Saturday Night Live: Thunder Valley

With Roczen beating back Tomac for second, it looked like he could cruise to a 2-2 for second overall, as Sexton had the moto win in the bag, and Tomac’s 1-3 moto scores meant he’d be the overall winner for the day. Turns out though, the win wasn’t in the bag for Sexton, who in his words, made a “bonehead” mistake on the final lap and went down all by himself. He got up again very quickly, but Roczen had already gone by. Just like that, Roczen was now the overall winner at Thunder Valley.

“Obviously I’m really happy with how today ended up,” Roczen said. “I’m not the fastest one out there, but I tried really hard to stay in it. It seems like about halfway, or somewhere around there, I start losing time. I hate to say it but sometimes when I get passed I get out of the flow. I obviously won because of Chase [Sexton], what happened, but I also battled really hard with Eli [Tomac] to stay in second place.”

Interestingly enough, Tomac didn’t even know Sexton had gone down, and he didn’t  know he would have won if that didn’t happen. He thought he needed to pass Roczen for the overall, and told us that was the reason he had been trying so hard to get around him.

As for Sexton, he wasn’t happy about throwing away a moto win, something he fought during supercross, but he didn’t seem too hung up on it either.

“In the first moto it was really muddy and I ran out of tearoffs about halfway,” Sexton explained in the post-race press conference. “But the second moto, minus that last-lap mistake, was probably one of my best motos. Aside from that we’re in a good spot and it’s fun racing the guys. Overall I think we’re strong on the 450. We’ll take that last moto and build off of it.”

Elsewhere in the class Jason Anderson went 3-6 for fourth overall. Anderson looked great in the first moto and looked extremely aggressive in the second, but he crashed exiting a turn. He was quick to remount, but it sure seemed like it took a bit of the wind out of his sails. Tony Cairoli was fifth overall, his best finish yet, via 5-4 moto scores. He also holeshot both motos, was quick in qualifying, and spent longer up front before losing a few positions. Don’t look now, but it looks as though he’s starting to get things figured out somewhat.

Ryan Dungey was sixth with 7-7 scores, and when we talked to him afterward we learned he was sick. He didn’t volunteer the information, but it was pretty obvious from the sound of his semi-hoarse voice. He said it wasn’t an excuse and didn’t want to talk about it, and if he’s reading this right now, he’s probably a little annoyed we even brought it up. This track was also the last national track Dungey raced before retiring. It was here that he crashed and sustained a cracked vertebrae in his neck in 2016, and when we asked him about it he admitted that it was something he did indeed think about, describing it as a demon he was “excited to face.” These are the kinds of things we’ve learned to expect from Dungey!

Christian Craig went 10-12 for twelfth overall, but he was much faster than that. He crashed in the first moto and had to come back from fortieth, and in the second moto he was running as high as fourth before he crashed big coming down the hill, sending his bike cartwheeling. Look for Craig to rebound at High Point. Good stuff from Shane McElrath today, especially in the second moto. He started well and just refused to get freight trained. When the checkers flew, he’d gone 12-5 for eighth overall.

In 250 action Jett Lawrence just can’t lose, despite still feeling under the weather and dealing with the nasty cold that had him on the ropes last week at Hangtown. Funny thing is though, despite not having enough fight in him to battle for moto wins, he still rode to 2-2 scores for the overall. It’s as if he’s experimenting with how many different combinations he can put together that still result in an overall victory! In all seriousness, afterward he said he felt like he was getting lucky.

“As of right now I think I’ve just been getting lucky,” Jett said. “I’ve been getting good starts. My fitness is burned up at 15 minutes but I’ve been using as little energy as possible. I’m definitely excited to get back to 100 percent, to where I can be like I was at Pala. I’m like a sitting duck, I had nothing for Hunter [Lawrence] or Levi [Kitchen]."

Speaking of Kitchen, he broke through for a win in the first moto, and he did it in grand fashion too. He holeshot, pulled a lead, and slowly just rode away from the field. When the checkers flew he’d beaten  Jett Lawrence by over nine seconds! His shot at getting his first overall win was ruined early in the second moto when Seth Hammaker and Nate Thrasher came together right in front of him, causing him to crash, but he still managed to get on the podium, going 1-5 for third overall. Kitchen, who typically doesn’t start well, has long said all he needs is a good start, and it turns out, he was right!

“It was huge. I kept saying it, and I knew I could, and I finally proved it. I was stoked,” Kitchen said. “To get a start like that, I’ve never done it. I don’t even know if I’ve started in the top five outdoors. Even my second one, it gave me confidence. I kind of botched the jump but I still came out eighth or so. It was a big day for me. After I got my bike up [in the second moto], for a few turns I was like, ‘My day is ruined.’ But then I started clicking off pretty good laps and started passing some guys pretty quick. That big triple they added this year, every time I’d jump it I’d see Hunter, Cooper, and Jett and I was like, ‘You know, I’m not really losing time to them.’ After that I made a few quick passes.”

Interestingly enough, Kitchen was sick today. So much so that he even considered not even racing! It seems like all you need to do to get on the podium in the 250 class these days is just get a nasty cold.

Hunter Lawrence was second overall with 4-1 finishes, and while he also said he didn’t feel well, he knew there was no way he could waste a good start in the second moto and went for it. Michael Mosiman, who won his first career moto last week at Hangtown, started the day off great by qualifying fastest, but a crash in the first moto put him way back. He was mounting a pretty serious charge, but his bike started bogging when he got up to ninth and he fell back to thirteenth. He was running well in the second moto too and had caught up to Jett Lawrence for second, but his bike started bogging again, which it also did last year, and he fell off the pace. He also had to stop jumping the big triple, which cost him even more time. He went 13-4 for seventh overall.