Ken Roczen goes 1-1 at Red Bull High Point National
Images by Hoppenworld
Coming into the Red Bull High Point National it was all eyes on Ken Roczen to watch how he performed with Ryan Dungey not lining up, and Roczen completely ran away with it.
The first moto started off with high energy up front in the pack as the next closer rider in overall Points, Eli tomac, finally had the start he was looking for and it was shaping to be the battle everyone was hoping for. Tomac came flying out of the gate with nearly too much speed and took the opening turn wide relinquishing the holeshot to Roczen. Early into the moto Tomac was staying right on Roczen’s tail, but during the opening lap he dug his front tire in coming around the back side of a berm and ultimately dumped the bike on its side. Following the first lap mistake, Tomac dropped back into sixth place and would finish in that position.
Jason Anderson came into the first moto of the day with the fastest qualifying lap time-for the first time in his career-just ahead of his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna teammate Christophe Pourcel. Early on in the moto it was a four-way battle for second between Anderson, Pourcel, Seely and last year’s 250MX overall winner at High Point Marvin Musquin.
Musquin, in his 450 debut season, had only found as high as fifth place in previous rounds, but with his experience last year at High Point expectations were high for him to find his way onto the podium. With Dungey not racing Musquin was also the only member of the Red Bull KTM team on the track looking for a solid finish.
After a few laps the riders in the front of the pack began to settle into their positions. Roczen took a commanding lead that would not be threatened for the entirety of the moto following Tomac’s early dive. Prior to the two-lap mark Roczen had more than a 20-second lead. Then it was Musquin to slowly pull away from the next part of the pack, but not without a few attempts from Seely, Pourcel and Anderson. Near the middle of the moto, though, Seely had some trouble and put the bike down.
By the end of the moto Musquin had found his first 450 podium finish with second place, followed by Anderson in third.
Kicking off the second moto it was Justin Barcia blazing out of the start gate nearly wheelying and powersliding around the first corner en route to taking the holeshot. Barcia had about ten bike lengths between him and his closest competitor at the time of the holeshot, but by the end of the first lap he would be forced to let go of the lead when Roczen showcased his high speeds.
Next in line deeper in the pack was Anderson holding off Tomac for the third position, but it wouldn’t take more than five minutes from the start before he made his move toward Barcia and claimed second. Barcia continued to fade as Tomac passed him not even a minute after Anderson, but Tomac was finished with that.
Still looking to recover from his first moto fumble, Tomac continued his hunt for the front of the pack with Anderson in his sights. By way of a long outside line, Tomac opened up and managed to snag the following turn’s inside line from Anderson which would allow him to overtake the second place position. Tomac was still picking up speed on every lap.
Despite shaving time with each lap and finding himself within five seconds of the leader Roczen, Tomac was not able to get any closer and finished his second moto showing in second after Roczen ended the day with 1-1 results and the overall.
Taking the third place position in the second moto was Anderson and that 3-3 finish on the day would be enough for second overall, and, despite taking fourth in the second moto, Musquin found his first 450 overall podium finish on the day with third overall.
450 OVERALL RESULTS
1. Ken Roczen (1-1)
2. Jason Anderson (3-3)
3. Marvin Musquin (2-4)
4. Eli Tomac (6-2)
5. Justin Barcia (7-5)
6. Christophe Pourcel (4-9)
7. Justin Bogle (6-7)
8. Cole Seely (9-6)
9. Broc Tickle (8-10)
10. Weston Peick (13-8)
11. Phil Nicoletti (11-11)
12. Andrew Short (12-14)
13. Fredrik Noren (18-12)
14. Justin Brayton (17-13)
15. Noah McConahy (16-15)
16. Matt Bisceglia (10-36)
17. Cole Martinez (14-19)
18. Jesse Wentland (15-20)
19. Benny Bloss (40-16)
20. Kyle Chisholm (20-17)
450 CLASS POINT STANDINGS
1. Ken Roczen, 193
2. Eli Tomac, 152
3. Ryan Dungey, 131
4. Cole Seely, 116
5. Jason Anderson, 113
6. Marvin Musquin, 104
7. Trey Canard, 97
8. Justin Barcia, 92
9. Josh Grant, 88
10. Christophe Pourcel, 76
Joey Savatgy and Zach Osborne share the wins at High Point
Leading the 250MX qualifier laps on the wet High Point Raceway with deep sandy and soggy rutted track was Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider Zach Osborne. Earning the choice for lineup position for the first moto, Osborne carried his qualifier speeds straight to the gate drop and fired out but was not able to secure the holeshot from Jeremy Martin.
