Qualifying – Session One

To say Tomac is a fan favorite at Thunder Valley is an understatement. Even in the first qualifying session of the day, with limited fans in attendance, he was still getting cheered on by fans leaning over the fences every time he went by. Maybe he heard them, because he was fastest for a good portion of this qualifier. Jason Anderson wasn’t far off, a little less than half a second, but for the first half, nobody else was on pace with Tomac or Anderson. But as the session wore guys started getting quicker, especially in the final two laps. Tony Cairoli snuck in a heater to displace Anderson for second, and even Tomac bettered his own time on the second-to-last lap. Chase Sexton snuck in a quickie for fourth on his last lap, but it was Christian Craig dealing the final blow on his final lap to top everyone with a 2:20.895

It was interesting to see Cairoli so fast so soon. He’s not familiar with these tracks like the rest of the guys (he rode at Thunder Valley once years ago for the Motocross of Nations) and it’s not easy to learn a track quickly. The fact that he’s showing intensity and speed so early could mean good things for his results today, although last week he told us he struggles at elevation due to asthma. Stay tuned to this situation, it could get interesting.

In the 250 Class Nate Thrasher set the tone early but Justin Cooper edged him by a couple tenths on lap five. It was interesting to see that from Cooper. Not that he’s not capable, he obviously is, but for the most part it didn’t look like he was really pushing it at all out there, and his lap times were reflected it. In fact, he only recorded one fast lap—his second-fastest lap was about three seconds slower than his fast lap! When it was all said and done, however, it was Hunter Lawrence who was fastest. On his last lap he busted out a 2:22.681 to become the only 250 rider to dip below 2:23. Levi Kitchen must have had a crash because he was riding around with no visor. 

Thunder Valley has featured big jumps in the past, and the tradition continues this year. There’s a big tabletop, which is always there, but this year it’s a booter and it seems like it’s launching guys higher than normal. There’s also a really big uphill triple that’s got everyone’s attention. The 450s aren’t having any problems with it, but some of the 250 riders are struggling to clear it, while others aren’t even launching the whole thing. Amazingly, Gared Steinke still hit it on his 125! He did come up a little short and bounced a bit on the landing, but it didn’t look too bad.

Qualifying – Session Two

Well, you can take the times from the first session and toss them in the used oil container because they no longer matter. The times from the second session were much faster! And in the 250 class, it was Michael Mosiman leading the charge the entire time. Mosiman set a quick lap almost right away, a 2:16.916, and nobody could touch it. That includes Mosiman himself, who looked like he was hammering down the whole time without taking a few laps to cruise here and there. Afterward, when he came to the podium for his TV interview, he pulled a wheelie and rode it up the hill and to the podium. Clearly he’s feeling good today.

Elsewhere in the 250 class, Jett Lawrence looked like he was taking it easy out there, for the most part, and spent a lot of laps just kind of cruising around, or at least he looked like he was cruising, but he went fast enough to be second-fastest with a 2:17.267. Hi second-fastest lap, a 2:17.813, was pretty fast too. Check out the top five, they’re only separated by roughly half a second!

In the 450 ranks it was immediately clear that Chase Sexton meant business. He was fast and he looked aggressive, which is saying something because he always just looks so smooth. Sexton was the only rider to dip below 2:15, and he did it at least twice—his best lap was a 2:14.509, and his second fastest was a 2:14.829. Even his second-fastest time was roughly half a second faster than Eli Tomac’s fastest time (2:15.397). Look out for Sexton today!

Ken Roczen and Jason Anderson were third and fourth fastest, with Cairoli rounding out the top five. Last week Cairoli told us he wanted to work on his intensity early in the day, and it looks like he followed through on it. He was a different rider than he was in qualifying at Hangtown, where he just kind of took it easy trying to learn the track. But here, he was hammering down much, much earlier, and in both sessions.

