Photo by: Simon Cudby
When the 2018 250SX Eastern Regional Championship showed up in St. Louis for round five the points were deadlocked at the top. Both Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne and Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner came into The Dome at America’s Center with 89 points and both had the red backgrounds on their factory bikes, but the #1e took sole possession of it before they left.
Zach won the opener in Arlington and has not yet relinquished the red plate in ’18, but at each of the first three rounds, he did not look like the force his was in 2017. At round four, Zach looked like his old self, but a horrible start kept him off the podium. The last three wins had gone to Forkner (2) and Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Jordon Smith (1), so it was time for Osborne to reassert his alpha status out East, and that’s exactly what he did all day long.
In the first free practice and the first qualifying session, it was the #35 on top of the board, but by the time qualifying was over, Zach had put his Husky into the pole position. Forkner qualified second to Zach, and in their respective heat races, both took the checkered first—setting the stage for a battle in the main for the red plate.
When the gate dropped on the main, the two entered and exited the first turn bar-to-bar and headed down the first rhythm lane side by side. Forkner took the lead at the end of the rhythm lane when he uncorked the quad, and Zach settled in behind for the fight. The two paced each other for the first ten laps, but just when the battle was about to begin, Forkner threw it away over the dragon’s back after the finish line—handing Zach the lead, the win and ultimately sole possession of the red plate.
With the crash, Forkner ended the night in 5th and Zach left St. Louis with an eight-point lead in the Championship. After the race, Zach answered some questions about his battle with Forkner, the track and his thoughts about heading to the first of two East/West Shootouts next weekend in Indy. Check out the transcription from that Q&A session below.
Zach, early on in the main you got behind Austin Forkner and you guys were kind of pacing each other. Was there something on the track that you saw as a spot where you thought you could make the pass? I know he went down, but were you kind of sizing things up and seeing something you could use to make a pass?
I felt like he kind of gapped me three or four laps in, and I was able to find my feet and make some places where I felt like I could hammer and get close to him. I knew that we were only sort of half way in and I had plenty of time, so I was trying to be patient and let it come to me. Yeah, he went down, so it was a bummer for the race, but it made it better for me.
Talking about that quad, how was it? What did you think about it and were you looking for other guys to pull the trigger first? Did you think during track walk you could jump it?
On track walk, I was like no way anybody is jumping quad out, and I bet JT [Jason Thomas] that nobody was going to go triple-triple-triple. So I lost that five bucks and I ate my words on the quad. I saw Mookie [Malcolm Stewart] jump it in the first timed session. Then I went back to the truck and I watched my video from the first timed session and thought that I should jump it. I was all antsy between practices wanting to go back out and do it. I felt like it would make the track way better and flow way better than singling into that corner, and it did. It was huge for me. It was wide open and I had to pretty much ice that triple before it. It was tough. It was probably the biggest quad I’ve ever jumped, but you gotta do it.
Talk about that section after the finish line where Austin went down. It looked like it might have caught you a couple times also.
That dragon [‘s back] was kind of strange. I wouldn’t even call it a dragon. It was like two rollers into a big lip or something. It was just weird. In our main, it got a bunch of big soft funky ruts in it and it caught me off guard two or three times where I was pretty nose heavy. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pull it off. You come into that thing with so much speed over the finish line and you almost had to check up a little to go slow enough. You couldn’t really just skim off of it. It was a strange setup. It was also pretty mellow, so you didn’t have to respect it a lot—you could kind of hammer it—but at the same time, you had to really pay attention. It was a strange little section.
Next weekend we head up to Indy for the showdown [East / West Shootout]. I want to get your thoughts about going up against the West Coast guys. You have two Shootouts this year.
For me, I can’t get too caught up in the East Coast versus West Coast thing. I’m here to win a Championship on the East Coast. I need to focus on myself and not let any ego get in the way or in play. It’s pretty straight forward on my end.
Your thoughts on the split start today? We’ve seen it at the Monster Energy Cup where you have split starts and you go around and kind of funnel down, but this was a little bit different. Did you like it?
I liked it. I liked the over-under thing. I think that should be every weekend—if not over and under, at least over. Those things are cool and they’re fun to jump. I think it’s a really cool piece of the track that I think we should make almost mandatory. I think it’s a good thing. The split start, as far as that goes, it’s a little bit strange because it seems unfair because it’s so far, but the start was really fair. I think Jeremy [Martin] was outside the box in the heat race and he almost pulled the holeshot. Yeah, it was pretty cool.
