Over the last two rounds of the 2019 Western Regional 250SX Championship, Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo gave away 10 valuable points to Dylan Ferrandis—who had won the last two in a row—and only lead by 5 points heading into Denver on Saturday night. With only Denver and the Las Vegas East / West Shootout left on the schedule, it was imperative that AC get the win in Denver and the momentum back heading into the Las Vegas finale. That is exactly what the #92 did.
After a 2nd place start in the main event, AC patiently worked on passing Michael Mosiman for the first six laps before making the pass for the lead and riding away for the fifth win of his 2019 campaign. The win gives AC an 8 point lead over Ferrandis heading into the finale and even more confidence that he has the Frenchman covered.
After AC’s clutch win in Denver, MotoXAddicts contributor Justin Quinn caught up with the 250SX West Championship leader to talk to him about his very important win.
Great race tonight. First off, you look like you really had command all day. Can you talk a little bit about the big difference coming into tonight for you.
I feel like I’ve been riding great all year. I mean, just a couple of little mistakes here and there, but that’s going to happen over the course of the championship. The last couple of races haven’t been great. I guess Seattle was fine. Getting 2nd but after winning three in a row, getting 2nd kind of sucks to be honest. But I rode fine there. Then, in Houston we had that problem in the triple crown. I told some people today earlier too, I always feel like I do my best when I feel like my back’s kind of against the wall and I have that pressure on me. I’ve been that way since I was a kid. I don’t know why. I just feel like I’m more locked in—more focused. Obviously, it’s something I want to emulate at all times, but it’s a little bit easier for me when the pressures on it. Definitely, the pressure was on today with a five-point gap. So, it was good. The track was kinda tricky. Really slick dirt and I tend to excel on that kind of stuff. I really jelled with the track all day. Bike was solid, balance is really good, and I was able to be able to turn down. We kind of set up the bike a little bit more for the corners because the whoops were kind of small. Physically I felt great. Ripped a decent start in the main after a couple of bad starts in practice and also in the heat race. It’s a good day. Eight points now so it’s not a huge gap and not like we’re going to go into Vegas and layup by any means. We got to go in there with the mentality to win the race. So that’s, that’s my goal. It’s definitely nice to have the momentum back on our side.
Michael Mosiman obviously jumped out to the front and you made some comments in the press conference about being impressed with his riding. Were you frustrated behind him or was he just really riding in a pace where you just had to kind of bide your time until he opened the door?
Yeah, he’s riding great. I think it was one of those tracks too. I mean, even in practice we were all super, super close in times and there wasn’t a whole lot to separate. I felt I was a little bit better than him in the whoops, but it wasn’t like I could just blow by him. He was hitting the lefthand side [of the whoops] so I would need to hit… I think that’s actually where I ended up passing him. Yeah, it was crazy. He was, he was riding really well and I really didn’t expect for him to fight for it that much. You know, you see a lot of kids, they get out front of a race like that and have a veteran like me pass them—I used to be that guy—and they’re kind of happy with 2nd and they just want to kind of follow you and do their best to get a podium. He wanted to win the race, which is super cool to see. You know, I think he’s got some confidence now and got some speed so that was good. But it was a little bit frustrating there in the beginning because I just wanted to get by him right away and then I kind of was forcing it a little bit. I had to pick a spot and I picked a spot and then we kind of went back and forth. Yeah, it was a good race, though.
We could hear the crowd was really behind Eli [Tomac] for sure today, but they also seemed to be really behind you too. Could you hear that the same way?
Yeah. I mean I didn’t hear them so much during the race. I don’t know why today, I was just super locked into focus, like just tunnel vision. But, yeah, I heard them a little bit in the heat race when I passed it squared up RJ [Hampshire]. That was kind of cool. And then, yeah, on the podium and stuff, you know, doing the live interview, they were super cool. I’m glad we’re here in Denver. Luckily the weather was good for the race and a lot of people came out and hopefully we can keep coming back here because certainly the fans were into it.
Obviously, you can’t answer too much about contracts, like if you’re going to sign or not but is there any type of decision you’re trying to make this year about whether to stay on to 250’s? Or do you want to go up to 450s but now is not the time, because we got the championship to win?
Yeah, I mean, I obviously have talked about it with people but I I cannot allow it to control my thinking. You know what I mean? Like it just, it’s not something that’s at the top of my list right now. We’ll figure that out when it comes to.
Awesome. Congratulations on the win tonight.
Thank you.
Interview by: Justin Quinn – Feature photo by: Octopi