J. Martin earned the holeshot but would not hold the lead for more than the opening turns as his brother Alex Martin came firing up and around the outside to take two positions and the lead. A. Martin ran with that lead for a few laps but Osborne showed determination with each lap gaining half and quarter seconds with every round of the track.
Ultimately Osborne found his opening to pass A. Martin following a slight mistake. After taking over the lead Osborne would not let go of for the remainder of the moto, and by the end found himself taking his career first moto win at the Red Bull High Point National.
As the race continued on for A. Martin he experienced bike failure resulting in everything from heavy smoke exiting his bike for more than a lap, to allowing multiple passes to teammate and brother Jeremy as well as tammate Cooper Webb. Ultimately Alex was forced to pull off the track entirely when his bike came to a complete stop, which left things wide open for his teammates to take podium positions for the first moto.
The only thing missing from the front of the pack was the series leader, Joey Savatgy. Savatgy found himself going down in the first moto after tucking his front tire while going up the triple step-up. Savatgy would be forced to fight but in the end would find himself in fourth for the first moto.
Rounding out the top five for the opening 250 moto was rookie Austin Forkner who was coming off his first career moto podium the weekend before and racing today on track he had never visited.
The second moto for the 250 riders saw Adam Cinaciarulo coming out on fire with the holeshot and the lead for the early part of the race. Cianciarulo has had some of the worst luck with regard to injuries and overall performances since his highlygh anticipated debut a few seasons back, but for the first part of the second moto at High Point he rode as everyone has expected him to.
Following a solid holeshot, Cianciarulo was immediately challenged by J. Martin for the lead on multiple turns but was unsuccessful for the time being. Right behind Cianciarulo and J. Martin was Savatgy with points to make up following his first moto slip and the hungry Osborne looking to make for a career high finish on the day.
Savatgy found his way around J. Martin after a small mistake that ended up dropping him to fourth place behind A. Martin as well. For a short time thereafter it was the Monster Energy Kawasaki teammates leading the pack and battling for the front. Cianciarulo did a great job holding off the points leader for as long as he could but was unable to stop him entirely. Shortly after allowing Savatgy a pass, next Cianciarulo saw A. Martin come from behind for a battle and ultimately a pass as well. By the end of the moto Cianciarulo had dropped all the way to an 11th place finish.
While the action being exchanged between the front three riders, J. Martin’s Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha bike seemed to experience an identical failure to what his brother Alex dealt with in the first moto. With smoking billowing out of the back of J. Martin’s machine it was only a matter of time until he too found himself losing out on a moto’s worth of points and pulling off the track.
The second moto ended with Savatgy holding onto the lead, A. Martin taking second and Aaron Plessinger sneaking his way into a third place podium. However, the day overall would go Savatgy, Osborne and Webb with the Brothers Martin seeing eigth (Alex) and ninth (Jeremy) finishes following their bike failures.
250 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
1. Joey Savatgy (4-1)
2. Zach Osborne (1-4)
3. Cooper Webb (3-5)
4. Aaron Plessinger (6-3)
5. Austin Forkner (5-8)
6. Mitchell Oldenburg (7-7)
7. Colt Nichols (12-6)
8. Alex Martin (29-2)
9. Jeremy Martin (2-32)
10. Adam Cianciarulo (10-11)
11. RJ Hampshire (12-10)
12. Arnaud Tonus (8-14)
13. Mitchell Harrison (11-12)
14. Shane McElrath (15-9)
15. Jordon Smith (14-13)
16. Martin Davalos (9-34)
17. Anthony Rodriguez (16-15)
18. Kyle Cunningham (17-16)
19. Marshal Weltin (19-18)
20. Luke Clout (18-19)
250 CLASS POINT STANDINGS
1. Joey Savatgy, 166
2. Cooper Webb, 146
3. Jeremy Martin, 142
4. Alex Martin, 136
5. Zach Osborne, 121
6. Aaron Plessinger, 116
7. Austin Forkner, 109
8. RJ Hampshire, 79
9. Adam Cianciarulo, 72
10. Mitchell Oldenburg, 70