One of the obstacles that, so far anyway, has been a bit of a separator is a short uphill roller section. There’s nothing particularly dangerous, and it’s not difficult to navigate, but hitting it cleanly and consistently seems to be tricky. If you hit it just right you can float over the top without losing time. But if you get it wrong you slam into the face at the top and bounce into the air, which is much, much slower. More and more guys were figuring it out as the sessions wore on, and you never know how it might get prepped for the motos, but it could prove to be a pivotal part of the track later this afternoon.

450 Moto One

What a fantastic opening moto here at Thunder Valley! The fun started with a holeshot by none other than Tony Cairoli, but he had Ken Roczen all over him. It didn’t take long for Roczen to make the pass, either, and then Roczen took the inside right before the big triple, which immediately gave him a little gap over Cairoli. Roczen then started checking out, and despite a little bobble a few laps later, seemed like he had this thing under control. Behind him though, things were getting interesting. Cairoli got shuffled back several spots, and things started shaping up for a great battle for second between Justin Barcia, Jason Anderson, Eli Tomac, and Chase Sexton. Anderson was the first to get around Barcia, and it looked as though Tomac was going to do the same shortly after. But then Tomac flubbed an uphill roller section and lost some time, allowing Barcia to squirt back away. Tomac was momentarily under pressure from Sexton, but Tomac regained his composure and went back after Barcia and eventually knifed past on the inside right after the start straight. Barcia would go on to lose a few more spots, ending the moto in sixth.

Tomac meanwhile, was charging, and with ten minutes left was going after Anderson for second. He made surprisingly quick work of Anderson, who’d been so strong so far, but the next rider up for Tomac was Roczen, who’d built up a pretty substantial lead. Initially it wasn’t clear whether or not Tomac would have enough time to get Roczen, but that notion evaporated faster than Roczen’s lead. It’s absolutely incredible how fast Tomac can go late in these motos, and the huge chunks of time he takes out of his competitors are amazing. Not only did Tomac hunt down Roczen and make the pass, he went on to win the race by a comfortable margin. The fans loved it too, roaring when he passed into first and keeping it going for the rest of the moto every time Tomac went by. Roczen was under pressure from Anderson at the end but held on for second.

Elsewhere Christian Craig went down and was in fortieth early, but still managed to charge up to tenth. Aaron Plessinger was running ninth, but a small crash relegated him to 11^th.

250 Moto One

Levi Kitchen kicked things off by blasting out of the gate, skating around the first turn, and crossing the holeshot line first. From that point Kitchen actually started checking out. Behind him Jett Lawrence briefly battled with Stilez Robertson, but Lawrence didn’t take long to take the spot and go after Justin Cooper in second. Lawrence got Cooper about five minutes in, and from this point things mellowed a bit, with not much happening in the top six. If you wanted to see a battle you’d have to wait for Nick Romano and Jalek Swoll to come around as they battled for seventh. Swoll was all over Romano for several laps, poking his front wheel in here and there and looking for any place to make a move. Romano hung tough for quite a while though, until Swoll was able to get by. Romano then messed up an uphill roller section and lost some time and just like that, Swoll was gone.

At roughly the halfway point Kitchen still had about five seconds over Jett Lawrence. Several spots back though Hunter Lawrence was starting to get going and was applying heaving pressure to Robertson, who was having a great race. Time after time Lawrence tried to sniff out a move, but Robertson just kept shutting him down. Lawrence was finally able to take away Robertson’s line, but credit to Robertson for putting in such a solid effort. Next target up for Hunter was Seth Hammaker, who was also having a fantastic moto. Hunter closed the gap on Hammaker, but Hammaker was able to momentarily stretch it back out. Hunter wouldn’t be denied, however, and was able to eventually make the move on Hammaker for fourth.

Up front Kitchen wasn’t faltering one bit. In fact, he was somehow getting even faster, and with just a few minutes left he had almost eight seconds on Jett Lawrence in second. At that point the race was all but over, and all Kitchen had to do was manage the moto and bring it home for his first moto win as a pro, which he did. What an incredible performance from Kitchen, who took the holeshot and led this thing wire to wire, beating Jett Lawrence by over nine seconds. Making the win even more amazing is the fact that Kitchen is sick, and even said afterward he considered not even racing today!

