| July 9, 2016
With the halfway point of the 2016 Lucas Oil/AMA Pro Motocross Championships behind us, the second half of the series got going in the sand of Southwick, Massachusetts, and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac became the first racer this year to beat RCH Suzuki’s Ken Roczen in both motos.
It had been raining leading up to this year’s Southwick MX National (the first national at the famed MX338 track since 2013), but luckily sand is inherently better at soaking up water than almost any other kind of dirt. The result was a wet track that rutted up more than usual, and dirt that stuck on goggles and radiators throughout the motos.
In 450cc moto one, GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle snatched his third holeshot in a row while Roczen and Tomac fought their way forward from the tail end of the top 10. Autotrader.com/Monster Energy/JGR Yamaha’s Justin Barcia was down in the first turn with a grip of other racers, including Tomac’s replacement teammate Tyler Bowers, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett, and more.
As has become a habit for Roczen, he went to work immediately and began making aggressive moves toward the front of the pack and rounded the first lap in fourth, two spots in front of Tomac. Bogle led early in front of Red Bull KTM’s lone ranger Marvin Musquin, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel, Roczen, Barcia’s teammate Weston Peick, and Tomac.
After moving by Musquin for second, it took Roczen almost five laps to reel Bogle back in, but once he did, he went by quickly. And he had to, because by then Tomac was right on his heels. For the next two laps, Tomac hounded Roczen, then struck at the halfway point of the moto, pushing Roczen back to second place.
Roczen immediately began losing ground and looked out of sorts on his factory-backed Suzuki, later explaining that his forks were causing him some sort of issue.
Tomac went on to win by nearly 25 seconds over Roczen, followed by Musquin, Bogle, Pourcel, Barcia—who passed his teammate, Peick, for the position with four laps to go after getting up from his first-turn crash—and BTOSports.com KTM’s rookie Benny Bloss.
Quick on the trigger, Bogle landed his fourth holeshot in as many motos at the start of 450cc moto two, but Pourcel took him out a few turns later, cutting across Bogle’s front wheel. Bogle remounted nearly last and eventually dropped out of the race at about two-thirds race distance.
After taking over the lead, Pourcel almost immediately lost the lead to Roczen and began looking back to see who else was coming. He got an answer a few turns later when Tomac followed Roczen’s lead by the fast Frenchman.
Tomac gave chase to Roczen and finally made the pass six laps into the 16-lap moto when he used an outside/inside move to take the lead. Roczen began to drop back a little bit before Tomac nearly went down when his foot got ripped off the peg headed to the finish line that same lap. Then, a lap after that, Tomac lost the front end and went down, handing the lead back to Roczen.
Not to be denied, though, Tomac went back and passed Roczen yet again that very same lap to re-take the lead.
Roczen stayed close to Tomac throughout the rest of the race, but Tomac took the moto win, followed by Roczen, and then a huge gap back to Barcia in third – who took Musquin out for the position earlier in the race. Then came Peick, Pourcel, Bloss, and Musquin.
Tomac grabbed his first MX National overall win in over a year, followed by Roczen, Barcia, Musquin, Peick, Pourcel, and Bloss.
In the points, it doesn’t make a huge difference at this point, but Roczen came into Southwick with a 53-point lead over Tomac and now has had it cut to 47 points. With a points lead of 47 points with 10 motos left to run, even if Tomac wins every single moto from here forward, if Roczen finishes second in those motos, Roczen wins the title by 17 points. If Tomac is going to have a chance, he’s going to need some help.
The series now heads to Spring Creek Raceway in Millville, Minnesota, for round eight, next Saturday, July 16.
Steve Cox