Jorge Prado is still searching for the golden set-up but both Eli Tomac and Chase Sexton found it at Washougal and it put them right back in the mix. Sexton became the first rider to win an overall this season outdoors not named Jett Lawrence and he was quick to acknowledge the bike set-up as a key reason and blamed himself for bad choices previously.
Sexton, not afraid to take accountability, said: “Just a different setup. Straight up. So, different setup. I found something that I was really comfortable on and was in the same zone as these guys. Like, same zip code. Was able to see them, so that was nice.”
“So, what happened at Millville is before that I went and did some testing. And yeah, it’s like, it’s on me. I’m like, hey, I think the bike’s better. And then I take it to the race and it was not better. So, I mean, I take responsibility for that, for telling the guys. And of course, it looks faster like on the clock and stuff and whatnot. Like, yeah, it’s better. And then it just didn’t work in a race environment. So, it was unfortunate. But I feel like now that I was able to make some improvements from what I was racing earlier in the season.
“I would say this track I do enjoy. I think it’s unique, and I would say I’m a little bit ahead of the schedule. I mean, last week I got beat by 48 seconds, second moto, so now I feel like that was a pretty big bridge to gap, but I knew coming in here, I made a lot of bike changes this week with the whole rear end of my bike, and they were quite a bit better. I had a really good day on Wednesday, and I’m like, okay, kind of getting back to where I feel like I can compete for at least a race win. But yeah, I feel like I’m a little ahead of the schedule. My whole goal is to get myself to where I feel like I’m ready to go for the SMX, and that’s kind of why I came back when I did.”
