At first round of Pro Motocross, the 250MX class held a lot of action in a very talented field. In fact, the field was so deep and the Fox Raceway track was so rough that the results were all over the map. Several riders had days that might have been short of what they were hoping for, while also showing flashes of brilliance and speed. Max Vohland, Chance Hymas and Michael Mosiman are among many with stories to tell. We caught up with them after the race to see how their day went, and they all seem to be eager for another try in Hangtown.
Max Vohland | 2-9 | 6th OA
Racer X: Alright Maximus Vohland, overall, a solid day top to bottom I feel like. Qualifying was good, first moto was good, second moto was good. You’ve got to be happy?
Max Vohland: I am pretty happy, of course it is an achievement to get on the box at least for one moto. It was kind of a bit of a steppingstone, I was looking forward to making that big step and getting on the box overall today. But yeah, qualifying was good, second in qualifying. Was fast in the first moto and held those guys off and got second. And then the second moto we made good changes to the bike, so I felt even better than the first moto, and I was ready to win. Like, I had it, but just made a mistake, pushed too early and hit a guy and went down. I was way back and came back to sixth, I felt like I was going super-fast out there and made a lot of moves on guys and moved through the pack. I felt like I had the speed and the ability to do it but came into a lapper quite late in the moto and that really hurt. Because I was still in podium position at that time and hitting the lapper killed my hopes. And then even on the last lap if I would have just got Carson [Mumford], which I was so close, I was drag racing him to the finish line, I still think I would have been able to get up onto the box. It is what it is. Next weekend is the hometown track at Hangtown, I know that track like the back of my hand, I could probably ride it with my eyes closed. So going into Hangtown ready to fight for the podium and most likely the win.
Going back to that first moto you caught up to the RJ Hampshire, Jo Shimoda pretty fast and then RJ was able to get back ahead of him and then Jo went down. Do you think that RJ picked it up or you just kind of stalled out a little bit or what was it?
Well I was kind of watching the battle and RJ passed Jo early and it looked like he had it and then make some mistakes, so Jo caught up and looked like he had the momentum. I was just sitting back and being patient and kind of waiting for that mistake, because they were fighting too close for someone not to make a mistake. I was just trying to sit close enough to capitalize, and then yeah, I lost a little bit of time when Jo fell, and then when Jo fell RJ really cranked it up for about two laps where I didn’t have my flow going yet. After those two laps I got the flow going and I stayed even with RJ and then we ended up running our fastest laps right at that time. Even the first moto I wasn’t comfortable on the bike, I just wasn’t comfortable, but I was still able to get second which I was happy about. I feel like I have a lot left on the table, like endurance is 100 percent good for both motos for sure this year. That’s not a question. My speed is not a question anymore, I know I’ve got the speed to race these guys and battle. I’ve just got to be a little smarter on the racetrack.
Tell me about those track conditions. The second moto looked pretty gnarly.
Yeah, second moto was tough. We had a lot of kind of one lined areas so we kept digging it deeper and deeper. I mean that rut we had after the finish into that right hander was so deep and slick especially for a paddle tire. So, it was getting pretty hard to pass and if you went to the outside, it was just as rough and gnarly as the inside, the inside is just shorter. So that made it kind of tough to pass a little bit. But I did have a few spots I could make a pass right before the finish. I was wheelying that hole and then jumping outside and then outside outside again. That was about the only passing spot I could really find. And then over by the finish line. So, it was kind of tough to pass but definitely good for a guy who has good endurance.
Tell me a little about starting the season off with two good moto results like we said and just being able to start anew again, supercross was a little rough.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean I had some good races in supercross, and I had some bad ones. The experience I just don’t have in supercross like I do in outdoors. So of course, coming into the outdoors this year I know “Hey it's third year, I'm feeling fast, I'm feeling good on the test tracks. I'm coming into this race ready to win. I know I can win here.” I almost did it my rookie year and I feel like I am way ahead compared to my rookie year. So, I was like, “If I can just get a start, I can go do it.” But yeah, it feels good. I am only one point behind third, and three behind second and we got three of us tied for fourth right now. The points go mixed up out there and the overall didn’t fall in my favor, but I'm close and I feel like I can make a lot of it back up this next weekend.
Chance Hymas | 15-12 | 12th OA
Racer X: Alright Chance Hymas, maybe not the day you wanted but I feel like speed wise you were solid.
Hymas: Yeah, speed was good. First moto I had a bad start and was never up front. I think the highest I was in the first moto was maybe twelfth or something like that, and then I went back to 20th and I think I ended up 15th. Second moto was good, I got a top ten start, made a lot of passes the first lap and I was fourth for a little bit. Fourth for about four or five laps, J-Coop [Justin Cooper] got me, [Guillem] Farres passed me, and I was running sixth for a little bit. In the middle I kind of hit a wall for a little bit, rode a little tight, and was not riding like myself for a little bit. There was a group of like five or six people behind me, [Michael] Mosiman was at the front of it. We ended up colliding in a corner, our bikes got kind of got stuck together and ripped the bike out from under me.
