Vialle Back into the 250SX East Points Lead After Indianapolis

Going back to his days in the MX2 class of the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP), Vialle has always been a great starter. Constantly, MXGP-TV announcer Paul Malin would say Vialle’s name as the holeshot winner weekend after weekend after weekend no matter the country or venue. Obviously good starts are important to winning races and landing on the podium, especially in the current, deep fields. But Vialle knew just how important a good start would be in the weighty showdown main event Saturday. And he executed.

“Yeah, I actually really wanted to win,” Vialle said after the race. “I feel like I was close last weekend and close again tonight. But my starts have been…I've been better the last two races and I think there's a lot of good guys out there. So, if you can start in front, it's a big help. And my starts have been good and I've been close to the win and I really want that as soon as possible, of course. And I'm gonna go back to work next week and be ready for the next race.”

The long-time factory KTM rider is a two-time MX2 Champion and although the overseas motocross series varies significantly to AMA Supercross in the U.S., he is able to lean on his championship experience from the MX2 title seasons. He just knows he has significantly less time in 250SX than he does a 20-round (40 motos total) MX2 championship. While he has the points lead now, he know race wins are necessary to keep the points lead in his hands through the season finale.

“I think, yes, of course,” he said on relying on his MX2 title fight experiences. “I mean, obviously when you go to the race, you want to win the race, but in Europe, we go for like 20 races. So that's the championships. Here, it's only 10 races. So, like I said, the first two races, I was like trying to see like how the bike was or what was myself. And but now we have to fight for the win every weekend.”

“I feel like in Europe you can finish third, second, and it's a longer championship, same as an outdoor [AMA Pro Motocross Championship],” he continued. “It's only 11 races [in 250SX], so it's pretty short, but I think it [my MX2 experience] can help, but I try to focus every weekend on myself and not really on others, and it's working great so far.”

So far, Vialle has been the most consistent out of the 250SX East Division, hence why he is leading the points. After finishes of 1-2 to start the season, Max Anstie has trended backwards with results of 6-7 at the Detroit and Indianapolis rounds since. RJ Hampshire’s 18th after getting caught on the Tuff Block in Tampa hinders his finishes of 3-1-4 since. And Indianapolis SX showdown winner Hammaker is, as Steve Matthes put it on Monday night’s PulpMX Show, “like one bad piece of chicken from maybe being the points lead,” noting the food poison-inducted 17th-place finish at the Detroit SX. Hammaker sits on 4-17-3-1 finishes so far.

The consistency has paid off so far for Vialle. After a weekend off, the #1 will be back with the red backgrounds on his #1 KTM 250 SX-F in Birmingham, Alabama. Now it’s time for him to ramp up the speed and go for race wins.