Steve Cox | July 8, 2017
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results: It seems that Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne is not even interested in keeping this championship close. With a 2-1 score in the sand of Southwick, Massachusetts, Osborne took yet another overall victory and has pulled ahead to a 45-point lead in the 2017 Lucas Oil/AMA 250cc National Motocross Championships.
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
In moto one, TLD/Red Bull KTM’s Alex Martin (“AMart”) snatched the holeshot, just holding off Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger to take the early lead, while Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner was forced to pick himself up off the dirt in turn one. GEICO Honda’s RJ Hampshire was game early in the moto and the Floridian not only went around Plessinger, but quickly closed the gap on AMart before quickly taking over the lead down the straightaway near Vendor’s Row after AMart made a minor mistake exiting the previous turn.
Hampshire’s lead only lasted about a lap, though, as he went down on his own in a corner, handing the lead back to AMart. Hampshire remounted fourth and would eventually finish fifth.
Just a few laps later, Plessinger began pressuring AMart for the lead while Plessinger’s teammate Dylan Ferrandis applied the pressure for second, and then it all went wrong for Plessinger when he was bucked out of his seat exiting a right-hand turn and lost the front end, pile-driving himself into the next jump directly on his right shoulder. He needed help from Factory Connection’s Rick “Ziggy” Zielfelder to get his helmet off and appeared to have suffered a major right-shoulder injury of some sort. Plessinger was out for the day.
Before long, though, Ferrandis caught AMart and went after the leader, taking the lead for less than a lap before he also went down when he lost the front end exiting a corner. For most of the first moto, it seemed nobody wanted to actually win the thing.
AMart resumed the lead and Ferrandis got up in second, but then went right back to work and, over the next handful of laps, caught and passed AMart a second time to take over the lead.
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
Not long after that, AMart had his hands full with points leader Zach Osborne, who had worked his way up to his back wheel after starting outside the top 10. Eventually, Osborne found his way by, then started sprinting to cut into Ferrandis’s lead, but Ferrandis noticed him coming and picked up his pace again, pulling back away from Osborne to take his second moto win of the season.
Osborne hung on for second, about eight seconds behind Ferrandis, and then came AMart, who barely held off his brother Jeremy Martin. JMart had come from well outside the top 10 on the opening lap to take fourth place from GEICO Honda teammate Hampshire. Behind Hampshire came Ferrandis’s teammate Mitchell Harrison, and then Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy, Harrison’s teammate Colt Nichols, GEICO Honda rookie Chase Sexton, and CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha’s Luke Renzland.
The fastest qualifier on the day, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo, had two separate falls on the opening lap and ended up 15th in the moto.
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
In moto two, Osborne got the holeshot, but he had Ferrandis hot on his heels. Osborne put in an early sprint and put time between himself and Ferrandis, and although Ferrandis would close on occasion, Osborne took the moto and overall win by about the same margin as what separated the two in the opening moto.
In fact, the running order for the top seven at the end of the first official lap was actually the running order at the finish, with Osborne winning over Ferrandis, AMart, Hampshire, Savatgy, JMart, and Harrison. Behind Harrison came Sexton in eighth, and he held that position from lap two through the finish.
Osborne’s overall win puts him nearly a full race – two motos – ahead of AMart in the championship chase, as he now carries 45 points into the weekend off next weekend. After the weekend off, the series resumes on July 22nd for round eight (out of 12) in Alex and Jeremy Martin’s literal backyard growing up, Spring Creek Raceway in Millville, Minnesota, owned by their parents John and Greta.
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
2017 Southwick 250 MX Results
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