Fastest qualifier, Michael Mosiman, was charging forward in this one after going down early and having to come from way, way back. He made it up to ninth, but unfortunately had more trouble out of view and lost dropped back 13^th. Max Vohland had some issues as well, we think bike problems, and was fortieth.

450 Moto Two

If we’re voting for best moto of the year, this one’s got to be in the running, and that’s saying something because we’ve had some great ones so far! Cairoli got the party started with another holeshot, and if you’re counting, that’s three in a row for the Italian. Roczen quickly took over the lead, however. Anderson wasn’t messing around in this one either, and started hounding Cairoli like crazy. Anderson would end up crashing on the exit of a right-hander though. He got up quick and starting hammering down right away, but he just didn’t seem to have the same oomph he started the moto with. He ended up sixth.

Sexton and Tomac benefitted when Anderson went down, and they were quickly running second and third. At that point the top four of Roczen, Sexton, Tomac, an Cairoli were pretty spread out, but as the moto wore on that started to change. Sexton caught and passed Roczen, seemingly easily, and started ducking away with the lead. Tomac tried to do the same, but Roczen was absolutely not having it. Time and time again Tomac would pull up next to Roczen, only to have Roczen block the line and hold the position. Tomac even made the pass a couple times, only to have Roczen immediately sneak back around him. At one point, going up the start straight, Roczen almost seemed to deliberately allow Tomac past by going a little wide, but then Roczen cleverly darted back inside before Tomac could shut the door and retook the spot. It went on like this lap, after lap, after lap, with the crowd roaring their approval. Finally Tomac made a little mistake on a downhill. It appeared as though Rozcen had pushed him a little wide and forced him to pop out of a runt, but Tomac later said he swapped. That was the end of the battle, as Tomac, who at that point still had the overall win in hand, backed off for the final two laps and gave up the fight. After all, why push so hard and give away the overall? But then Sexton inexplicably made a small mistake and had a little crash and Roczen zipped by on the last lap! That changed the score and handed Roczen the overall, and while he inherited it due to Sexton’s mistake, he also earned it due to his tenacity in fending off Tomac. It was a fantastic performance from Roczen.

Christian Craig was running well and held fourth early in this race, but had a big crash at the top of the hill. His bike cartwheeled a couple times and he lost a ton of time. Shane McElrath started well and this one and put together an excellent moto, dodging chaos and hanging in there until the end for fourth.

250 Moto Two

Hunter Lawrence nabbed the holeshot, followed by his brother Jett, but Justin Cooper quickly displaced Jett for second. Jett didn’t waste much time in getting the spot back though, but Hunter refused to make things easy on Jett. Hunter quickly established a small gap early on and held onto it, leaving Jett alone in second for the time being. He’d later start feeling the presence of Mosiman, who had a mediocre start but was flying in this one and had caught Cooper for third about twelve minutes in. After getting around Cooper Mosiman put his head down and went to work reeling in Mosiman and got to within roughly a second, but Lawrence responded and stretched it back out. Mosiman then seemed like he dropped off his pace just a little, and with five minutes left he was getting caught by Cooper. Mosiman wasn’t able to respond and Cooper not only passed him, but zipped away almost immediately. Cooper then went after Jett Lawrence, and nearly caught him too, finishing less than a second back of him. Had there been another lap he may have got him, but as it stood, Jett won his third overall in a row, this time without even winning a moto.

What about Kitchen? After winning the first moto convincingly he found himself in a crash with Seth Hammaker and Nate Thrasher. Hammaker was in a rut and got funneled into Thrasher and they both went down. Kitchen had nowhere to go and also went down. Kitchen and Hammker got going again, but Thrasher looked hurt and didn’t rejoin the race. Kitchen was still able to bring the heat though, and put in some extremely fast laps, eventually working his way to fifth.