AMA Supercross 2019
Round 12 – Seattle
Copper Webb maintains series lead
Chad Reed injured
Round 12 – Seattle
Images by Hoppenworld
Seattle hosted last weekend’s round of the AMA Supercross Championships. French riders Marvin Musquin and Dylan Ferrandis who won the 450SX and 250SX West main events respectively after an action-packed and somewhat controversial night of racing. Chad Reed is out for the remainder of the season (see separate report here – Link) after crashing out of the Main.
450SX Report
Zach Osborne ‘dive bombed’ the first corner to earn his first 450SX holeshot ahead of Marvin Musquin, Ken Roczen, Cole Seely, Eli Tomac, Joey Savatgy, Dean Wilson and Cooper Webb but the news behind wasn’t real flash with Chad Reed losing traction as the field entered the second jump section causing Chad and his Suzuki to spew left into the pack bringing Ryan Breece, Justin Brayton down before Kyle Chisholm was left with no choice but to land right on top of Reed.
Musquin continued to lead and stretched his lead in the second and third laps on the back of jumping through the section where Reed was being attended to despite the ‘no jumping’ medical flag being waved.
Roczen, Seely, Tomac, Savatgy and Webb all obeyed the medical flag while continuing to battle their way around the rest of the technical layout.
Reed has a hefty injury from the clash, with eight broken ribs, a broken scapula and a collapsed lung. But blamed nobody but himself.
Chad Reed on Instagram
The race remained reasonably stagnant right up to the chequered flag with Musquin, Roczen, and Tomac filling the podium positions ahead of Webb who had worked his way by Seely with seven minutes remaining before Seely lost spots to Savatgy, Wilson, and Blake Baggett in the dying laps.
Musquin took his second consecutive win, with Roczen, Tomac, Webb, Savatgy, Wilson, Baggett, Osborne, Seely, and Tyler Bowers rounding out the top ten.
Musquin was docked seven-points for jumping through a medical flag and the French rider remains second in the series, and 14-points behind team-mate Cooper Webb (Marvin was 14 points down coming into Seattle). Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac is just five-points further back.
Marvin Musquin – P1
“I know what I did wrong, I have no excuses, I was leading and going for it and I saw the yellows (flags) and I did slow down but I did jump, but this doesn’t take away from my win because after that I slowed down and was looking back and Kenny was right behind me but I put in a solid main, I am really happy with my riding and that doesn’t take anything away (from the win), so I am really happy.”
Ken Roczen – P2
“I am just happy how I bounced back this weekend, as it happened (Musquin jumping through the medical flag), I noticed it but we had the whole main ahead of us and by the time we hit the finish line jump I had forgotten all about it until someone mentioned it, what’s done is done, he won but I kept it on two wheels and felt a lot better this weekend.”
Eli Tomac – P3
“I would have loved to be able to take the win tonight, but landing on the podium is always a good place to be. The entire Monster Energy Kawasaki team and I have been working each week to improve on the bike and myself. Tonight’s track had a great layout and I was just feeling good all day; there were a lot of fun battles from the heat to the main. We’ll build from what we’ve learned here and apply it to Houston next weekend.”
Joey Savatgy – P5
“I’m feeling good. It’s great to place in the top-5 and I hope to just continue on this upward trend we’re on. I felt I had the speed and I‘ve had so many learning experiences in the past few weeks that I feel I was able to apply tonight. I’m still shooting for my goal to land on the podium before the season ends and I’ll just keep grinding until I get there.”
A notable absence from the results was Josh Grant who failed to make the main event in his first outing on the factory Yamaha as Aaron Plessinger’s replacement – Grant actually crashed out of a qualifying position in the LCQ.
Josh Grant
“The bike was great all day. The track conditions were difficult to adjust to though, and there were some really slick spots and we struggled in the whoop section. I’m going to head home, work on a few things and come back to Houston with a little more riding under my belt. Everybody has bad days and looking at that main event, mine still went better than most.”
Grant’s teammate Justin Barcia didn’t fare much better with a 17th in the main.
Justin Barcia
“It was a difficult day for me. I wasn’t able to ride during the week due to my shoulder, so I was a bit rusty. It was also an extremely difficult track. I had a rough start and got caught on a tough block, then I crashed in my heat race which set me back. Then in the main I had a pretty hard crash in the beginning of the race… It was definitely a weekend to forget and move on from.”
