The red plate is on the #5 today in Tennessee. Photo by: Simon Cudby
The 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship headed southeast to Blountville, Tennessee for round four of the series and the third annual Tennessee National at Muddy Creek Raceway. With the Tennessee National at Muddy Creek still in its infancy, riders complained about the circuit being too narrow, but it looks like some improvements have been made. One thing that definitely looks different is that they didn’t rip it too deep like they normally do. What that means is that we may see a harder circuit with more square edges today.
In the 450MX Class, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey quickly went to work on letting everyone know he is now the man to beat. Ryan set the fourth fastest time (1:53.359) in session one but set the overall fastest lap of the day (1:51.108) in session two. With GEICO/Honda’s Eli Tomac crashing out of the series last weekend at Thunder Valley, Ryan is now the 450MX red plate holder and carries a 29-point lead over Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Blake Baggett and a 35-point lead over the defending 450MX Championship, RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns/Suzuki’s Ken Roczen. The last thing Ryan needs is one of them finding new momentum in Tomac’s absence.
Hear from Dungey after he set fastest lap:
The second fastest lap (1:51.182) of the day was laid down by the #1, Roczen. After only managing the seventh fastest in session one, Roczen came out sprinting in session two with more than one lap significantly faster than his first session time. For most of session two, it was Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel with the second fastest lap, but the German pushed the Frenchman down to third fastest (1:51.803) overall. With Tomac out for the season, we expect to see Pourcel begin pushing for his first-ever 450MX podiums. Remember, the #377 spent a whole season battling for a 250MX Championship with Dungey and more than likely still believes he can run Dungey’s pace some days.
The surprise of the 450MX class in the morning qualifying sessions was RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns/Suzuki’s other rider, Broc Tickle. In the first session of the day, the #20 was on top of the leaderboard with a 1:52.285, and that time held up to give Broc the fourth overall gate pick today. Broc has been coming on of late and hopes to use his fourth overall at last weekend’s Thunder Valley National for momentum today in Tennessee. Another cool note, Broc’s younger brother Carson Tickle is making his Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship debut today in the 450MX class and he made the show with the 35th fastest lap (2:00.609). Good luck to brothers Tickle today.
The last 450MX rider we will talk about is the fifth fastest (1:52.523) overall 450MX qualifier, Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Blake Baggett. If we are going to have a battle for the 450MX Championship in 2015, it’s going to have to come from Roczen or the #4. Blake is a former 250MX Champion and won that Championship beating up on guys like Tomac and Roczen. The kid knows he has the skills and, after a third last weekend in Colorado, is beginning to find his confidence. Click here to view all Muddy Creek qualifying time sheets.
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450MX Overall Top-36 Combined Qualifying Times
Click Time Sheets to View in Slideshow
*Top 36 go directly to motos. The rest to consolation race.
In the 250MX class, Star Racing/Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin continued where he left off last weekend in Thunder Valley. After his 1-1 finish last weekend in Colorado, Martin has the red plate, all the momentum and now—with the fastest lap (1:52.068) in qualifying today—he also has the number one gate pick at Muddy Creek. Over the first two rounds it looked like Red Bull/KTM’s Marvin Musquin was on pace with J-Mart, but the #1 is trying to keep the #25 from believing that. The #1 was a half second faster than Musquin in session one and 7/10th’s of a second faster in session two.
The closest rider to Martin is qualifying (1:52.730) was Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy with the second fastest lap, and Musquin was just a tick off of the #37 in third (1:52.744). The two of them went back and forth for the second fastest lap in the final session with both of them putting in their fastest heater on the final lap of the final session. While both were fast enough to qualify in the top three, they’re going to have to find some speed to put the Yamaha rider behind them.
Rounding out the top five qualifiers in the 250MX class were GEICO/Honda’s Jordon Smith in fourth (1:52.899) and Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne in 5th (1:53.262). Both Smith (6th at Thunder Valley) and Osborne (2nd at Thunder Valley) are coming off their best finishes of the year last weekend in Colorado and looking to carry that momentum into this weekend’s racing.
In the “was last weekend a fluke” department, GEICO/Honda fill-in rider Christian Craig was not able to repeat his top qualifying finish from last weekend. He did continuing to show decent speed but was only able to clock the eighth fastest lap (1:54.321) today. That finish is very similar to his second qualifying session last weekend. Most impressively, the #68 showed that fitness was his strong suit in the motos. Despite his eighth overall in qualifying, we expect to see Craig battling near or inside the top five today. Click here to view all Muddy Creek qualifying time sheets.
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250MX Overall Top-36 Combined Qualifying Times
Click Time Sheets to View in Slideshow
*Top 36 go directly to motos. The rest to consolation race.
