Photos by: Chase Yocom – Words by: Dan Lamb .
Twelve motos down and twelve to go in the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship and Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne has begun to break away from the field in the 250MX Championship with a 38-point lead in the points. Heading into the 2017 outdoor season, Zach had one overall win in his veteran career, but in ’17, he has five moto wins and three overall wins in one of the most competitive series ever.
At the 2017 RedBud National over the weekend, Zach took his third win of the season with a 2-1 on the day. After qualifying on pole, Zach started moto one in second behind the two-time 250MX champion Jeremy Martin and stayed glued to his rear wheel for thirty-minutes plus two laps. The #16 made numerous pushes to catch and pass the #6, but in the end, second was all he had in moto one.
When the gate dropped for moto two, Zach was once again behind Jeremy heading around the first turn, but Jeremy crashed—taking Austin Forkner down with him and hanging up Osborne as well. When the smoke cleared, Zach was back just inside the top twenty, but by the end of lap one, he was up to eighth, and by the end of the moto, he had passed his way into his fifth moto win. It is rides like that, that have Osborne on pace to back up his 250SX Eastern Regional Championship with a 250MX AMA Motocross Championship at the finale in Indiana.
After the racing was over, Chase Yocom caught up with Zach to talk about his day and more.
Zach, 2-1 on the day and you now check RedBud off the win list. That had to be a big one for you. How stoked are you?
For sure, it was a good day. I got a little bit lucky in the second moto with Alex [Martin] going down, but still, to go 2-1 on the day and to take some more points is really good.
Obviously the bad start in the second moto didn’t help. What was going through your mind when you got that start and was there a certain section where you were able to pick up some time?
For a while I was marking Alex and we were kind of tit for tat, but I was behind people. I thought if I could get a clear track quick enough I could maybe do some damage, but then it took me like five or six laps behind Justin Hill to pass him, and then I wasn’t really making any ground. I had my sights set on getting into second, but then I came around the corner, the flag was out and Alex was down. I couldn’t really believe it, but it feels really good to take the overall here. This is kind of the crown jewel of them all when it come to outdoors. It was awesome.
The second moto start obviously wasn’t what you wanted, but Jeremy Martin went down. Did that have any effect on you?
Yeah, I felt like I would have been maybe fifth or sixth, and then I think AC [Adam Cianciarulo] ran into Jeremy—or one of the PC guys—and then he almost fell on top of me. It kind of bottled me up, and I think I was maybe 15th. I made some passes pretty quick on the first lap and just tried to keep motoring the whole time.
How was the track for passing this year? Like you mentioned, it took you a while to get by Hill and some other guys. Was there just not very many lines or was it the track prep or something like that?
I don’t know if there wasn’t very many lines, but it was almost like the outsides were a little too far out and you couldn’t make a whole lot of headway on them. This is one of the best tracks in the world, so it’s hard to knock it.
What did you think about the track changes for this year? I guess Larocco’s Leap was moved back to its normal spot, and obviously they dumped in a bunch of new sand too.
I wasn’t really a fan of the Leap deal because that whole section favored the inside and there wasn’t a lot you could do with the outside. That was maybe a little bit the prep, but I kind of liked it the other way better.
I think some guys were jumping Larocco’s Leap in the first moto and then not in the second moto.
I never jumped it all day. I don’t want no part of that. (laughs) Jeremy jumped it in front of me a couple of times, but I wasn’t going to jump it.
Was there just not enough drive before it to comfortably get over it?
He jumped it like the first three laps maybe, so I thought, “What’s the point?”
Well, you still won. You didn’t have to take the risk, and I guess with something like that, it’s kind of a risk reward thing. Obviously, the risk didn’t outweigh the reward.
On a 250, it’s marginal on whether you’re going to get over it. By the second moto, you know you’re not going to get it.
How was the crowd here for you? It’s your first win here with the RedBud crazies, so the crowd had to be insane cheering for you, especially on the podium. What was that like?
They’re electric. They always are here. Like I said, this is the crown jewel of them all so if there’s one to win, this is it. I was happy to make it happen for them.
You extended the points lead so that’s the big thing. You’ve had the red plate for a while this year; you have to be stoked on that heading to Southwick next week.
I’m happy with that. I’m not really focusing on that, though. I’m trying to keep doing my job and keep working towards making it bigger. That’s all I can say.
Are you looking forward to Southwick next week. You like that sand but Southwick is different than some of the deep sand tracks you’ve ridden in the GP’s.
Yeah, I look forward to it, honestly. It’s definitely not my favorite track, but it will be the same for everybody. It’s really important to get a good start there. I’ll just keep trying.
