Photos by: Todd Gutierrez
After the completion of the 2016 season, Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne packed up his entire family, moved to Florida and went all in with the Baker’s Factory program to prepare for 2017. Fresh off his first ever outdoor national wins in 2016, the eleven year journeyman pro was looking to use Aldon Baker’s proven program to build off of that momentum for the 2017 season.
Zach and Aldon obviously committed to making it happen with 100% effort because Zach won his first-ever 250SX main event at his second SX main event of 2017 before going on to win four main events and the 2017 Eastern Regional SX Championship. It was an incredible turnaround to witness, but the #16 looks like he was just getting started.
At the opening round of the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motcoross Championship last weekend, Zach showed that he wants more than just a regional SX championship; he also wants the 2017 AMA 250 Motocross Championship trophy to go with it. In both motos at Hangtown, Zach passed his way to the front, wore down the other championship contenders and ran away with two dominant moto wins. Zach won the first two motos of his career and one overall in 2016, but Hangtown was his first-ever 1-1. It was also the first time there was no question he was the best man on the gate. The scariest part for everyone not named Zach: he made it look easy.
After the race, I caught up with Zach to talk about the Hangtown National. Check out our three minute conversation below.
Zach, 1-1 today at Hangtown opener. You can’t ask for a better day—I mean, dominant.
For sure, it was a good day and it feels good to be coming out of here with maximum points and good momentum. To come here and break the ice and have a good performance after my supercross championship, it means a lot. I think it’s good for the summer.
Were you kind of rubbing your hands together coming into the summer knowing what you had for motocross? Were you looking forward to this?
No, not really, because I did maybe 12 days of riding outdoors and not really any testing, so I felt like I wasn’t sure. I felt good about it, but to come here and do what I did was above my expectations a little bit.
So you even surprised yourself a little bit?
Yeah, for sure.
Last year you got a couple of moto wins and an overall, and watching you, you looked like you were pushing and going fast. This year—it’s got to be kind of scary to the competition—you didn’t even look like you were going fast. It looked effortless.
Yeah, it felt easy. It felt kind of calm and collected at the front. I had to kind of hammer until twenty minutes or so in both motos, and then I was just kind of managing it after that.
Was today really more about finding out where everyone is speed wise? Okay, that’s how fast Austin [Forkner] is, this is how fast Joey [Savatgy] is?
Yeah, it’s the first round and everybody is on zero points and a level playing field, so you’re trying to figure out where you’re going to stack up and what you need to work on. It’s nice to not be behind the eight ball.
I haven’t talked to you since I saw you coming out of the AMA truck addressing the protest from Kawasaki after you won the Championship. Congrats on the Championship. What was the party like that night?
I went to my room and I went to sleep, honestly. I didn’t find out until that Sunday afternoon that all the appeals and everything were done. It was a big emotional 24 hours I guess you would say. It was a tough, tough weekend, and it was amazing to come out of there being the champion.
We now head to Glen Helen with you having the red plate. How do you normally like that place?
Last year, I went 8-8, so it wasn’t my best race for sure. Hopefully this year I can kind of carry what I have going and do it better.
