The fifth round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship was wrapped up over the holiday weekend, and we finally saw our first two-time winner in the 450 class. Eli Tomac went 1-1 on the day, but there was still plenty of action behind him. The 250 class showcased amazing rides by Jo Shimoda and Ty Masterpool, and a devastating engine malfunction for Jett Lawrence. As such we fired some questions over to Jason Thomas to get his take on all things RedBud.
Jo Shimoda talked about "slowing down to go faster" being a key to his qualifying speed. He says he tries to push too hard sometimes and that leads to front end washouts and small mistakes. Can you talk about resisting the urge to push harder to go faster. Probably applies especially to a 250F on deeper soil, too.
If you look back on Jo’s mistakes and tip-overs this year, they are consistently similar. His synopsis that he is rushing the corners is one I agree with. I believe he is trying too hard and overriding the track. His front end is stepping out which would indicate that he’s asking too much of the front tire and also could be out of position (not enough weight on the front end). That out-of-position situation is caused by too much effort. If you watch other riders going a similar speed that aren’t making that mistake, they are a bit more patient in their execution. Jo’s plight isn’t uncommon, it’s a normal result of riding just above the sustainable pace. I hate mentioning Jett here because this question is about Jo but if you watch Jett and how he looks much calmer, that’s where Jo will aim to be. Being able to hold that pace without being on the edge is the next step.
Jett's engine let go in the right place, in a corner instead of a jump. Hunter said he felt his engine slowing and backed it down. Talk about the "feeling" a rider has when an engine is going south, how you compensate, and try to prevent the worst (an endo) from happening. Obviously sometimes it lets go without warning, but what do you feel under circumstances like this?
It’s not a comfortable feeling. When the engine is getting close to failure, you can often feel the heat rising. You can also “hear” the heat rising as the engine gets louder when those engine parts are expanding and causing more friction. He surely felt the loss of power, too (as he mentioned). Everyone who has raced for any length of time has felt an engine quickly working towards its demise. Having that happen while leading a national is a totally different scenario, though. If that was practice somewhere or at some inconsequential race, he would immediately pull off and go back to the pits. When you’re leading a national as the points leader, it presents a very precarious situation. The last thing you want to do is willfully end the race in the small chance that the engine could hang in there (we have seen four-strokes smoke for laps without catastrophe). The chance of injury due to an untimely failure is rising by the second in this scenario, though. Every jump he hit, I was holding my breath from my couch. I have had to step off the front of far too many motorcycles in my time and I’m sure he has also. Losing 25 points is a bad outcome but injury would have been far worse. Let’s just all be thankful that it came to a stop in one of the safest possible spots.
Can you make any sense out of Ty Masterpool's RedBud performances, past and present?
It’s obviously a track that works for him. Going back to 2020, he almost won this race. Yes, he was on a Monster Energy Star Yamaha Racing rocketship, but the speed was undeniable. To see him running around near the front again shouldn’t be shocking based off that performance. The last two years of racing overall haven’t been as kind to him so that’s where the surprise could arise. I will be curious to see if this was a RedBud one-off or if he has rekindled his prior level.
Eli Tomac is rolling now, and the next three tracks (Southwick, Millville and Washougal) might be his best. Is resistance futile?
No, but the task won’t be easy for Chase Sexton and company. If you look at Tomac’s results trajectory on a chart (and his overall performances), the trend is very clear. He has consistently gotten better over five rounds. This past week was utter domination, really. He was never tested at any point during the afternoon.
I do believe Sexton has the raw speed to go at Tomac, though. If they get out front together, I don’t think Tomac just runs away. Sexton is going to have to withstand a fury of excellence over the next month, though. Tomac might make a push to take and extend a lead over the next six motos before we go to Washougal.
One important thing to note is that the series finale is at Fox Raceway where Sexton has been absolutely fantastic. If he can keep it tight (or ahead) going into that all-important Labor Day weekend, he could go in with the confidence of his prior excellence. If Tomac does go on a hot streak here, Sexton has to keep that big picture scenario in mind and try to mitigate the harm.
Line choice is so key, and with these drone and helicopter shots we're getting a better look at it. At RedBud we saw some riders trying to make passes by just going everywhere the rider in front of them wasn't. But the alternate line isn't always a good line. Talk about the strategy of just following until the one area you know you can pass, versus trying to pass everywhere.
There are two things to note here. Yes, using alternate lines to avoid following the lead rider is a tried-and-true approach that should be adhered to. RedBud is tough in that aspect, though, as the inside line is often too fast to ignore. If you have a huge speed advantage over your competitor, though, taking longer lines or unorthodox approaches can pay off. For riders like Shimoda, RJ Hampshire, or Justin Cooper that needed to recover from crashes, those different lines can be valuable weaving through traffic.
The other important part about not following is protecting your tear-offs. Sexton got stuck behind Justin Barcia and Ken Roczen in that first moto and ran out of tear-offs near halfway. That makes for a tough 15 minutes of wiping with your glove or sleeve. Every time he would pull up to the back of the rider in front of him, he likely couldn’t see well for the rest of that lap. Taking alternate lines and staying out of that roost would have saved several tear-offs that he could have utilized when right on Barcia’s rear wheel. It’s not always about passing or the line being faster, sometimes getting out of the main line improves moto-long vision.
