Marvin Musquin takes maiden 450 MX win at Glen Helen
Musquin and Anderson both become first-time moto winners
Eli Tomac drew first blood in this year’s 450 Class title fight with last week’s sweep at Hangtown, but a lot can change in one week. At Saturday’s FMF Glen Helen National, Tomac was hobbled by a poor start in Moto 1 and bike issues in Moto 2.
As a result, Marvin Musquin took advantage, earning his first career moto win and first career overall win in the 450 Class. He is also the new series points leader.
Marvin Musquin
“The goal is always to win, but Glen Helen is a unique track. To be able to win that first moto was incredible. I got the holeshot and rode pretty well. I stayed consistent and was able to grab my first ever outdoor 450 win. I really wanted to get a good start in the second moto, but I knew it was going to be tough. I was top-10, but wasn’t in the position to fight for the win. Blake and Jason were riding really well, but I came back to third-place. To walk away from Glen Helen with the red plate and my first 450 overall is unbelievable.”
He wasn’t the only one setting a new milestone though: Jason Anderson also captured his first career 450MX moto win in Moto 2.
Glen Helen Moto 1
Musquin took the holeshot in Moto 1, but when things shook out behind him, there was a surprise: Justin Hoeft, a local rider, was in second ahead of Cole Seely. As for Tomac, he was plagued by another bad start and had to work his way through the pack from outside the top ten.
After overtaking Hoeft for second, Seely set his sights on Musquin. Not far behind them were Christian Craig and Josh Grant. Grant got around Craig for third, then challenged Seely, but Seely held him off for the time being.
Tomac cracked the top five before the midpoint of the race after passing Dean Wilson but was still about 15 seconds behind 1st-place Musquin and 10 seconds behind 4th-place Craig at the time.
A few minutes later, Grant passed Seely on the outside of a turn to take second place, then Craig got Seely for third not long after. With under ten minutes left, Seely then had to contend with Tomac. As Seely went around a turn, Tomac was able to find a narrow gap on the inside and squeeze himself in there to make the pass.
Tomac soon caught Craig, initiating a battle for third that lasted a few minutes and required them to fight through lapped traffic. With about 5:30 left on the clock, Tomac finally got around him to move into podium position. At the time though, he was still about 12 seconds behind Musquin and 7 seconds behind Grant.
Tomac initially struggled to pick up ground on Musquin but was able to catch Grant because of one really slow lap from Grant. With two laps to go, Tomac was all over the back of his teammate and eventually passed him for second. But there wasn’t enough time to chase down the leader. Musquin took the checkered flag for the first 450MX moto win of his career, and Tomac came in second, about six seconds behind. Grant finished third for the third consecutive moto to start the season.
Glen Helen Moto 1 Results
1. Marvin Musquin
2. Eli Tomac (-5.8 seconds)
3. Josh Grant
4. Christian Craig
5. Jason Anderson
6. Dean Wilson
7. Cole Seely
8. Blake Baggett
9. Weston Peick
10. Cooper Webb
11. Justin Hoeft
12. Justin Bogle
13. Justin Barcia
14. Broc Tickle
15. Fredrik Noren
16. Martin Davalos
17. Cody Cooper
18. Dillan Epstein
19. Dakota Alix
20. Zach Bell
Glen Helen Moto 2
Craig earned a holsehot for the second week in a row to start Moto 2, with Blake Baggett, Justin Barcia and Justin Bogle behind him.
Behind them, things didn’t go smoothly for the Kawasaki riders, as Grant crashed and Tomac had bike issues. Tomac was forced to hit the mechanic’s area to get the bike fixed, and he was a lap down by the time he exited.
Ten minutes into the race, it was Craig, Baggett, Anderson, Barcia and Musquin comprising the top five, all separated by less than six seconds. The top three — none of whom had ever won a moto in the 450 Class — in particular were extremely close. Within the span of about 30 seconds, both Baggett and Anderson passed Craig, who briefly was in position for the overall win, to take the top two spots. Meanwhile, Musquin got around Barcia for fourth.
Just before the midway point, the race saw another lead change, as Anderson went inside of Baggett to take the top spot away. That wouldn’t end the fight though, as Baggett stayed close behind the Rockstar Husqvarna rider for a bit.
With about 10:30 left on the clock, Craig went down and was visibly in pain on the side of the track immediately after. That enabled Musquin, Broc Tickle and Bogle to move into 3rd, 4th and 5th. Musquin found himself more than 20 seconds back of Anderson though and would have to settle for third place.
Up front, Anderson was able to put some distance between himself and Baggett. Anderson took the checkered flag to score his first career moto win. Baggett finished five seconds behind him.
Tomac’s mechanical issues proved costly, as he was only able to salvage two points from the moto after finishing in 19th. As a result, the red plate will be handed over to Musquin, who captured his first career overall win with 1-3 moto results.
