After a promising season was beset by a knee injury, there was concern over how well Marvin Musquin would ride — if he indeed continued to ride — over the rest of the season. After a few weeks of improving results, Musquin officially allayed those concerns with a convincing 1-1 sweep of both motos at Spring Creek.
Musquin now has three moto wins and two overall wins during the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
With just four rounds left, the 450MX championship race remains tight. Eli Tomac will still hold the red plate, but thanks to a crash in Moto 2, he was only able to add one single point to his lead over Blake Baggett. They are now separated by 20 points.
And for the second round in a row, Dean Wilson set a new career high. Two weeks after his first overall podium (third place at Southwick), the Rockstar Husqvarna rider earned second overall thanks to a pair of third-place moto finishes at Spring Creek.
Read on for a breakdown of what happened in each moto.
Spring Creek 450 Moto 1
Marvin Musquin took the holeshot. Dean Wilson was close behind but nearly tipped over. Meanwhile, Matt Bisceglia, who is making his season debut and filling in with RCH/Yoshimura Suzuki, showed up and briefly went wheel-to-wheel with Musquin.
When things shook out a bit, the top five looked like this: Musquin, Wilson, Justin Barcia, Cole Seely, Bisceglia. Bisceglia would soon fade, but the top four would hold strong for awhile.
Blake Baggett and Eli Tomac both started further back inside the top ten, while Jason Anderson was nowhere to be found. Anderson, who missed Southwick due to a practice crash, ended up pulling out of the race.
Ten minutes into the moto, Tomac passed Christian Craig to move into the top five. He continued to press, getting around Seely and Barcia before the midway point to get into third, then he overtook Wilson for second. By that time though, Musquin had already stormed out to a 23-second lead and was able to cruise to victory.
Musquin had not won a moto since Glen Helen — his lone moto win of the season — as he had been hampered by a knee injury for several weeks.
With a second-place finish, Tomac was able to extend his points lead over Baggett for the time being, as Baggett was unable to crack the top five and finished sixth.
One round after having the best 450MX race of his career (third overall at Southwick), Wilson landed on the podium once again. With about four minutes left, Barcia made a late charge to take third place away from Wilson, and Wilson’s initial counterattack wasn’t quite enough, but Barcia seemed to slow in the waning laps of the moto, allowing Wilson to move back into third and Cooper Webb to move into fourth. Barcia was able to hold off Baggett to secure a top-five finish, matching his best moto result of the season.
Results
1. Marvin Musquin
2. Eli Tomac
3. Dean Wilson
4. Cooper Webb
5. Justin Barcia
6. Blake Baggett
7. Christian Craig
8. Cole Seely
9. Henry Miller
10. Matt Bisceglia
11. Martin Davalos
12. Weston Peick
13. Fredrik Noren
14. Benny Bloss
15. Dakota Alix
16. Justin Bogle
17. John Short
18. Heath Harrison
19. Josh Mosiman
20. Cade Autenrieth
…
39. Jason Anderson (DNF)
Spring Creek 450 Moto 2
The holeshot went to a surprise winner: local privateer Henry Miller, who blazed out to the front but immediately crashed. (He had previously finished ninth in Moto 1.) That enabled Justin Bogle to move into the lead, with Eli Tomac, Dean Wilson, Marvin Musquin and Blake Baggett among the next batch of riders.
While running in second on the opening lap, Tomac crashed but was able to remount in ninth. From there though, he started moving in the wrong direction, losing positions amid an issue of some kind that sent him back to 14th. The rest of his race would be all about salvaging positions, but he successfully did just that — getting up to fifth place to overtake Baggett in overall points for the day and run his championship lead up to 20 points.
Bogle continued to lead but had to contend with a pair of KTMs — Musquin and Baggett. About 5:30 into the race, Musquin made a hard charge through the whoops to take the lead away, and Baggett soon got around Bogle as well to take over second.
Baggett eventually started to close in on Musquin, but Musquin was able to stretch his lead back out a bit. The gap between the two was less than three seconds at the midway point of the race. Things eventually settled down, and Musquin took the checkered flag 15 seconds ahead of Baggett.
