Photos by: Hoppenworld
Parity in American Motocross is something that does not happen a whole lot. Every year, a clear favorite seems to find a rhythm and start clicking off consistent wins. In fact, in the 17 years that we have been in the new millennium, three 450MX Motocross championships have ended with only one rider winning every moto. Ricky Carmichael was the first rider to have a perfect season doing, it in 2002 and again in 2004. James Stewart followed with a perfect season in 2008. So when there are a lot of different riders who not only have a chance to win, but are actually winning, it is very noticeable.
The last two weeks in American Motocross have been wild. There have been eight motos ran: four at Glen Helen and four at Thunder Valley. Both classes ran two motos at each race, and they produced a result that has not occurred seen since May 28, 2000. In eight possible races over two weeks, eight different riders won a Moto. Here is a look at how the motos laid out at Glen Helen and Thunder Valley:
It is incredible. Last year, only three riders won motos in the 450MX class all season long and now four different winners have won motos in two weeks. So when was the last time this happened? Well, you have to go all the way back to the second and third rounds of the 2000 MX season. In 2017, it was also the second and third round where this strange occurrence happened but this happened at Glen Helen and Thunder Valley. Back then, rounds two and three took place at Hangtown and High Point. This was also back when the classes were still regarded as the 125cc and 250cc classes instead of the four-stroke era 250MX and 450MX classes. Here is how it broke down back then:
It took 17 years for it to happen again, and it seems so weird that it would happen now. If someone told me that this would have happened in the 2017 Motocross season and that Eli Tomac would not be one of the guys to have won a moto during this bizarre stretch, I would have laughed. Tomac has had some bad luck during this span, so he is very capable of turning things around once the series resumes in a week and a half at High Point. But for now, we have five different moto winners in both classes after six motos this season.
Looking at this eight moto run of ridiculous unpredictability, there is one thing different about this 2017 sequence when compared to what happened back in 2000. With eight different moto winners, you would have to believe that there would be four different overall winners as well; assuming that one of the riders who won a moto, also won the overall. Well, that’s not quite how it went down. In 2017, there were four different overall winners, but there were only three different overall winners. This happened because David Vuillemin won back-to-back weeks by going 2-2 for the overall at Hangtown and then 3-1 for the overall at High Point in the 250cc class. Even though he didn’t win a moto at Hangtown, he still claimed the overall. This actually connects the 2000 sequence to 2017 in a weird way as Zach Osborne won the 250MX overall at Glen Helen going 4-2 even though he did not win a moto in the past two weeks.
Realistically, I don’t bring this up to say that we are really in for a wild year now. History shows that multiple successive race winners are a very rare occurrence and the chances of this trend continuing are slim to none. In 2000, Ricky Carmichael ended up winning the 250cc championship by 83 points over Sebastien Tortelli. There is still a lot of racing left but that also means there is plenty of time for someone to find their groove and go on a winning streak. No matter what happens, nobody could have predicted this wild start to the season and it has certainly made for some great racing.
