Round four of the Lucas Oil AMA 250 Motocross Championships stops in Mechanicsville, Maryland on Saturday for the Moto Tees Budds Creek National. As the caravan of motorcoaches and semi-trucks heads to the Eastern end of the country, only one rig carries the winning bikes. That rig belongs to the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki team. In the first three rounds of the series, three different riders have won motos, two have won the overall and three have run the red plate–and all three are employees of Mitch Payton. It has got to feel good to be under the Pro Circuit tent at the moment.
The rider to win two of the first three Nationals is the number fifty-seven. Strangely enough, because of a very off day at Freestone, he’s the one that is third in the points heading into round four. Blake Baggett–after showing remarkable speed and winning the opener at Hangtown–couldn’t do better than a ninth overall at Freestone and left Texas more than twenty points behind Rattray and Wilson. At Mount Morris, though, the man MotoXAddicts has frequently called “B.B. King” returned to the top spot on the podium with a 1-1 performance that can only be described as dominating, and in doing so, cemented his status as fastest man in the class so far in 2011. Blake now sits eleven behind Rattray and nine behind Wilson in the points chase, but if he can continue doing what he did in High Point, he won’t be behind for long.
Walking away from the last stop with a second overall–and taking over the Championship points-lead in the process–was Tyla Rattray. The number twenty-eight South African has to be happy with his position in the points right now, but he is surely aware of the fact that if Blake and Wilson stay healthy and curve the mistakes, he may need to find some speed to win this title. When his two teammates and two biggest rivals have stayed on two wheels, their speed has proven too much for former World Champion. We all know that heads up speed doesn’t always beat consistency in Championships, but in this case, it will be hard to overcome the two against one factor. To out-point one man that has you covered in the speed category is tough, but to out-point two of them could be nearly impossible. For now, though, his consistency has won the day, and Tyla will proudly display the red plate this weekend at Budds Creek.
Dean Wilson splits his two teammates in the points and currently sits second overall as the series starts the second quarter. Coming into round three at High Point, Dean had been the most consistent of the three but a tip over in Moto 2 sent Dean back to fourteenth. From there, Dean could only fight his way as far forward as eighth. If there’s one weakness in Deano’s game it may lay in his ability to rebound from those mistakes. That weakness was exploited in the 2011 SX season and could very well be his Achilles’ heel as this Championship wears on. Dean has the speed to go from fourteenth on lap one to the podium, but for whatever reason, when it’s a mistake that relegates him to fourteenth, frustration seems to get the best of the Scottish born Canadian-American. The best medicine for frustration is winning, and with the series heading to the location of Deano’s first-ever professional win, he may just get some medicine this weekend at Budds Creek.
If three’s a crowd, then what is four? Well, we may soon find out because a fourth member of the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit team came to play last weekend at round three. Broc Tickle had been struggling outdoors after winning his first-ever SX Lites Regional Championship earlier this year, but began to turn it around with his first top five appearance of 2011–making PC first, second, fourth and fifth in the standings at High Point. Broc has always had the speed to race with anyone outdoors, but bad starts have plagued him throughout his career in motocross. Most thought that having a Mitch Payton tuned-machine pulling him through the first turn would be the answer, but so far, that hasn’t been the case. Let’s hope that jolt of confidence from last weekend can be the catalyst to seeing more of Broc up front where he belongs.
In week one, it was a 1-2-3 sweep of the podium for the Mitch Payton boys, but in the last two rounds, two riders from other teams have earned the right to stand on the box with them. At round two, it was the DNA/Shred Stix/Star Racing Yamaha of Kyle Cunningham, and last weekend, it was GEICO Powersports/Honda’s Eli Tomac. In last week’s Weekend Warrior preview we mentioned that we expected Eli Tomac to begin to make a run for the front at High Point, and although it took him until Moto 2 to turn it up, he did end up making us look good. That doesn’t happen often, so thank you, Eli!
After a mediocre start to the season and a sixth in Moto 1 at High Point, Eli caught fire in moto number two. After starting way outside the top ten, the former amateur hero from Cortez, Colorado remembered he’s supposed to be battling for wins. Eli charged forward for thirty five minutes and passed everyone except Rattray and Baggett by the flag. It was a “where has Eli been all this time” moment. In SX this year, it took Eli a while to get rolling, but once he did he was hard to stop. Don’t be surprised to see Eli, Baggett and Wilson reigniting their rivalries from their amateur days before the season’s through.
There is a lot of promise in the 250 class, in part because the gap in speed between the the top five guys and those finishing fifth through tenth place is not overly pronounced. Just last week, Eleven10-Mods privateer Darryn Durham showed us how fast a top ten guy can be when he led most of the first moto before getting tired late in the race. Then there’s Justin Barcia, Kyle Cunningham, and even Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/Honda ride Cole Seely that can step up at any moment and be solid podium contenders. With a three-way war developing under one tent and a slew of possible contenders, the 2011 Lucas Oil 250 Motocross Championship is just getting started.
Be sure to follow @dandunes818 all day Saturday on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates of all the day’s action.
250 Motocross Points
1 28 Tyla Rattray 127
2 15 Dean Wilson 125
3 57 Blake Baggett 116
4 19 Eli Tomac 104
5 35 Kyle Cunningham 90
6 17 Justin Barcia 79
7 36 Cole Seely 68
8 20 Broc Tickle 67
9 387 Gareth Swanepoel 61
10 23 Martin Davalos 53