So, after that I kind of regrouped for about a lap and then I was like “I’ve got to hammer down.” Ended up catching Ryder D [DiFrancesco], had a battle with him, RJ [Hampshire] was behind me, I had no idea. I thought he was in front of me. RJ caught up to me when I caught up to Ryder and it was just a dog fight. I was trying to pass Ryder, but I was also not trying to get passed by RJ. RJ ended up passing both of us and then he crashed while I was still behind Ryder. This was like two laps to go so it was a dog fight for the last two laps. Going into the last lap we were going back and forth, I passed Ryder and I had a pretty decent gap until I made a mistake coming down the last hill. There’s a rut and I jumped into it and got off balance and RJ passed me. It was like the same scenario as with Mosiman and I was like “I just need to back her off and let him go.” So, P12, not necessarily stoked on the results but it has been a while since I have lined up on a gate and now I kind of know what I need to do and knocked the rust off a little bit. So, I'm excited for next weekend.
I mean you only got in the last national last year so did this kind of feel like a “re-debut” in a sense I guess?
Yeah, even this race, it was the first race I have done where I feel like I can charge until the end and I still feel good you know? Like Pala 2 last year, obviously the heat was gnarly, but I got like 15 minutes into it and I’m dead. So, I felt a lot stronger at this one but it is just like round one again. It's obviously still my rookie season, but it's almost like I forgot how it was last year. Qualifying was so hard. But it's fun. It's fun to get the first race jitters out and now I can focus ahead to Hangtown and know what I need to work on a put it all together.
Seeing as the track got as gnarly as it did, you don’t really get to test in those conditions all of the time. Did you learn some things on the bike today that you are going to try to fix or work on during the week?
Actually our training facility in Florida, the Lawrence’s place the Dog Pound, it's the most realistic outdoor track I have ridden that’s actually comparable to this. They don’t prep it, they like to leave it. Obviously, the ruts up the lips, you don’t get that many ruts there, but the bumps there and the bumps you get here it's pretty comparable. The only thing that I think it's that different between here and the practice track is the ruts off the lips. Most of the time you only get one rut because all of us are hitting the same line. But here you just kind of have to pick and choose your lines, I definitely feel like I was slacking a little bit on race craft, just changing my lines when I needed to. I felt like I stayed in the lines too long. I feel like I learned that too this weekend. Honestly my bike felt great, Honda HRC had my bike working great, Showa suspension was amazing. Dunlop tires were hooking up. Honestly, I couldn’t complain about the bike, it was awesome.
Michael Mosiman | 19-10 | 15th OA
Racer X: Alright Michael Mosiman, 15th isn’t where you wanted to end up but I feel like the second moto was the step in the right direction you were hoping for?
Michael Mosiman: Absolutely, I think we have to take the positives and build on that. Got off to a pretty dang good start in the second moto and was able to just see where the pace is. It's been a little bit for me, I think just giving myself a little grace and allowing myself to build into it is going to be important for me. And 15th is something that we can pout about and make a stink about and be really bummed but that’s not going to get us anywhere. So, take what we can, build on it, I think we made a lot of progress with the bike, and I think that was huge. Second moto I had a lot more flow and was able to ride better. I am excited, they even have some more things they want to try to try and improve. So, I think on that end we made a lot of progress.
Coming into this weekend, based on your own expectations that you had for yourself and what you knew you were capable of, do you feel like you were better than expected like in terms of feel on the bike, comfort, doing full motos again. Because it's been a little bit since you’ve been out here.
No, I would say I was unimpressed with my riding and my performance. I was really happy in qualifying, I had a lot of fun. So that was big for me, to where qualifying where I did was less important because I was having fun. I would say I had higher hopes and I had been riding pretty good at the practice track, but there is nothing like racing. And I certainly had the prerace jitters a little more that usual. But yeah, something to build off of and excited to go back to my hometown. I know every line there already so yeah, I'm excited.
And you won there last year (the first moto).
And I won there last year, so it has even more good feelings.
Tell me about the track in the second moto, it looked brutal.
First moto, second moto, it was brutal all day. First practice it was brutal, golly. That double double and then the step-up, ugh. It was insane. The second moto it was better for sure but the first moto it was so gnarly. And then the second moto the next section it was like ruts all the way across and then you are wheelieing in the rut, but still staying in the rut, and then jumping into another rut, and you have choices of which one you are going to land in. It was hectic. It was a lot to deal with, but everyone is dealing with the same thing. You make do with it and try to jump the bumps and have fun.
When you have a track that’s this gnarly where you are jumping bumps and trying to find any line, do you feel like you find anything set up wise or are you like, “Eh, this is a wash let’s not think about it.”
Absolutely, because national tracks this is how they get, they are just simply brutal, and you don’t get a practice track to get that rough, generally. And this one in particular is just gnarly, like the holes and the ruts, A-Z. I was just telling someone who asked me, “Did you feel comfortable today?” it's like, “No I didn’t feel comfortable, no one felt comfortable, it was brutal for everyone.” So, yeah, it's always a little bit of a wake-up call coming here. It's never been my best track in qualifying, I think I have had some good results here though.
Is it nice to start off the day with a little bit of a cooler day? It wasn’t scalding hot whereas last national here it was really hot.
Absolutely, yeah if it was brutal hot, I think in some ways it could have given me an advantage, I always believe that my fitness is well, or just the ability to dig deep. But yeah, it was definitely nice being a little bit cooler. And last year the first one was nice, it was mellow. The second one was brutal.
Glad we’re not coming in September then?
I am not mad about that!