That as a wild main event! Marvin Musquin took the holeshot but when Chase Sexton made an early move, Musquin’s race fell apart and he got shuffled back to tenth. Sexton wasn’t waiting around this time and he started checking out and Tomac got into second. Ken Roczen got himself into third, passing Cooper Webb as Jason Anderson came form seventh, passing Ferrandis, Musqin and Webb to get onto the back wheel of Roczen, and he was in hurry!
Roczen went slightly wide after the shop and Anderson made his move hitting Roczen’s front wheel and leaving the German on the ground. Anderson then moved his way by Tomac and was beginning to reel in the six seconds lead Sexton had until his bike started smoking!
The fastest man all day then had to nurse his bike home watching the riders he had just passed all get their way around the factory Kawasaki man again in a tough break for Anderson who really should have the red plate right now! It added to a tough day already for Kawasaki who saw Adam Cianciarulo unable to complete his heat race following a crash in practice that added an insured knee to his injured shoulder.
Up front, and Sexton cruised to his first ever 450 win and you wonder if there will be a lot more to come now he has the monkey off his back! Eli Tomac took a strong but deceivingly quiet second to take the red plate off Justin Barcia who had a bad main event including a bad start and collision with Justin Bogle. Toamc’s teammate Dylan Ferrandis took third, holding off Webb, who regrouped fro fourth after a difficult day. Ken Roczen would take sixth on a day it looked like a podium could have been his.
Sexton, who is tied with Webb for second in the series, just one point off Tomac, said he couldn’t believe he finally won a main event and that it was a dream come true, adding that he tested a lot with the Honda to get more comfortable.
But only 14 points now separate the top ten in an exhilaratingly unpredictable series!
Christian Craig’s perfect 250 West season came to an end when he was involved in a big first turn pile-up that took out a lot of the field. Craig got going, stayed calm and and worked his way back got third, passing a very aggressive Vince Friese at the end to secure that podium.
Up front it was Mosiman v Lawrence for the win. Lawrence looked to have the pace and stayed on Mosiman, but when he made the move after lappers balked both in the whoops, Hunter went down and it looked like the win was gone – but he wasn’t finished yet! Lawrence regrouped and got back on Mosiman again in the last lap but he couldn’t get the pass with Jalek Swoll getting in between the duo just when Hunter looked ready to pounce. So, finally, it was an ecstatic Michael Mosiman who took his first win and the first 250 win for Gas Gas, after surviving race-long pressure from his rival Lawrence, who was left very frustrated with the win right there for the taking.
Craig now has a six point lead over Lawrence but after a first turn crash, he’ll take it.
Report: Jonathan McCready