Saturday Night Live: Hangtown

Coming in second overall was Dylan Ferrandis with 2-3 moto scores. He withstood a ton of pressure from Aaron Plessinger in the first moto to hang onto second, then put in a charge toward the end of the second moto to try to zap Cooper Webb, but wasn’t able to get the job done. No matter, he still to took second overall. Afterward he told us he and the team have been putting in so much time testing and trying to get the bike how he wants it that it’s cut into the amount of on-the-bike time he’s been able to get. In fact, he’s been relying on the races themselves for training!

“For the last moto we changed the shock the bike was good,” Ferrandis said. “We’re getting close to what I want with the bike. I was a little disappointed in the second moto, I gave the holeshot to Jett and to Coop [Webb], I had it. But we’re one more step in the right direction. We have a really good pace now and this week I need to make sure this setup works in practice. If it does I’ll have time to train instead of just doing testing. I like doing testing, but sometimes you also need to train. Right now I use the races for training.”

Rounding out the podium was Webb, via 4-2 moto scores. Webb was nowhere near the speed of the leaders in the first moto, but credited a fork change between motos for his increased pace in the second. He also had a fantastic battle with Aaron Plessinger that raged for over half the moto.

“It was tough, I hadn’t gone that pace yet all season,” Webb said of his battle with Plessinger. “Kind of just learning the pace and trying not to make too many mistakes. You can kind of see where someone is catching you in some sections, but you don’t really want to change your lines. It was a good little yo-yo, I could feel him all over me, he had some really good spots and I had some good spots. It was definitely difficult to pass. When he got around me I was able to stay close to him, and he kind of made that charge toward Jett and went down. It was good to be in that situation again, stay focused, and nail your laps. It was a difficult track, it could reach out and bite you. I was happy to be able to ride outdoors like that again.”

It was a quiet day for Adam Cianciarulo. The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider took fifth overall, thanks to 5-4 finishes in both motos. It might have been the two loneliest motos of Cianciarulo’s life. In the first one he wasn’t close to Webb, but was way ahead of Fredrik Noren. In the second one he was 47 seconds back of Ferrandis, and 15 seconds ahead of Jose Butron. He was all by himself out there!

Oh, what could have been for Plessinger. The Red Bull KTM rider was great today, and as mentioned above, even attempted a brief run on Lawrence after getting by Webb late in the second moto. Unfortunately, he went down right after the finish line and snapped his clutch lever. The broken lever resulted in him taking longer than normal to get the bike going again, and he lost positions to Cianciarulo and Butron. Even so, his speed was impressive and it’s going to be really interesting to see what he’s able to produce as the season progresses.

Credit to all the privateers taking advantage of an injury-thinned field to garner excellent results. Ty Masterpool went 7-7 for sixth, and Derek Drake had a great battle with Lorenzo Locurcio in the first moto, which he ended up taking the edge in, and he had another great ride in the second moto to go 8-8 for seventh. Jerry Robin was 10-9 for eighth, and Locurcio went 9-11 for ninth. Great work by some privateers maximizing the opportunity!

While the 450 class seemed to have their pecking order already in line, the 250 Class felt much more wide open coming into Hangtown. Hunter Lawrence had won the opener with 3-1 scores and held a solid lead in the championship thanks to a wild mix of scores behind him, but so many other riders factored in. RJ Hampshire won the first moto of the season at Fox Raceway, Haiden Deegan was rolling after his first career Pro Motocross podium, Max Vohland looked strong, Jo Shimoda and Justin Cooper both had solid day, Tom Vialle looked ready to contend, and so much more.

But for all the parity the class had, it still was quite an eyebrow raiser when rookie Haiden Deegan holeshot and started to take off with 250 Moto 1. Deegan had his veteran teammate Justin Cooper right on his tail for a large portion of the moto, but Deegan remained unphased. The crowd roared along the hillsides at Hangtown as Deegan rolled to his first career moto victory to kick off the day. Remarkably, Deegan was one of the fastest riders on the track late in the moto and didn’t seem too gassed from the effort.

