 Class
"I'm making progress each week with myself, the bike, and the team. I'm happy with a solid fourth in the second moto. It was nice to battle up near the front. On the first lap of moto one I went off the track and had to make a hard charge from a long way back, so it was nice to end up seventh overall. I'm looking forward to Colorado!"
Fredrik Noren | 9-8 for 8th overall in 450 Class
"It was a good weekend for me. We did some testing this week. Riding down in Florida with Alex was good; that definitely put us in a good direction. With just two more rounds to go I'm looking forward to finishing off the season strong."
Joey Savatgy | 8-9 for 9th overall in 450 Class
"It was another struggle weekend for me. We have two rounds left for me to dig deep and finish strong."
Christian Craig | 10-10 for 11th overall in 450 Class
“WW started off pretty good. Qualifying was one of my best—I qualified fifth. I went into the motos pretty confident, but I got off to a bad start in the first moto. I had to make my way through the pack pretty quick and I got up to ninth or 10th. I was stuck there for a while, and unfortunately the heat got to me about halfway through. It was tough trying to hang on, not being used to the humidity at all, and I pretty much just rode it out in 10th. I had a better start in the second moto and rode up with those guys a little bit longer. I had some good battles and then the heat just took over again. I pretty much hung on for dear life. I ended up getting 10-10 for 11th. I was on a pretty good streak with some good motos, running up front, so I’m not happy with today. I have two more rounds to get into that top-five.”
Said Kehoe:
“Christian tried to get in his zone all day today and ended with consistent 10-10 moto scores. Christian has the speed to run closer to the podium and will continue to work hard to reach his goal.”
Justin Bogle | 11-15 for 13th overall in 450 Class
“Today was good. I felt really comfortable on the track and had the speed out there. It’s a shame I went down at the start of the second moto, as I felt I could have had a top ten finish. We are still making huge progress and will be ready at Thunder Valley next week.”
Jett Lawrence |2-5 for 4th overall in 250 class
“I’m sick of getting fourth place.”
Alex Martin | 5-7 for 6th overall in 250 Class
"It was a so-so day at the Florida national. The heat and humidity made the conditions pretty tough, and a second moto crash with my brother cost me a shot at another podium. Moving back to third in points was a positive."
Said JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing team manager Jeremy Albrecht:
"Overall, it was a solid day: All three riders in the top 10. Everyone tried hard and fought the whole moto to finish the best they could. We will make a few small changes to try and finish out these last two races even stronger. It’s really close to being a truly great day for all."
Cameron Mcadoo | 9-8 for 7th overall in 250 Class
“It was a good day overall. The track had a lot of tricky spots and you had to really be on your game the whole time. It was a nice surprise to see the 9-8 was seventh overall, but I really want to put the team closer to the top. We’ll keep working to close out the season with some good racing.”
Carson Mumford | 10-11 for 9th overall in 250 Class
“My weekend was pretty good, but qualifying was not good once again. It is hard to show up to a place I’ve never rode before and pin it, but I need to work on that. Races were good, I’m really happy with my fitness. I passed three people the last three laps of the first moto and got 10th and second moto was around 10th and crashed and charged hard to the end and passed for 11th on the last lap. The heat didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would until about four laps to go in the second moto. Then it hit me, but I was close to passing for 11th so I pushed harder than I ever have and luckily I made it happen.”
Mitchell Harrison | 11-16 for 13th overall in 250 Class
“My goal is to stay in the top 10 and I wasn’t able to do that this weekend. I felt like I had the speed to be able to be up there with those guys but couldn’t make the moves I wanted to. I’m already pumped to get to Thunder Valley to bounce back and put my Kawasaki KX250 back in the top 10.”
Injury Updates:
Jalek Swoll
Swoll has announced he will sit out the final two rounds of the 2020 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship in order to let his shoulder heal. He said the following in a social media post:
“I’m going into off season early to get my shoulder fixed up and ready for next season, but on the positive side I ran top 10 for over half the moto and was feeling solid until the shoulder had enough, but it is what it is will come out swinging year 2.”
Swoll finishes the year with a season-best 19th overall at both the RedBud 1 and 2 Nationals and a season-best moto finish of 15th (in both the final moto of the RedBud 1 National and the RedBud 2 National).
Benny Bloss
Bloss’s day was derailed by a crash in the first moto but he is hoping to lineup in Colorado this weekend. Below is his update from Instagram:
“Not a good weekend for me. I felt good in qualifying, but I unfortunately had a crash in moto 1 that pretty much ended my day. Tried to go for moto 2 but just wasn’t right. I’m gonna recover the best I can this week and come out swinging @thundervalleymx It’s definitely one of my favorite tracks, so I’m excited to see what I can do there!!”
Other News:
Hunter Lawrence’s bike issue in the second moto was “an issue with the flux capacitor.”
Mason Gonzales and RJ Hampshire had two completely unrelated, but similar, gnarly crashes. They were both able to walk away from unharmed.
Hampshire lined up for the second moto and finished sixth.
Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen was on hand for the race and even joined the broadcast booth with Jason Weigandt and Grant Langston. Roczen absolutely crushed it as an announcer. Now enjoy a Ken Roczen Films production:
Mathias Jorgensen is heading home
Jorgensen (and his girlfriend/mechanic Stine Hettervik) have to head home to Europe because, according to a post on Jorgensen’s Instagram, their “insurance can’t cover us anymore regarding the raise in Covid numbers.”
Carter Stephenson
Stephenson said on Instagram he crashed in the first 450 Class moto and had wiring issues, so when he crashed on the first lap of the second moto, he had no way of starting his bike. Luckily there were some diehard fans that saw him struggling, jumped the fence, and pushed him enough to bump start his bike. Stephenson finished the moto 33rd. Shout-out to the guys who got him going again!
GoPro Footage:
A-Mart’s moto two highlights:
AC’s moto one and two highlights: