On the heels of the High Point National, the two biggest stories surrounded Eli Tomac’s resurgent second moto and Jalek Swoll’s breakthrough first career 250 class overall. For Tomac, he will look to keep that form rolling this weekend after what has been a disappointing three rounds to this point for the former three time 450 class champion. Dylan Ferrandis regained the points lead in the 450 class with his 2-2 overall win at High Point as he now sits just three points clear of Ken Roczen in the standings heading into today’s action at round four.

For Swoll, the win came seemingly out of nowhere as he turned a previous best the round before of sixth into 1-3 scores for the overall. The win catapulted him up to fourth in the championship standings, still behind the Lawrence brothers of Jett and Hunter with Justin Cooper splitting the two. Cooper was able to claim his first moto win of the year in the second moto at High Point as well and did so by outlasting a consistent attack from Jett Lawrence from behind. The younger Lawrence brother remains the championship leader heading into today’s action as he sits 11 points up on Cooper. We’ll have live updates throughout the day here at RedBud, so stick with us as we drop the gates!

FIRST QUALIFYING SESSIONS

The 250B class was the first group to hit the track and boasted 44 riders! ClubMX Yamaha’s newest recruit, Brandon Scharer, was fastest in the B group. As the A group hit the track, it was clear the track had been ripped deeper compared to the previous two rounds and riders were struggling to keep momentum through low lying corners.

Austin Forkner was the first rider to attempt Larocco’s Leap but he shorted it badly and was sent over the bars. Fortunately, he was able to remount and continue on. Nate Thrasher was the first rider to get all the way over, though he did slightly clip as well. Justin Cooper and Joshua Varize both sent it with both riders coming up similarly short.

As the flag waved, it was Jo Shimoda who went fastest over RJ Hampshire. Ironically, both riders had crashed in the same corner after Larocco’s Leap at different points of the session. Justin Cooper was third quickest with Hunter and Jett Lawrence rounding out the top five.

Adam Cianciarulo continued his hot streak in the first qualifying sessions as he again went fastest in the 450A group. Cianciarulo was the only rider in the 2:04s as he laid down a 2:04.8, but Chase Sexton was hot on his heels with a 2:05.0. Maybe the surprise of the first session was that of Cooper Webb who was third fastest. The reigning Monster Energy AMA Supercross champion has struggled through three rounds so far and hasn’t been able to get the ball rolling on the heels of his supercross title. He just tipped Dylan Ferrandis and Ken Roczen who were fourth and fifth fastest, respectively.

The track was certainly deep for the first sessions, but the sun is now out and it will begin to dry the track rather quickly. Look for times to likely drop more in the second sessions coming up here shortly.

SECOND QUALIFYING SESSIONS

In the second 250A qualifying session, it was Justin Cooper who put up an early quick time in the session that was able to hold up most of the way. The track was certainly drying out, but it actually made for rather perfect conditions as the moisture from the morning held well and created a nice loam. Cooper’s time was just enough to eclipse Shimoda’s time from the first session, but Shimoda would still qualify second overall today here at RedBud.

Jett Lawrence also dipped a bit lower in the second session to pull up to third overall, but he narrowly missed out on jumping Shimoda’s time. RJ Hampshire remained fourth fastest, but the surprise was Brandon Scharer who’s time from the first B session of the day was good enough to remain fifth fastest in qualifying.

In the 450 class, Adam Cianciarulo immediately jumped out to an early lead with a blistering time in the session. He would be tipped by the halfway point of the session by Dylan Ferrandis who was able to become the first rider into the 2:03s on the day. Ferrandis’ time remained the only one to hit that mark for the rest of the session as the points leader qualified fastest for the RedBud National.

Ferrandis spoke candidly on the podium after qualifying about how impressed he was by the way the track was weathering in and looked forward to seeing how it shapes up for the rest of the day. He also gave the crowd a big “RedBud!” yell, much to the delight of the Michigan crowd.

250 MOTO 1

As the gates finally dropped at RedBud, it was Justin Cooper jumping out to the early lead with the holeshot in 250 moto one. The Lawrence brothers of Jett and Hunter followed right in tow behind Cooper in the early runnings as RJ Hampshire moved up into third around Hunter Lawrence before the end of the first lap.

Justin Cooper crashed over the finish line jump on the first lap of the race and RJ Hampshire had just snuck around Jett to get into second and catapulted into the lead after Cooper’s crash. Jett Lawrence was then eager to get the lead back and was all over Hampshire out front.

Jeremy Martin moved up to fourth after the opening lap chaos settled down a bit. Martin is dealing with multiple injuries to his hand and shoulder that kept him out of High Point, but the former series champion looked feisty in the early runnings as he eyed closing up on Hunter Lawrence for third.

Hampshire led for three more laps before he tipped over out of the lead coming through the second corner. That moved Jett Lawrence to the race lead with Hampshire slipping back to second, still just a few seconds ahead of Hunter Lawrence in third.

Justin Cooper was starting to make amends for his early mistake as he had held onto a spot in the top 10, but was finally able to make it back to the top five passing Stilez Robertson right before the halfway point of the moto.

At the halfway point of the moto, RJ Hampshire had picked it back up and was reeling in Jett Lawrence for the lead. The duo had stretched out a five second gap over Hunter Lawrence as the faced off in a battle out front.

Austin Forkner was just outside of the top 10 when he tipped over and fell back to 24^th. Then Hampshire crashed in the same corner that Forkner fell in a lap earlier and once again slipped another position, as Hunter Lawrence was able to get around for second. Suddenly, Martin and Cooper were right on Hampshire as the three riders battled it out for third.

Cooper then worked his way around Martin for fourth as Hampshire was inching away ahead in third trying to catch Hunter Lawrence again for second. Hampshire caught Hunter Lawrence for second with about five minutes of the moto still to go and they were both catching Jett Lawrence out front while they battled each other.

Hampshire finally found a way around Hunter Lawrence for second as time expired. With the two lap board displayed, Hampshire had Jett Lawrence just a couple of seconds ahead of him as he tried to claw back the moto win for the third different time. Jett seemed to realize Hampshire was closing back on him slightly and began to pick up the pace and maintain the gap as the white flag waved.

Jett Lawrence just held off a late charge from RJ Hampshire to hold on and win the first moto of the 250 class at RedBud. Hunter Lawrence followed through in third with Justin Cooper and Jeremy Martin rounding out the top five.

450 MOTO 1

The holeshot in the first 450 class moto went to Aaron Plessinger as he had Cooper Webb right behind him and then Webb was quickly into the lead. Plessinger took it right back and then Ken Roczen was suddenly right into the picture as well.

Roczen shot around Webb for second halfway through the first lap and Adam Cianciarulo took the opportunity to also shoot around Webb for third. Suddenly, Eli Tomac also found his way around Webb and Dylan Ferrandis was right on him after that as well.

Ferrandis was caught out behind Webb for a few laps but was finally able to work his way around and move into fifth. Once around Cianciarulo, Ferrandis immediately ran the fastest lap of the race and caught Tomac ahead of him in an instant.

Whether or not Roczen took a peek back and saw the group that was building behind him or not, he quickly caught and passed Plessinger for the lead at the 10 minute mark to try to pull out a gap before the group could get to his back wheel for second.

Ferrandis was still charging through the halfway mark of the moto as he continued to be the fastest rider on the track. He ticked off passing Tomac and Cianciarulo to get into third and was quick to start working on closing the gap down to his teammate Plessinger.

Plessinger was unwilling to let Roczen get away with him and as the moto approached just 10 minutes to go, Plessinger was inching back onto Roczen for the lead and was bringing Ferrandis with him the whole way.

Roczen, Plessinger, and Ferrandis ran nose to tail for about six minutes straight before Ferrandis was finally able to break through and pass Plessinger for second place. Roczen held a two second lead with just four minutes left in the moto.

One lap later, Ferrandis was on Roczen for the lead and wasted little time sizing up a pass to take over the race lead. Ferrandis then took the two lap board with a 1.6 second lead as Roczen settled back and looked to make a second run at the Frenchman for the moto win.

He couldn’t quite get back to him however, as Ferrandis held on to win 450 moto one at RedBud. Roczen was able to hold on for second with Plessinger crossing in third ahead of Tomac and Christian Craig.

250 MOTO 2

The holeshot in the second 250 class moto went to Justin Cooper with teammates Jeremy Martin and Jarrett Frye right behind. RJ Hampshire was quickly through into third around Frye and brought Ty Masterpool with him.

Jett Lawrence had an awful start and was buried in the midfield and matters were made worse when he crashed on the second lap of the race while running in 17^th. The crash dropped Lawrence way to the back of the pack behind Michael Mosiman who went down in the first turn.

Hampshire leapfrogged Jeremy Martin to get into second place and set his sights on Justin Cooper who was out to a little over a three second lead by the end of the third lap. Jalek Swoll was up in sixth early on but a small crash on the third lap of the race dropped the High Point winner down to 15^th.

Cooper dealt with the pressure from Hampshire until the mid-point of the moto when Hampshire capitalized on a mistake from Cooper to take over the race lead. At halfway, it was Hampshire leading Cooper, Martin, Robertson, and Hunter Lawrence inside of the top five.

Stilez Robertson was running in fourth and closing on Jeremy Martin when he made a small mistake and fell back behind Pierce Brown who moved up to sixth. Jo Shimoda also got around to move into fifth with Hunter Lawrence also moving into fourth when Robertson fell.

Jett Lawrence’s march to the front from nearly the very back of the pack resulted in him moving into the top 10 with just about five minutes left to go in the race. Suddenly, Hampshire’s six-second lead disappeared and Justin Cooper took over the race lead again with just a few laps remaining.

For Cooper, he was able to hold on for his second moto win of the season, but RJ Hampshire was able to hold on for second in the moto and go 2-2 for the overall victory at RedBud. Jeremy Martin ended up in third with Hunter Lawrence fourth, Jo Shimoda fifth, and Jett Lawrence getting all the way back to sixth.

450 MOTO 2

Aaron Plessinger grabbed the holeshot again in the second 450 class moto as he led Cianciarulo down the hill but AC crashed coming into the fourth corner. So Cianciarulo went from second to last in a heartbeat and that promoted Eli Tomac into second with Dylan Ferrandis and Ken Roczen right behind him.

Tomac shot into the lead while Roczen shot around Ferrandis as the front four were playing musical positions in the early couple of laps of the race. Ferrandis was quick to try to get back around Roczen, as both championship contenders were eager to be ahead of one another.

Roczen then was trying to get around Plessinger and came up way short on Larocco’s Leap. He quickly shook that off though and set off right after Plessinger again. The front four had company as well in the form of Chase Sexton and Christian Craig who were handing right on to the lead group making it nearly six riders nose to tail through the first 10 minutes.

By the halfway point, the front four had again opened up a little buffer on Sexton in fifth as the group started to pick up the pace a bit. Roczen then went down from third right after Larocco’s Leap and twisted up his bike some as he remounted in sixth just ahead of Marvin Musquin.

The battle out front seemed to then dissolve into just a two rider fight between Tomac and Plessinger. Plessinger kept applying the pressure on many occasions to Tomac out front, making up a lot of time by continued to do Larocco’s Leap while Tomac was not doing it.

Ferrandis then was making one last push in the closing stages of the moto to catch Plessinger and Tomac ahead of him. Ferrandis made the move around his teammate for second as the two lap board came out and the attention was solely on if Ferrandis could catch Tomac out front to go 1-1 on the day.

He just couldn’t quite get it done in the end, as Tomac was able to hold on for his second win of the year. Ferrandis’ 1-2 scores were plenty though for his third overall win of the season in the first four rounds. It should be noted that Ferrandis was penalized a point and Roczen was penalized two points for committing infractions when the red cross wheels on the ground flags were waving in the first moto. Despite that, Ferrandis still had enough points in hand to win the overall.