Thanks to her excellent Moto 2 results, Anderson (5-1) and Baggett (8-2) both joined Musquin on the overall podium. Wilson finished 4th overall for the second straight week.
Eli Tomac
“It just wasn’t in the cards for us today,” said Tomac. “The team and I were in a good spot today and my bike felt great during qualifying, but just had some bad luck when the gate dropped. It’s a long season and we’ll be back next weekend.”
Glen Helen Moto 2 Results
1. Jason Anderson
2. Blake Baggett (-5.1 seconds)
3. Marvin Musquin
4. Broc Tickle
5. Justin Bogle
6. Weston Peick
7. Dean Wilson
8. Cole Seely
9. Martin Davalos
10. Jusitn Barcia
11. Fredrik Noren
12. Dillan Epstein
13. Heath Harrison
14. Justin Hoeft
15. Dakota Alix
16. Josh Mosiman
17. Toshiki Tomita
18. Ronnie Stewart
19. Eli Tomac
20. Dakota Tedder
Overall 450 Glen Helen Results
1. Marvin Musquin (1-3)
2. Jason Anderson (5-1)
3. Blake Baggett (8-2)
4. Dean Wilson (6-7)
5. Weston Peick (9-6)
6. Cole Seely (7-8)
7. Broc Tickle (14-4)
8. Justin Bogle (12-5)
9. Eli Tomac (2-19)
10. Josh Grant (3-28)
11. Justin Barcia (13-10)
12. Christian Craig (4-29)
13. Martin Davalos (16-9)
14. Justin Hoeft (11-14)
15. Fredrik Noren (15-11)
16. Dillan Epstein (18-12)
17. Cooper Webb (10-34)
18. Heath Harrison (21-13)
19. Dakota Alix (19-15)
20. Josh Mosiman (24-16)
2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Point Standings 450
- Marvin Musquin 89
- Eli Tomac 74
- Blake Baggett 63
- Josh Grant 60
- Dean Wilson 58
- Jason Anderson 56
- Cole Seely 54
- Broc Tickle 53
- Justin Bogle 49
- Weston Peick 46
- Justin Barcia 45
- Cooper Webb 39
- Christian Craig 37
- Martin Davalos 31
- Fredrik Noren 30
Zach Osborne starts the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship with back-to-back overall victories
A week after sweeping Hangtown, Zach Osborne won the FMF Glen Helen National to give him two straight overall wins to start this season. The caveat: He managed to do this despite not winning either moto at Glen Helen.
Instead it was Jeremy Martin and Dylan Ferrandis winning Saturday’s two motos. For Ferrandis, a former Grand Prix rider, it was his first moto victory on the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross circuit.
Glen Helen Moto 1
After a mechanical failure in Moto 1 last week, Jeremy Martin was very much in need of a good race this weekend at Glen Helen. He got that in the first moto with a wire-to-wire victory.
Jeremy Martin powered out to the gate and grabbed the holeshot, with Joey Savatgy behind him in second. Among the other fast starters was rookie Bradley Taft, who is making his season debut with Rock River Yamaha. He quickly got past Austin Forker to move into third.
Forkner got back around Taft a few laps later, as did Colt Nichols. Nichols then passed Forkner on a downhill section to move into third.
Meanwhile, J-Mart and Savatgy continued to pull away out front. The two riders were far ahead of everyone else, but Savatgy couldn’t keep pace with Martin and ended up finishing nine seconds behind him.
Not in that top group was Zach Osborne. The current points leader was 13th after the opening lap and had to work his way through the field. He passed Alex Martin for sixth about 13 minutes into the race. Then he picked up another position when Forkner, who was running in fourth, had his bike lock up on him in the middle of the race.
Forkner ejected himself from the bike and seemed visibly frustrated as he headed back to the pits.
That set up a three-rider showdown for third place between Nichols, Aaron Plessinger and Osborne. They were all within a few seconds of each other in the waning laps of the race, and with under two minutes left on the countdown clock, Plessinger finally caught and passed his teammate Nichols, going to the inside as they rounded a turn into an uphill section. Not long after, Nichols also dropped fourth place to Osborne. Osborne attempted to close in on Plessinger, but nearly went down at one point, a mistake that was costly enough to end his challenge.
Alex Martin ended up finishing sixth, and Adam Cianciarulo put on a charge — coming all the way from 27th after Lap 1 — to finish seventh. A trio of rookies (Michael Mosiman, Dylan Ferrandis and Sean Cantrell) rounded out the top ten. After his good start, Taft ended up 14th.
