Cycle News Staff | August 10, 2019
Much has been said about Honda’s Ken Roczen over the last few years, first with people wondering if Roczen would be able to come back at all after his now-famous two devastating arm/hand injuries, and still more talk about the illness he’s been struggling with for about five months now, but at least in terms of outdoor motocross, today’s Unadilla MX National marks his official return to top form with his first 1-1 performance since before his injury saga began.
And in the 250cc class, it was another day of hard-fought battles in both motos between points leader Adam Cianciarulo and his closest challenger Dylan Ferrandis. They traded moto wins, tying on points for the day, but Ferrandis took the overall with a 2-1 score.
Roczen Dominates 2019 Unadilla National
Team Honda’s Ken Roczen was absolutely phenomenal today at Unadilla. He started the day causing a head-scratch moment by logging an official qualifying time 3.2 seconds faster than anybody else on the track. You read that right: 3.2 seconds over second-place qualifier Cooper Webb (who injured his knee during the first moto at Unadilla and is getting that checked out as this story goes online).
Then, in the first moto, Roczen started at the tail end of the top five, which seemed problematic since points leader Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Kawasaki) was out front, but Roczen went by Tomac for the lead before the end of the first lap, then pulled away to an eventual 20-second lead and victory.
Tomac went backward, eventually finishing seventh, blaming arm-pump for the fade. Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin fought his way up to second in the moto (he hasn’t finished outside the top three in a moto at Unadilla in his entire 450cc career, starting in 2016). Monster Energy Yamaha’s Justin Barcia got his best result so far of the 2019 outdoor season with a come-from-behind third in the first moto, followed by Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne and his teammate Jason Anderson. Then came Tomac’s teammate Joey Savatgy, Tomac, Osborne’s teammate Dean Wilson, and the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM duo of Benny Bloss and Justin Bogle.
Musquin Second Overall at Unadilla MX
Roczen was not quite as dominant in moto two, because there were a couple of laps that he didn’t lead, but he was still on his own level. He caught early leader Musquin on the second lap, then forced an error from Musquin, who went off the track, putting Roczen into the lead on lap three. From there, Roczen pulled away to an eventual victory margin of over 22 seconds over Musquin. Behind Musquin came points leader Tomac, who made a late-race pass on Osborne for the spot. Osborne was fourth, Anderson fifth, and Savatgy sixth, just as in moto one. Behind Savatgy came Bloss, JGR/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Freddie Noren, Bogle, and Barcia (who went down while running third on the opening lap) rounding out the top 10.
Roczen took the overall with a 1-1 over Musquin’s 2-2 and Osborne’s 4-4. Then came Tomac (7-3), Anderson (5-5), Barcia (3-10), Savatgy (6-6), Bloss (9-7), Bogle (10-9) and Wilson (8-11).
In the championship chase, both Musquin and Roczen took sizeable chunks out of Tomac’s massive lead. Tomac came into Unadilla with 50 points in-hand, but leaves only 40 points up on Musquin, while Roczen is only 1 point behind Musquin, with only four motos left to run. If Tomac can manage to gain 10 points back on Musquin, and 9 points back on Roczen at Budds Creek next weekend, he will still clinch the championship one race early.
Ferrandis Wins Again At Unadilla
In the 250cc class, Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo seemed to be fired up coming into Unadilla, and he took down the top qualifying spot for the second race in a row before putting in a dominant moto-one performance, passing Dylan Ferrandis’s teammate Justin Cooper for the lead a handful of laps into the race (when Cooper went down) and winning the moto by over 5 seconds over Monster Energy/Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Ferrandis. Third place in the moto went to GEICO Honda’s Chase Sexton, but he was almost 30 seconds behind Cianciarulo. Then came Cooper, his teammate Colt Nichols, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Michael Mosiman, JGR/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Alex Martin, TLD/Red Bull KTM’s Shane McElrath, Cooper’s other teammate Mitchell Oldenburg, and CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha’s Brandon Hartranft.
Cianciarulo Second at Unadilla National
Ferrandis got out front right away in moto two, though, and fought off his teammate Cooper early on the opening lap before Cooper fell behind both Cianciarulo and Sexton. Cianciarulo gave chase in a valiant effort, but could never quite get close enough to Ferrandis to strike. Ferrandis took the moto win and the overall on the day—the first racer other than Cianciarulo to win two 250cc National overalls in a row this year—but the points spread as the series leaves Unadilla remained exactly the same as it was coming into the race; 28 points separate points leader Cianciarulo from Ferrandis with four motos left to run.
Sexton ended up third overall with a consistent 3-3 day over the 4-4 of Cooper and Oldenburg’s 5-6 score. Then came McElrath with an 8-5 for sixth, Martin in seventh (7-10), GEICO Honda’s RJ Hampshire in eighth (12-7), Cianciarulo’s teammate Garrett Marchbanks in ninth (13-9) and Ferrandis’s rookie teammate Ty Masterpool 10th (11-13).
The series now heads to its penultimate round at Budds Creek Raceway in Budds Creek, Maryland, this coming Saturday, August 17th.
Unadilla National Motocross Results 2019
Unadilla National Motocross Results 2019
Unadilla National Motocross Results 2019
Unadilla National Motocross Results 2019