Behind the lead duo, it was Dean Wilson landing on the podium for a third straight moto. That helped earn him second overall, a new career-best. Joining him on the podium were overall winner Musquin (1-1) and third-place Tomac (2-5).
Martin Davalos matched the 450MX career high he set at Southwick with a fourth-place finish in Moto 2.
Results
1. Marvin Musquin
2. Blake Baggett
3. Dean Wilson
4. Martin Davalos
5. Eli Tomac
6. Cole Seely
7. Christian Craig
8. Justin Barcia
9. Cooper Webb
10. Fredrik Noren
11. Weston Peick
12. Dakota Alix
13. John Short
14. Henry Miller
15. Brandon Scharer
16. Josh Mosiman
17. Zack Williams
18. Toshiki Tomita
19. Vann Martin
20. Dylan Merriam
…
24. Benny Bloss
33. Justin Bogle (DNF)
37. Matt Bisceglia (DNS)
39. Jason Anderson (DNS)
Spring Creek 450 Class Overall Results
1. Marvin Musquin (1-1)
2. Dean Wilson (3-3)
3. Eli Tomac (2-5)
4. Blake Baggett (6-2)
5. Cooper Webb (4-9)
6. Justin Barcia (5-8)
7. Martin Davalos (11-4)
8. Cole Seely (8-6)
9. Christian Craig (7-7)
10. Fredrik Noren (13-10)
11. Weston Peick (12-11)
12. Henry Miller (9-14)
13. Dakota Alix (15-12)
14. John Short (17-13)
15. Matt Bisceglia (10-37)
16. Josh Mosiman (19-16)
17. Benny Bloss (14-24)
18. Brandon Scharer (30-15)
19. Justin Bogle (16-33)
20. Zack Williams (22-17)
…
40. Jason Anderson (DNF-DNS)
While this season likely hasn’t lived up to what Joey Savatgy had hoped for, Saturday’s race at Spring Creek should provide a confidence boost for him. Savatgy rode strong all day, earning 1-2 moto results and taking his second overall victory of the season.
Savatgy split moto wins with 250MX points leader Zach Osborne, who managed to finish third overall despite a bike problem in Moto 1 that looked as though it might knock him out of the race. Even with that incident, Osborne lost just two points to Alex Martin, who finished second overall, and will continue to hold the red plate just as he has all season long.
Read on for a recap of what happened in each moto.
Spring Creek 250 Moto 1
When the gate dropped, Joey Savatgy and RJ Hampshire were side-by-side heading toward the holeshot. Hampshire was officially credited with the holeshot but then had a slight bobble that allowed Savatgy to put himself in front.
As for the Martin brothers, who call this track home, Alex overtook Hampshire for second on the opening lap, while Jeremy was sitting in fifth place (behind Savatgy, A-Mart, Hampshire and Aaron Plessinger) after the first lap.
Up front, Alex Martin was able to keep Savatgy in his sights, getting within three seconds of him at times, but unable to reel him in before the end of the race. Savatgy’s final margin of victory over A-Mart was nearly eight seconds. It’s the second moto win of the season from the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rider.
Plessinger claimed the final spot on the podium after making a pass on Hampshire during the race.
Points leader Zach Osborne didn’t get off to a great start and had to come from about ninth place. Within the first 16 minutes of the moto, though, he had worked his way into the top five. One of the riders he passed was Jeremy Martin, who entered the day trailing Osborne by 59 points and really can’t afford finishing behind him from here on out.
With under seven minutes left, Osborne looked like he was about to move on Hampshire for fourth place, but then smoke started coming out of Osborne’s bike due to an issue with his radiator hose. In the aftermath, he dropped back to seventh and seemed like he was riding conservatively in a concerted effort to just get the bike around the track for the final laps of the race before it died.
Privateer Steven Clarke turned in an impressive top-ten finish. He passed Osborne in the closing laps to take seventh place but then went down on the final lap and fell all the way back to 11th. Thanks to a last-lap crash from Chase Sexton, Clarke was able to move back into the top ten.
