Ken Roczen is getting too predictable.
Whether or not he gets the holeshot doesn't matter. Eventually he makes his way up front, checks out and wins. Now just four rounds in to the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship series Roczen is indeed running away, make that riding away, as another dominating performance, this time at High Point on Saturday, continues to show no one has figured out how to rein him in.
Roczen grabbed the holeshot in Moto 1 with Eli Tomac right behind but a minor Lap 1 crash ended any chance of Tomac putting up a fight giving way to an easy win for Roczen who crossed the checkers nearly 14 seconds in front of the rookie Marvin Musquin. Jason Anderson, who bowed out of Thunder Valley because of altitude sickness finished third. Tomac, considered Roczen's strongest competition now that defending Champion Ryan Dungey is out for the season because of a fractured vertebra, took fifth.
Moto 2 proved a bit closer as Justin Barcia got the early jump but quickly relinquished the lead to Roczen who took over on the opening lap followed by Anderson about three minutes into the Moto and Tomac taking third with 25 minutes remaining. Five minutes later, Tomac made a slick pass on Anderson for second and started the charge on Roczen.
After getting ahead of Justin Barcia on the opening Lap in Moto 2 Ken Roczen pulled away for the win and overall
Tomac closed the gap a few times but never got into position for a pass and after a mistake in the closing minutes lost valuable time dropping behind by six seconds. Eventually, he made up the gap closing to within two seconds but still settled for the runner-up spot. The fifth-place Moto 1 result dropped Tomac off the podium for the first time this season as he took fourth overall but more importantly, he lost 12 points to the red-hot Roczen.
"I think I lost a bunch of time not jumping that triple and I know other people were doing it and it cost me big time but I could still kind of control it," said Roczen, who has won five straight Motos and now has a 41 point lead over Tomac in the standings. "The track is really gnarly up here, it's pretty warm but overall I'm happy for the day."
Tomac takes over second-place in the standings with Dungey's absence. Anderson finished third in Moto 2 giving him the points tie-breaker over Musquin who took fourth in Moto 2 and third overall, his first podium in the 450 class. Anderson moved to fifth-place after dropping from fourth to seventh the week prior when he netted no points thanks to the illness.
"I had a consistent day, ended up three-three for second overall," said Anderson, who is just three points back from Cole Seely in fourth-place. High Point has always been good to me but I really want to stop getting waxed by those dudes up front and I really need to get with them."
Jason Anderson went (3-3) at High Point for second overall, a season best
Musquin posted his best round of the series and took advantage of the absence of his teammate Dungey as well as Trey Canard who crashed last week in practice and Blake Baggett remains sidelined with a fractured collarbone sustained in Round 1. Regardless, Musquin said like his first year in Supercross on the big bikes, it's was difficult at the beginning and he got better as the season progressed.
Elsewhere, Seely finished eighth-overall dropping a bit after last week's season high fourth-place and Barcia, despite that early lead in Moto two finished fifth and took fifth overall.
Bizarro world hit the 250 class as Jeremy and Alex Martin, each title contenders, suffered seemingly the exact same engine failure but in opposite Motos and as one petered out the other grabbed second-place.
The hit against the two-brothers enabled Joey Savatgy to not only get his third overall of the season but extend his points lead to 20. Savatgy took fourth in Moto 1 after hitting the dirt pretty hard but got back up to salvage some points as Zach Osborne, who qualified the fastest for the first time in his career also got his first career Moto win. Osborne finished fourth in Moto 2 and settled on second overall losing the tie-breaker to Savatgy.
Joey Savatgy went (4-1) for his third overall of the season
"First Moto was not so hot, my fault," Savatgy said of the crash. "I got to really eliminate those mistakes if we're going to be in this for the long haul. We can't do that, we've got to be up there every round, every Moto, but all-in-all it was great."
Savatgy looked more like the rider with three Moto wins this season taking his fourth in Moto 2 and fending off Alex Martin who couldn't reel in Savatgy for the third time this season. Rough day for Martin who led for six laps in Moto 1 before a mistake cost him the lead and then the engine failure dumped him from the race. It was a similar scene in Moto 2 for Jeremy, the two-time defending Champion, who trailed Adam Cianciarulo for a few laps before his bike started puffing out white smoke and he called it a day.
Two-time defending Champion Jeremy Martin smokes out in Moto 2; same thing happened to his brother Alex in Moto 1
As a result, Jeremy Martin dropped from second-place just three points behind Savatgy entering High Point, to third—place 24 points from the lead. Alex was in third-place nine points from the red plate which he held after Round 2, but is now in fourth, 30 points behind Savatgy. Osborne moved from seventh to fifth in the standings and is 15 points behind Alex Martin.
"First ever Moto win, I feel great right now," Osborne said post-race. "My bike was good today, it took me a minute to get going there in the second Moto," he said. "Maybe a little bit nervous, made some mistakes and let some guys get by me. Missed the win by a couple of seconds."
Also benefiting from the Martin's trouble was their teammate Cooper Webb who took third overall with a (3-5) day and moved from fourth to second-place. Cooper, he broke his wrist in the final weeks of Supercross and only has one Moto win this season, said he's fine as far as the wrist is concerned.
"I need to be better, those guys are kicking my butt right now," he said. "(I'm) just a little bit off so I'll go home and do work, try to be on top STAT. This is three third overalls, it's not feeling to good. It's nice to be up here don't get me wrong (but) we'll go back and do our homework."
Motocross Round 5 is Saturday at the Tennessee National in Blountville, TN. Buy tickets online or at the track.
2016 High Point Motocross Results
High Point 450 Class Results
- Ken Roczen (1-1)
- Jason Anderson (3-3)
- Marvin Musquin (2-4)
- Eli Tomac (6-2)
- Justin Barcia (7-5)
- Christophe Pourcel (4-9)
- Justin Bogle (6-7)
- Cole Seely (9-6)
- Broc Tickle (8-10)
- Weston Peick (13-8)
High Point 250 Class Results
- Joey Savatgy (4-1)
- Zach Osborne (1-4)
- Cooper Webb (3-5)
- Aaron Plessinger (6-3)
- Austin Forkner (5-8)
- Mitchell Oldenburg (7-7)
- Colt Nichols (12-6)
- Alex Martin (29-2)
- Jeremy Martin (2-32)
- Adam Cianciarulo (10-11)
2016 Motocross Season Standings
450 Class Standings
- Ken Roczen (193)
- Eli Tomac (152)
- Ryan Dungey (131)
- Cole Seely (116)
- Jason Anderson (113)
- Marvin Musquin (104)
- Trey Canard (97)
- Justin Barcia (92)
- Josh Grant (88)
- Christophe Pourcel (76)
250 Class Standings
- Joey Savatgy (166)
- Cooper Webb (146)
- Jeremy Martin (142)
- Alex Martin (136)
- Zach Osborne (121)
- Aaron Plessinger (116)
- Austin Forkner (109)
- RJ Hampshire (79)
- Adam Cianciarulo (72)
- Mitchell Oldenburg (70)