450SX Main Event Results
- Marvin Musquin
- Ken Roczen +02.361
- Eli Tomac +07.407
- Cooper Webb +08.673
- Joey Savatgy +17.291
- Dean Wilson +19.910
- Blake Baggett +23.324
- Zach Osborne +34.986
- Cole Seely +36.024
- Tyler Bowers +49.229
Marvin Musquin
Ken Roczen +02.361
Eli Tomac +07.407
450SX Points after 12 of 17 Rounds
- Cooper Webb – 262
- Marvin Musquin – 248
- Eli Tomac – 243
- Ken Roczen – 239
- Blake Baggett – 200
- Dean Wilson – 180
- Joey Savatgy – 159
- Chad Reed – 151
- Justin Barcia – 144
- Cole Seely – 142
250 West Coast Report
Dylan Merriam, RJ Hampshire, Cameron McAdoo were involved in a start straight crash handing Colt Nichols the holeshot ahead of Adam Cianciarulo. But Nichols soon crashed out of the lead and was unable to re-join the race while Cianciarulo dropped several spots after clipped the rear of Nichols’ bike in the first rhythm section.
After the first lap chaos Dylan Ferrandis found himself in the lead and it wasn’t long before Cianciarulo jumped up to second ahead of Jimmy Decotis and Jacob Hayes. On the next lap Hayes dropped a couple spots when he crashed thanks to a Michael Mosiman block passed. Hayes later dropped out of the race.
Ferrandis continued to hold a gap back to Cianciarulo who was trying every line on the track to gain ground but Ferrandis remained mistake free until late in the race when the French star had a bad run through the treacherous whoop section allowing Cianciarulo to get within striking distance.
Cianciarulo made a similar mistake in the whoops a lap later handing Ferrandis a handy lead with one lap remaining but Cianciarulo was able to close right back up on Ferrandis and even went for an unlikely block pass on the final turn.
He came up short so it was Ferrandis’ first main win in America while Cianciarulo, Decotis, Mosiman and Chris Blose rounded out the top five ahead of RJ Hampshire who came back to sixth after the start straight crash.
Cianciarulo now holds a 12-point lead over Ferrandis as they head to Houston next weekend. The big losers at Seattle were Shane McElrath and Nichols with the third and fourth placed riders in the points scoring zero on the night thanks to McElrath pulling out after practice with a back injury and the first lap crash of Nichols.
Dylan Ferrandis – P1
“It has taken me three years in America to get my first win, I have suffered a lot of bad starts but tonight I got a good start then my teammate (Nichols) crashed right in front of me so I took the lead and I was leading the main which is new for me so I just tried to ride with no mistakes, Adam was right on my back and it was really challenging for me but I think for the future this is going to help me a lot. The bike was really good tonight. We made some changes on it between practices to get the best bike as possible for the track condition. The track wasn’t that difficult this weekend at Seattle even though some rhythms were a bit tougher than other ones. It gives me more confidence for the next upcoming races now that I know I’m able to win a Supercross race in the U.S.!”
Adam Cianciarulo – P2
“The beginning was a little crazy, I thought I had the start but Nichol came across and he hit the same hand that Austin Forkner hit a few weeks ago so I had bloody knuckles again and I was pissed, once I got through that I had to tell myself to chill a little then Colt went down and I got by Jimmy so I was behind Dylan and I knew it was going to be hard to get by him because he has been riding great and I am taking nothing away from Dylan, congrats.”
Jimmy Decotis – P3
“The whoops were really good all day, I think I was one of the better ones through there but in the main event it turned into a jump line which I wasn’t real comfortable with but I went with what everyone else was doing, overall I like it when we have a big long set of whoops, I also think it something we need at all of these races to separate guys, we are racing professional supercross, we should have big whoops.”
Round 12 – Seattle
250 West Coast Main Event Results
- Dylan Ferrandis
- Adam Cianciarulo +00.571
- Jimmy Decotis +23.247
- Michael Mosiman +24.421
- Chris Blose +38.961
- RJ Hampshire +42.054
- Mitchell Harrison +42.466
- Cameron McAdoo +44.045
- Enzo Lopes -1 Laps
- Justin Starling -1 Laps
Dylan Ferrandis
Adam Cianciarulo +00.571
Jimmy Decotis +23.247
250 West Coast Points after 7 of 11 Rounds
- Adam Cianciarulo – 163
- Dylan Ferrandis – 151
- Shane McElrath – 123
- Colt Nichols – 121
- J. Hampshire – 103
- Michael Mosiman – 99
- Chris Blose – 98
- Cameron McAdoo – 94
- Jimmy Decotis – 94
- Garrett Marchbanks – 85
250 East Coast Points after 6 of 9 Rounds
- Austin Forkner – 151
- Chase Sexton – 125
- Justin Cooper – 123
- Alex Martin – 92
- Martin Davalos – 89
- Mitchell Oldenburg – 88
- Brandon Hartranft – 82
- Kyle Cunningham – 81
- Kyle Peters – 79
- Jordon Smith – 70
