Steve Cox | June 30, 2018
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results: With the exit of GEICO Honda’s Jeremy Martin from the series after a huge crash in Tennessee a week ago, today’s Southwick MX National at MX338 was anticipated to be a sort of reset button; how would the rest of the field respond to the absence of Jeremy Martin?
Frequently, in situations like this, other racers step up to fill the void, and a few attempted to do just that in Massachusetts, on a day with a heat index of 102 degrees.
In the first moto, fresh off his first-ever overall victory a week earlier, TLD/Red Bull KTM’s Shane McElrath grabbed the holeshot over local boy Jimmy Decotis, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper, GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner, Sexton’s teammate RJ Hampshire, McElrath’s teammate Alex Martin, privateer Gage Schehr, and points leader Aaron Plessinger.
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results
McElrath held strong out front for about half the race while the field shuffled around behind him, and then he was caught by Forkner, who had worked his way past Cooper for second a handful of laps into the race and closed the gap on McElrath. It took him almost four laps to do it, but right as Martin caught Forkner, Forkner found a line around the outside of McElrath on the sandy soil to take the lead. Martin followed him through, past his teammate, for second right away, then spent the remainder of the moto trying to pass Forkner, only to come up just over a second short at the finish.
Forkner scored his first moto win of the year over Martin, with Plessinger over 7 seconds behind him in third, and Plessinger’s French teammate Dylan Ferrandis coming home fourth after starting outside the top 10.
Behind Ferrandis came Sexton, McElrath, Hampshire, Plessinger’s teammate Colt Nichols and the rest of the field.
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results
Hampshire just edged McElrath for the holeshot to start moto two, but Forkner went by them both to take over the lead down the ensuing straightaway. McElrath held strong in second, holding off Martin for quite a few laps before Martin made a forceful move past his teammate for second, then set out after Forkner. It wasn’t long before the leading duo were joined by Ferrandis, who was on a roll coming from outside the top 10 to join them up front, and it was at that point that Martin got a run on Forkner around the outside, which set him up on the inside of the next corner.
Forkner refused to let off, and so did Martin, and the two collided, both hitting the ground, but Forkner getting the worst of it, as he knocked the wind out of himself and was very slow to rejoin the race.
Ferrandis inherited the lead and took the moto win over McElrath, Hampshire, Martin and Forkner’s teammate Joey Savatgy. Forkner scored a single point in the moto with a 20th-place finish.
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results
Ferrandis got the overall win with his 4-1 score over the 2-4 of Martin and the 6-2 of McElrath. Hampshire was fourth overall (7-3) while Plessinger was fifth on the day with a 3-7 score, losing six points to his closest title rival Alex Martin.
As the series heads to RedBud next Saturday, Plessinger leads the championship by 23 points over Alex Martin, while Jeremy Martin – out of the series since last weekend – still sits third. It’s looking like a two-horse race.
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results
2018 Southwick 250cc National MX Results
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