Report and results: Roczen dominates Unadilla!
Ken Roczen was sublime at Unadilla to go 1-1 and keep his 450 title hopes alive on a very rutted track that only Roczen could make look easy! Smooth, with lots of flow, Roczen could go wherever he wanted and carried a lot of momentum in the ruts forcing even Dylan Ferrandis, to admit at the end of moto one, that he had nothing for Roczen and that second was the best he could hope for!
Roczen holeshot race one and the only man that could run with him was Aaron Plessinger but a weird loop-out RV style, just when Plessinger was putting the pressure on Roczen in the second half of the race, gave Roczen a huge lead over Dylan Ferrandis but unfortunately Plessinger was unable to finish the first moto and didn’t race moto two. Ferrandis inherited second and was happy with that for the championship under the circumstances of a rough track and an exceptional Roczen.
Race two and Roczen started top four but worked his way by Webb then eventually got by teammate Sexton to take another brilliant win in a classy ride from the German. Sexton took second in a good rebound ride after going down coming out of turn one in race one, where he got back to eleventh. Ferrandis took third and was content with that, not pushing his over the limit, saying the track was very difficult and hard to ride.
Marvin Musquin made it a European clean sweep on the podium in America with two strong rides from not the best of starts to go 4-4 and the Frenchman finds his outdoor form – just in time for des Nations?
Roczen, now 39 behind Ferrandis, said: “It was unreal. I just felt like I got into that flow state. “I was hitting my marks, the tracks brutal, really easy to make a mistake. The crowd is awesome.”
The 250 class was confusing! Justin Cooper holeshot race one and with Jett Lawrence and Jeremy Martin on his tail, Cooper rode fantastic to ride mistake free and pull away from his title rivals to take a big win and extend his lead to 11 points ahead of Lawrence who finished second.
In race two Cooper holeshot again with Martin and Lawrence on his tail, but this time Cooper couldn’t hold them off with Martin taking the lead then Lawrence making a big pass stick at the second attempt to move into second as Cooper started dropping off the pace. As Jett chased Jeremy Martin and took the lead RJ Hampshire passed Cooper who then totally dropped off the pace as Jett took the race win with Cooper, who won race one, a minute back in fourth in an utterly perplexing performance! After the moto, Cooper explained he was fighting the bike and lost his flow in the second race, feeling he should have made a bike change for the second moto.
That 11 point lead after moto one has now shrunk to four with four rounds left as Lawrence won his first overall since the opening round of the season! “I felt at home, I had such a good flow and felt so fast,” said Lawrence on the second moto win.
Report: Jonathan McCready
