Eli Tomac was all smiles on the podium Saturday. Photo by: Hoppenworld
The 2016 Red Bull Southwick National and round seven of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship was the best 450MX of 2016. Heading into the sand of The Wick338, RCH / Soaring Eagle / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen had dominated the 450MX Championship—winning 11 of first 12 motos—and had a 53-point lead, but Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac reignited the series when he passed Roczen in both motos and scored his first overall win in over a year in Southwick. In moto one, Eli ran away to a 24-second win, but in moto two, the #3 and #94 battled for thirty minutes plus two laps before Eli crossed the line just two seconds ahead of the German. Landing on the podium for the first time this season in third was JGRMX / Yamaha’s Justin Barcia. While Barcia has to feel good about scoring his first podium, he was over a minute behind the battle for the lead and has to be scratching his head trying to figure out how he is going to close that gap.
In the 250MX class, the Star Racing / Yamaha’s of Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin won the two motos in the return to Massachusetts for the first time in three years. In the end, though, Cooper’s 2-1 ruled the day with J-Mart going 1-4 for second overall after a crash in moto two ended his shot at the overall. The win for Webb stretched his overall win streak to three, but more importantly, it gave him a commanding 37-point lead over Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy—who had a rough day with a 10-11 scorecard. Climbing up on the podium with the Star boys for the first time in his professional career was Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner.
With Eli’s 24-second runaway win, it is no surprise that the Kawasaki clocked the fastest lap of the day (2:05.750) in moto one. Eli cleared the first turn in moto one about tenth, and by lap eight, he was around Roczen and sprinting away. Kenny—who recorded the second fastest overall lap (2:07.078)—quickly realized he would have to regroup and save the fight for the overall for moto two after Eli put a quick 9-second gap on the German in two laps. Eli also had the fastest lap in moto two (2:07.221), but Kenny was much better in moto two, only a few tenths off (2:07.579) of Eli’s fast lap and 22 seconds closer at the checkered flag.
| Top 10 450MX Times | Top 10 250MX Times |
|---|---|
| 1. E. Tomac – 2:05.750 2. K. Roczen – 2:07.078 3. J. Bogle – 2:08.205 4. B. Bloss – 2:09.723 5. M. Musquin – 2:09.868 6. C. Pourcel – 2:09.963 7. J. Barcia – 2:10.071 8. P. Nicoletti – 2:11.199 9. W. Peick – 2:11.519 10. H. Harrison – 2:12.428 |
1. C. Webb – 2:11.515 2. S. McElrath – 2:11.609 3. A. Plessinger – 2:11.892 4. J. Martin – 2:12.019 5. A. Tonus – 2:12.411 6. M. Oldenburg – 2:13.429 7. A. Forkner – 2:13.556 8. A. Cianciarulo – 2:13.752 9. A. Martin – 2:14.033 10. Z. Osborne – 2:14.433 |
With a number of the top 450MX riders sidelined with injuries, the door is wide open behind Roczen and Tomac, and some new names are starting to make late season runs at earning rides next year. At contract time, being able to say you ran lap times inside top five at a 450MX National is never a bad thing. It was Barcia who claimed the very vacant third podium spot in Southwick, but two new names I never thought we would see scoring the third and fourth fastest 450MX lap times at a National made it known they might make a run for that spot in the near future.
GECIO / Honda’s Justin Bogle (2:09.723) scored the third fastest overall lap after pulling the holeshot in moto one and leading the moto for five laps before finishing a career-high fourth in the moto. BTO Sports / KTM’s Benny Bloss (2:08.205)—who was still racing at Loretta Lynn’s just a year ago—blew all our wigs back with the fifth fastest 450MX lap on the day and an impressive 8-6 score for seventh overall. These two Oklahoman’s train together during the week and are carving their way to the front of the class on the weekends.
Full 2016 Southwick National results here>>>
| Top 10 450MX Avg Lap-Times | Top 10 250MX Avg Lap-Times |
|---|---|
| 1. E. Tomac – 2:09.951 2. K. Roczen – 2:10.674 3. J. Barcia – 2:11.953 4. M. Musquin – 2:11.955 5. P. Nicoletti – 2:12.064 6. C. Pourcel – 2:12.436 7. J. Bogle – 2:12.503 8. W. Peick – 2:13.331 9. B. Bloss – 2:13.551 10. B. Tickle – 2:14.411 |
1. C. Webb – 2:13.609 2. J. Martin – 2:13.954 3. A. Tonus – 2:15.400 4. A. Plessinger – 2:15.698 5. A. Martin – 2:16.222 6. A. Forkner – 2:16.282 7. M. Oldenburg – 2:16.618 8. Z. Osborne – 2:16.722 9. J. Savatgy – 2:16.762 10. A. Cianciarulo – 2:16.9867 |
In the 250MX class—surprise, surprise—the Star Racing / Yamahas had three of the top five lap times. Grabbing the bragging rights in the Star Racing truck was Webb (2:11.515) with Aaron Plessinger (2:11.892) laying down the third fastest overall lap time and J-Mart (2:12.019) a tenth of a second back in fourth. Bragging rights in the Star rig this year generally go to the man with the overall win, and the Yamaha squad locked down 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th overall in the Southwick National results on Saturday. They swept the Glen Helen podium and now this. If I was a rider on another team, I would be stealing water out of their cooler because there is no doubt that there’s something in the water over there.
The two surprises in the top five of the 250MX lap times were Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Shane McElrath (2:11.609) in second and Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Arnaud Tonus (2:12.411) in fifth. McElrath laid down the second fastest lap while leading the first four laps, and it all went sideways after that. Shane faded back to 13th in moto two, but after rebounding physically in moto two and fighting for third on the last lap, his season ended with a violent crash on the last lap. [watch crash here] For Tonus, he scored his fastest lap moving to the front in moto one and finished with his best moto score of the year in third. The Swiss rider was in position for an overall podium in moto two, but after a crash and an eighth in moto two, he was sixth overall.
Scroll down to see how the motos broke down lap-for-lap and how the 250’s matched up against the 450 riders in Southwick, Ma. with MotoXAddicts’ lap-time comparison charts.
Each graph charts the lap times of the top five finishers in each moto. You can run your cursor over the lines to see which rider the line signifies and that rider’s time for each lap. Click on a rider’s name on the right to remove them from the chart so you can run riders’ times against each other heads up. Also, scroll down to see how the top three 250MX class finishers matched up against the top three 450MX class finishers.
Click here for the current 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship standings>>>
