The weekend was ruled by #25. Feature photo by: Ray Archer
For some time now, the Paris (formerly known as Bercy) Supercross has been considered the granddaddy of all the off-season Supercross races, and the 2017 edition did not disappoint. The brand new venue—U Arena—brought the event back to Paris and its much larger floor treated the fans to a full-sized American style SX track.
The new format in 2017 made the fans happy, with the SX1 stars hitting the track on four occasions each night. Each night the SX1 riders were on track for the Superpole, two ten-lap Sprint Races and a 15-minute plus one lap Main Event. In the SX1 class, Red Bull / KTM’s Marvin Musquin finished on top six of the eight times the SX1 riders were on track, and the Frenchman took home the “King of Paris” title for his efforts.
The only other riders to win a race over the weekend were Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Dean Wilson—who won a Sprint Race on Saturday—and HRC / Honda’s Cole Seely—who won a ‘Sprint Race’ on Sunday night. Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne was super fast all weekend and solidly in the top four every moto, but the best he could do was a second in Saturday night’s main event.
The “Prince of Bercy” title in the SX2 class was taken home by Yannis Irsuti with a solid 1-3 score for the two main events. He was joined on the overall weekend podium by Thomas Do (2-2) and American Tyler Bowers (4-1)—who took home the win in the night two main event.
Hear from some of the top finishing SX1 riders and Bowers after the curtain was pulled down on the 2017 Paris Supercross
Marvin Musquin: (1st overall in SX1) “I feel great even though it was a tough weekend. The level this year – and the track conditions – was so different and it made it tough on me, my bike and the body because of the dirt. I was not totally confident as Seely, Osborne, Wilson: those guys are great riders. The starts helped me. I lost two motos all weekend but got two Pole Positions and both Mains and that was the goal. The stadium was amazing and so were the crowd once again. For sure I miss this. I love racing in the US but nothing beats the home crowd. I could hear them every single lap and turn and that was special for me. My confidence is great.”
Zach Osborne: (4th overall in SX1) “I battled my way to fourth today and it was nothing special. It was disappointing after the first night because I felt my race craft on the bike was pretty good and it was maybe better than my one-lap speed. I only rode the bike a couple of times and I came here to enjoy myself and do some racing, so all things considered the weekend was pretty successful. I wanted to feel-out the 450. I’ll be racing it outdoors next year and wanted some information and to build on that. There was some good data for Aldon [Baker] and also the guys in terms of the bike. It was a good, fun, off-season race.”
Dean Wilson: (3rd overall in SX1) “The weekend was pretty good and I learned a lot. I was a little bit disappointed in terms of how my overall scores went but I put myself in bad positions because my starts were terrible. I felt like my speed was good but putting it all together wasn’t. I have six more weeks so I know what I need to work on going into Anaheim. I want to get better as a rider because I feel I can go as fast as Marv for a lap or six or seven minutes, but I cannot do it for fifteen minutes, and that was kinda frustrating. I want to go back, work hard and aim to beat Marvin.”
Tyler Bowers: (3rd overall in SX2) “The Paris SX has been awesome. I have this new strength within me and the desire to get back winning races has been real. I have a whole new purpose to ride my dirt bike. I finally feel like myself again out there! Thank you BUD Racing and Eris Perronard for bringing me out to play and be your wild card.”