On the final lap of the race, Osborne ended up dropping two more spots — one to Sexton, one to Dylan Ferrandis — but was able to get his broken bike to the finish line. He ultimately reclaimed one of those spots because of Sexton’s crash.
Osborne’s eighth-place finish nets him 13 points, which means he only came out of the moto losing nine points to Alex Martin.
Results
1. Joey Savatgy
2. Alex Martin
3. Aaron Plessinger
4. Jeremy Martin
5. RJ Hampshire
6. Adam Cianciarulo
7. Dylan Ferrandis
8. Zach Osborne
9. Colt Nichols
10. Steven Clarke
11. Mitchell Harrison
12. Chase Sexton
13. Lorenzo Locurcio
14. Sean Cantrell
15. Kyle Cunningham
16. Shane McElrath
17. Nick Gaines
18. Luke Renzland
19. Cody Williams
20. Gustavo Souza
Spring Creek 250 Moto 2
Shane McElrath edged out Joey Savatgy for the holeshot, but Savatgy quickly moved around him into the lead. Adam Cianciarulo was close behind and started going to work on McElrath. Behind that trio were Jeremy Martin and privateer Jon Ames rounding out the top five. Meanwhile, Alex Martin was down around 10th.
Within the first few minutes, Osborne cracked the top five and was all over the back of J-Mart. Then came a cavalcade of errors by Jeremy in short succession: First he veered straight off the track and had to rejoin the race on a different section, then he tipped over. That knocked him down to seventh place, right behind big brother Alex.
Osborne picked up another spot about 15 minutes into the race, passing Cianciarulo for third.
Out front, Savatgy and McElrath were pulling away a bit from everyone else. McElrath was able to keep pace for awhile and was trailing Savatgy by less than two seconds at the midway point of the race. But McElrath ultimately fell into the clutches of Osborne, who took over second place within the final 10 minutes of the moto. That left Osborne free to chase down Savatgy, and a fierce battle for the lead ensued that culminated in Osborne passing Savatgy with about 5:30 remaining on the countdown clock.
Osborne was able to check out after that, finishing 10 seconds ahead of second-place Savatgy and 17 seconds ahead of third-place McElrath. Alex Martin won the battle of the Martin brothers to finish one spot ahead of Jeremy in fourth.
But thanks to his moto victory earlier in the day, a second-place finish was enough to give Savatgy the overall win for the day. It’s his second overall victory of the season, making him the first rider other than Osborne to record multiple overall wins in 2017.
Alex Martin (2-4) and Osborne (8-1) rounded out the overall podium.
Osborne will retain the red plate again and now holds a 43-point lead over Alex Martin with four rounds left.
Results
1. Zach Osborne
2. Joey Savatgy
3. Shane McElrath
4. Alex Martin
5. Jeremy Martin
6. Adam Cianciarulo
7. RJ Hampshire
8. Dylan Ferrandis
9. Bradley Taft
10. Nick Gaines
11. Chase Sexton
12. Aaron Plessinger
13. Colt Nichols
14. Sean Cantrell
15. Luke Renzland
16. Jon Ames
17. Mitchell Harrison
18. Lorenzo Locurcio
19. Cody Williams
20. Hunter Sayles
…
37. Kyle Cunningham (DNF)
40. Steven Clarke (DNF)
Spring Creek 250 Class Overall Results
1. Joey Savatgy (1-2)
2. Alex Martin (2-4)
3. Zach Osborne (8-1)
4. Jeremy Martin (4-5)
5. Adam Cianciarulo (6-6)
6. RJ Hampshire (5-7)
7. Aaron Plessinger (3-12)
8. Dylan Ferandis (7-8)
9. Shane McElrath (16-3)
10. Colt Nichols (9-13)
11. Chase Sexton (12-11)
12. Nick Gaines (17-10)
13. Sean Cantrell (14-14)
14. Mitchell Harrison (11-17)
15. Bradley Taft (36-9)
16. Lorenzo Locurcio (13-18)
17. Steven Clarke (10-40)
18. Luke Renzland (18-15)
19. Kyle Cunningham (15-37)
20. Jon Ames (25-16)