Photo by: Hoppenworld
The MotoXAddicts poll this week was “Who will be next 250MX overall winner?”, and surprisingly, sitting fifth overall in the poll is Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne with just 6% of the votes. I say surprisingly because during the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Zach had already scored two second overall finishes heading into the 2015 Red Bud National and left Red Bud with his third second overall finish of the year. If I was the one voting on the next 250MX winner, the person who’s finished second the most would be my vote, but Zach is one of those quiet assassins few notice.
At the 2015 Red Bud National, though, I think Zach made everyone take notice. Zach qualified fourth overall, and in moto one, the #16 started fifth before climbing up to finish third in the moto. In moto two, Zach was probably just a holeshot away from getting that ever-allusive first win. Zach rounded the first turn fifteenth, checked in after lap one in eighth and, by the end of the moto, had climbed up to second—just five seconds off the leader Jeremy Martin. It was an incredible display of speed and desire that landed Zach his third second overall finish and vaulted the veteran up to third in the 250MX Championship points.
After the race, Zach sat down to answer some questions for the press, and we recorded the interview for one of this week’s “Race Rewind” interviews. You can hear what Zach had to say below.
Zach you went 3-2 on the day for 2nd overall, and moved up to 3rd in the 250MX Championship today. Can you tell us about your day.
Yeah, the day was good. I felt good in the first session of qualifying. I was fourth fastest and I actually felt like I could have been a little faster but I missed a couple of jumps on my fast lap and I wasn’t jumping the leap all day. I actually came up really, really short on it on press day and blew out a wheel and kind of wounded my pride a little bit. So I decided not to jump it. We knew that that was going to hurt me a little bit but in the end it was okay.
It seems like from the start of the season you seem to have climbed up past the plateau you were on. What do you attribute the success of a couple rounds into the season?
Mainly bike setup at this point. John’s [Tomac] told me a lot with my bike setup. We got it headed in the right direction now. I think it’s really good and my whole team has been super supportive of my needs. There’s also being in Colorado and working with John and Eli [Tomac]. Also, just being there and gaining confidence each week and having those guys as my support system is just awesome.
Is being with the Tomac’s is it more of a physical change or mental change on how to focus on things or to approach situations?
A little bit of both I would say. I feel like I’m more fit. The altitude, it’s not as hot there as say Florida or somewhere like that. It’s sort of 90, 95, but no humidity. It’s just dry heat. But the altitude kind of makes up for that. I feel like I come to the races each weekend more fresh than I did when I lived in the humidity because I’m not losing water all week and just running my body to the ground. So I feel like that’s been a huge benefit for me and feel like that in the second motos I have really good fitness.
In the first moto you actually passed Jeremy Martin and you had a good battle with him, and you were gaining on those leaders. So do you feel that’s like another level as now you’re going fast enough to catch the guys who are winning the motos? That’s got to be a good feeling.
Yeah, it’s good. I’m on the brink of big success I think. I actually got hit by a rock like right on my arm right here on the first lap and it caused me to pump up a little bit towards the end and I lost the tow a little bit when Marvin [Musquin] crashed. I felt like I let myself down a little bit. And then the second moto I killed the start, like awesome, and then as soon as I sat back, I was running the MX11 Dunlop sand tire all day, and as soon as I sat back it hooked up huge and I almost looped out. I was sort of 15th probably going into the first turn. Made some passes on the first lap. I actually thought that I had blown the podium totally out of the water and then it just sort of happened that I kept picking guys off, picking guys off, picking guys off. Yeah, to come from fifteenth in a Lites moto and get second place in a moto is a pretty good result.
This is still a fairly new bike for you. You mentioned setup. What’s been different from Glen Helen to now?
We’ve done a lot of suspension changes, mainly just softened my rear shock a lot to get the forks to hold up better. I maybe made some mistakes in the beginning of the season testing a little bit more in California than I should have. I should have been somewhere else maybe. But it is what it is. The season started really rough but now we’ve guided the ship and it’s headed in the right direction. I feel like as long as we continue on this trend then I’m going to win before the end of the season.
Most of your competitors teams have a couple guys in the 250 class and you have a couple of injured guys on your team. Does that hurt you at all?
Maybe….a little bit. I’m on such different stuff than those guys and my styles so different that we don’t really take a lot from each other. So, probably not. I get the whole semi to myself each weekend so it’s my own semi. I want those guys to be here but it’s definitely not hurting us.
Zach, this is now your third second place overall finish this year. What do you think it’s going to take to finally get over that first win?
Just continuing the same way I’ve been going. Like I said before, I came from way back to get a second in the second the moto. I blew a great chance last weekend. Honestly, I was pissed that I didn’t win. I needed to pass [Matt] Bisceglia and [Joey] Savatgy which were right in front of me to win the overall. That ticked me off big time and I took a beating from Eli all week about it. I was like not today. I feel like it’s coming. I’m closer than I’ve ever been for sure, in my mind, in my body and everything.
Back to the second moto again, awesome ride coming from fifteenth to second. Where were you able to make up so much time on everybody? Was there a section?
No, not really anything in particular. It was crazy, because I think halfway through I was maybe seventh or eighth and I just passed Bisceglia. I could see those guys but I felt really distanced from them because I knew Jeremy and Marvin were battling but I felt like I still had to make three passes to even get in the ballpark. And then, I made those three passes and I was there. I saw Christian [Craig] fading a little bit and I was just like, just keep hammering and that’s what I did. There was no one section, it was just like I had better speed than everybody but Jeremy.
Thank you very much for talking to us Zach.