Glen Helen Moto 1 Results
1. Jeremy Martin
2. Joey Savatgy (-9.1 seconds)
3. Aaron Plessinger
4. Zach Osborne
5. Colt Nichols
6. Alex Martin
7. Adam Cianciarulo
8. Michael Mosiman
9. Dylan Ferrandis
10. Sean Cantrell
11. Jimmy Decotis
12. Shane McElrath
13. Mitchell Harrison
14. Bradley Taft
15. Nick Gaines
16. Luke Renzland
17. Lorenzo Locurcio
18. Mark Worth
19. Jerry Robin
20. Gustavo Souza
Glen Helen Moto 2
In the second moto, Jeremy Martin made it two-for-two on the day with holeshots and gave himself a bit of a gap over everyone else. Osborne ended up in second when things shuffled out, with Ferrandis and Cianciarulo behind him.
But fortunes shifted on the opening lap when Martin crashed as he started to go up a hill and ended up tangled in the track banners. As he struggled to get going again, the rest of the field went past him. That put Osborne temporarily into the lead until he was passed by Ferrandis.
Five minutes into the race, the top five was Ferrandis, Osborne, Cianciarulo, Taft (who had another good start) and Mosiman. Plessinger soon passed Mosiman and Taft to move into fourth. Plessinger was pushing for another podium finish and potentially an overall win, but he went down about ten minutes into the race and fell outside the top 20.
One of the beneficiaries was Nichols, who ultimately moved into 4th place. Mosiman dropped out the top five after getting passed by Forkner. At the midway point, the running order was Ferrandis, Osborne, Cianciarulo, Nichols and Forkner.
That running order would remain unchanged for the most of the moto, other than Alex Martin overtaking Forkner for fifth. And meanwhile out front, Ferrandis was running away. He built up a 23-second lead by the time the checkered flag came out.
Thanks to Martin and Plessinger’s incidents, Osborne became the de facto frontrunner for the overall win. His 4-2 moto finishes ended up being enough to get it done.
As for Jeremy Martin, he spent the race trying to salvage as many positions as possible. With just a few minutes left on the countdown clock, he finally got back into the top ten and was then able to pass Shane McElrath to put himself into a spot on the overall podium.
Savatgy, who finished second in Moto 1, had a shot to retake that overall podium spot from Martin if he could pass Forkner for sixth place. But in the midst of that battle, Savatgy had a mechanical issue — the third bike issue for the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team on the day (Forkner and Hill had issues in Moto 1) — and was done.
Jeremy Martin spent the final laps of the race chasing down Forkner. Had he been able to make the pass, Martin would have tied Osborne for overall points on the day, but Forkner successfully held him off. Martin ended up second overall with 1-7 results. Ferrandis (9-1) rounded out the overall podium.
Zach Osborne
“Today I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat,” said Osborne, “so I was a little concerned with how the day was going to go. I didn’t get the most ideal start in the first moto, but I came from 15th up to fourth. I really focused on my start in the second moto and tried to put it up front. I just rode a smart race in second and took the overall.”
Adam Cianciarulo
“It was a good day for us,” said Cianciarulo. “My starts weren’t quite on point today but in Moto 1 I managed to come back pretty well through the pack and finish strong. I carried that momentum into Moto 2 and made my way into third on the first lap and just rode consistent to finish on the box. I’m glad to leave California and head into Colorado second in points.”
Glen Helen Moto 2 Results
1. Dylan Ferrandis
2. Zach Osborne
3. Adam Cianciarulo
4. Colt Nichols
5. Alex Martin
6. Austin Forkner
7. Jeremy Martin
8. Mitchell Harrison
9. Shane McElrath
10. Michael Mosiman
11. Sean Cantrell
12. Justin Hill
13. Aaron Plessinger
14. Lorenzo Locurcio
15. Nick Gaines
16. Gustavo Souza
17. Bradley Taft
18. Mark Worth
19. Jerry Robin
20. Bradley Lionnet
Glen Helen Overall Results 250
1. Zach Osborne (4-2)
2. Jeremy Martin (1-7)
3. Dylan Ferrandis (9-1)
4. Adam Cianciarulo (7-3)
5. Colt Nichols (5-4)
6. Alex Martin (6-5)
7. Aaron Plessinger (3-13)
8. Michael Mosiman (8-10)
9. Joey Savatgy (2-29)
10. Mitchell Harrison (13-8)
11. Shane McElrath (12-9)
12. Sean Cantrell (10-11)
13. Austin Forkner (38-6)
14. Nick Gaines (15-15)
15. Lorenzo Locurcio (17-14)
16. Bradley Taft (14-17)
17. Jimmy Decotis (11-34)
18. Justin Hill (40-12)
19. Gustavo Souza (20-16)
20. Mark Worth (18-18)
2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Point Standings 250
- Zach Osborne 90
- Adam Cianciarulo 69
- Alex Martin 67
- Colt Nichols 65
- Aaron Plessinger 64
- Jeremy Martin 59
- Joey Savatgy 50
- Austin Forkner 47
- Mitchell Harrison 43
- Michael Mosiman 40
- Sean Cantrell 40
- Dylan Ferrandis 37
- Shane McElrath 37
- Justin Hill 34
- Nick Gaines 26
