So far the first four rounds have proved to be exciting and unpredictable, but they have also stirred some serious rivalry with athletes expressing themselves on and off the track. Coming into Muddy Creek all eyes and ears seemed to be surrounding Blake Baggett and Eli Tomac as the two have exchanged the points lead (along with Marvin Musquin) and created off-track chatter.
Moto 1
As the gates dropped, local rider and last year’s 250 winner, Cooper Webb found himself pinched off at the first turn by Justin Barcia who earned the holeshot. Just behind Barcia coming out of the first turn was Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson.
Throughout the entire first lap Bam Bam and Anderson were doing battle but did not end up changing positions. Nearly five minutes into the moto Anderson squared up a turn to make an inside move and overtake Barcia for the remainder of the moto.
Eli Tomac and Weston Pick found themselves battling in the fifth and sixth positions early on, but Tomac would overtake Peick before the two of them would continue to press forward.
Tomac and Peick made their way into the 4th and 5th positions behind Justin Bogle after a mistake sent Tickle back into the pack. Tomac showed his hunger and continued making quick work of Bogle and then Barcia to take 2nd place before the halfway mark on the moto. Peick would eventually find his way around Bogle, as well for 4th.
By the end of the moto, Anderson had stretched out a 12 second lead over second place finisher, Tomac. Blake Baggett rounded out the top-three.
In Moto 2 the action out of the gate was intense as multiple riders fought for the holeshot. What first looked to belong to Anderson, quickly shifted to be Baggett’s then Tomac’s, but it was actually Bogle who beat the pack out of the gate to snag the holeshot.
Baggett, Webb and Tickle all tied up on first lap and effectively rode out the first lap in the very back of the pack.
Bogle had his early lead but made a mistake on his second lap to give Tomac the lead. But Bogle managed to salvage his crash to hold onto the 5th position behind Peick in 4th, Jason Anderson in 3rd and Canard in 2nd. Then, Anderson made a mistake in the same place as Bogle the lap prior which allowed Bogle to pass him after making a pass on Peick.
Within the first eight minutes, Baggett had worked his way up from last to 16th and into the points as an effort to salvage what he could as the current series points leader.
Still inside the opening 10 minutes of the second moto, Anderson made a pass on Canard to take over 2nd in his effort to win an overall. Canard was riding well considering it was his first outdoors race of the season, but over the course of the next two laps he dropped to 6th as Dean Wilson worked his way into the top five.
At the halfway mark in the second moto Tomac had stretched his lead to nearly 12 seconds ahead of the pack. But 10 spots back, Baggett was still making up incredible ground as he passed Barcia to crack into the top 10 with 15 minutes left to advance further.
Musquin was just ahead of Baggett in 9th, but looked to be dealing with a bike malfunction that allowed Baggett by. Shortly after another mistake was made ahead as Baggett quickly found his away around Wilson, Frederik Noren and Canard to ride all the way to 6th place behind Martin Davalos rounding out the top five. Later it was learned that Musquin’s front brake took a shot from a rock the rendered it useless and forced him off the track and out of the points.
Baggett was forced to work on Davalos for a series of laps. After a set of lappers allowed Davalos room to stretch out his lead over Baggett, another lapper found his way directly in front of Davalos that allowed Baggett to work his way into 5th. Then with only two minutes left in the second moto he worked his away around Bogle and Peick in about 30 seconds to take on 3rd place on the moto and the day overall despite his first turn crash. Tomac, however would earn the Moto 2 and overall wins.
450 Overall Results
1. Eli Tomac (2-1)
2. Jason Anderson (1-2)
3. Blake Baggett (3-3)
4. Weston Peick (4-4)
5. Dean Wilson (8-7)
6. Justin Barcia (5-10)
7. Justin Bogle (12-5)
8. Martin Davalos (11-6)
9. Cooper Webb (9-9)
10. Broc Tickle (6-12)
11. Frederick Noren (13-8)
12. Trey Canard (10-11)
13. Dakota Alix (14-14)
14. Marvin Musquin (7-34)
15. Josh Moisman (16-15)
16. Henry Miller (35-13)
17. Tochiki Tomita (18-16)
18. Heath Harrison (17-17)
19. John Short (15-38)
20. Dakota Tedder (36-18)