The second moto continued to provide that parity though as Cooper holeshot, but Hunter Lawrence snuck into the race lead early. Lawrence was solid in the first moto but came from way back, similar to how the first moto went for him at Fox Raceway. Despite Cooper starting right with him, Lawrence powerfully passed him, gapped him, and cruised to the second moto victory.

Thanks to another mixed day of results throughout, Lawrence’s second consecutive 3-1 results were enough for him to win the 250 class overall on the day. Unlike Fox Raceway though, the points were much closer for the podium as Cooper’s 2-2 day and Deegan’s 1-4 day behind that were just one and two points, respectively, off of Lawrence’s 45 points earned on the day. Still, it was another win for Hunter Lawrence to kick off the season as he retains that championship lead.

“The start was crucial,” Lawrence said of getting out front in the second moto. “I knew they laid a lot of water down. I didn’t want to be behind no one for much longer than that. It was tough. The first hot one of the year. They’re always a bit of a wakeup call but I’m happy to get out of here safe and healthy.”

Justin Cooper’s 2-2 day was another consistent day similar to his 5-4 scores at Fox Raceway, but Cooper was left frustrated having just missed out on both moto victories. Combined, he was only about eight seconds away from a 1-1 day and Cooper had it written all over his face on the podium. But that step in the right direction again this week certainly shows that the momentum is building for Cooper as he eyes clawing points away from Hunter Lawrence.

“He was probably just following me for a bit, checking out my lines and seeing where he was better,” said Justin Cooper of Lawrence passing him early in the second moto. “He was riding good. It’s disappointing to give up the lead like that but hey, it’s a way better weekend than last weekend. We’ll definitely take two seconds, but I definitely want to be on the top step. I get close to the top step, but I never get it done. That’s building up the frustration and the fire. I really want to get one of these wins. It’s time to start digging.”

Rounding out the podium was Haiden Deegan who was elated with his first moto victory, but left a little frustrated in the second moto. He had started in that mid-pack battle and ended up in it for almost the entire race distance. He did well to work forward and end up finishing at the front of that group, but the 1-4 scores stung as he so nearly could have walked away with the overall win on the day. Fortunately for him, the points situation is looking really good after two rounds for the rookie as he’s just 10 points back of Hunter Lawrence and second in the standings.

“It’s a little unfortunate. I didn’t get a great start [in the second moto] and just had to work through the pack, to be honest,” said Deegan. “I charged hard and rode my heart off. It’s still crazy to think. I was on a Super-Mini a year and a half ago and now we’re getting podiums in pro outdoors. It’s just crazy still getting on the podium and I’m hyped.”

Tom Vialle finished up in fourth for the day with 7-3 scores. For the second week in a row, Vialle was overall better and more comfortable in the second moto. His fitness seems on par with the leaders, and it appears now that it’s down to track adaptation. He did say coming into the weekend that he likes the one-day format and how fast he needs to learn the tracks, but he also is obviously getting better every session as the day goes on.

Rounding out the top five was RJ Hampshire, who had the gnarliest 5-5 day of all time. Both motos he didn’t have great starts and was left doing a lot of passing to get into the front group. The speed from the first week was there, and now it’s down to Hampshire to clean up those starts moving forward.

Jo Shimoda, Guillem Farres, and Levi Kitchen were 6-7-8 behind the front five. Shimoda was strong but had a bad start in the first moto and was caught out with a lapper in the second moto and went down. Farres was really good all day long and probably had top five speed but when the musical chairs stopped, he landed with 6-8 scores. Kitchen was improved from what we saw out of him at the opener but still a bit off from what we typically expect from the Washingtonian.

Other news from the racing includes unfortunate ends to both Jeremy Martin’s and Michael Mosiman’s days in the second moto. A huge second turn crash saw Martin get his arm ran over while Mosiman was ran over and left lying in the track for about 30 seconds. As of now, Martin has gone to a local hospital to treat his arm, but it is believed to be a broken wrist while Mosiman had X-rays come back negative on his shoulder where he was run over.

And that’s it from Hangtown as the sun sets on the second round of AMA Pro Motocross. Now it’s time to start heading east as we stop off in Colorado next weekend for the Thunder Valley National. We’ll see you there