| July 9, 2016
With the championship quickly turning to a runaway in the 450cc class, the 250cc class has been the class to watch through the first half of the 2016 Lucas Oil/AMA Pro Motocross Championships. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy managed to hang on to the points lead through the bulk of the first half of the series, but Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Cooper Webb caught fire starting at round five in Tennessee, and things have only continued snowballing in his direction ever since.
At Southwick, Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM’s Shane McElrath snatched his second holeshot in the past few races and led the first five laps, even though he lost the lead temporarily to Webb’s teammate and defending champion Jeremy Martin early on the opening lap. A third Star Racing rider, in the form of Aaron Plessinger, came through to pass Martin for second in the early going, but Jeremy Martin managed to get back by a couple of laps later before moving to the lead.
Behind them, former points leader Savatgy and current points leader Webb started just outside the top 10, but while Webb began moving forward immediately, Savatgy seemed to struggle. By the halfway point, Webb sat seventh, but was right on the back wheels of the entire lead pack, with the exception of leader Jeremy Martin, who had pulled out to a comfortable lead out front. At the same point in the race, Savatgy had only managed to move up to 10th.
As has been the case in recent races, Cooper Webb began making moves as the laps moved on. Just past halfway, he went by McElrath’s teammate Mitch Oldenberg and Savatgy’s rookie teammate (and fastest qualifier) Austin Forkner, and also got by McElrath when he crashed out of third place. Now fourth, Webb immediately chased down teammate Plessinger, then set out after another of Savatgy’s teammates Arnaud Tonus, who was running second.
When Cooper Webb moved into second with five laps to go, he sat about 9 seconds behind his teammate Jeremy Martin. Martin ended up winning the moto – his third of the season so far – by 1.3 seconds over Webb, followed by Tonus, Plessinger, Forkner, Oldenberg and Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Alex Martin. Savatgy finished 10th.
In moto two, Cooper Webb didn’t want to leave anything up to chance. After coming up just short in the first moto following a poor start, Webb started up front and just took off. Behind him, Forkner worked his way into second place early on, just in front of McElrath, Jeremy Martin and Savatgy. However, even though he was in a much better position in moto two, Savatgy tossed it away with a couple of crashes late in the race that saw him drop from fourth to an eventual 11th-place finish.
Cooper Webb took the moto win going away, 20 seconds in front of Forkner, Alex Martin, Jeremy Martin, Plessinger, the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna duo of Martin Davalos and Zach Osborne, Tonus, CycleTrader.com Yamaha’s Luke Renzland, and then Star Racing’s Mitchell Harrison. Not only was half of the top 10 made up of Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha racers, but they made up four of the top-five spots as well.
For Webb, it was his third AMA National victory in a row. In fact, since moto one in Tennessee, Cooper Webb has managed to win four of the six motos run. In the other two, he finished second. Teammate Jeremy Martin was second overall at Southwick with a 1-4 score just in front of Forkner’s 5-2 to round out the podium. Savatgy ended the day a dejected ninth overall.
With five rounds remaining, Cooper Webb is now solidly in control of the 2016 250MX Championship, with 37 points in hand over Savatgy, who only has one point on defending champion Jeremy Martin in third.
The series now heads to Spring Creek Raceway in Millville, Minnesota, for round eight, next Saturday, July 16.
Steve Cox