Hear from the stars following round nine of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
Eli Tomac: (1st in 450MX) “It was a good day, and it was no fluke. No sand this time. (laughs) I guess you could call it a real track. The first moto was a little bit funky. I was just a little bit off. I was tight in the first half of the race. I came around in the second half and got a second. It wasn’t as good of a start either in that first moto. I started the second moto with a better start. I got to the front pretty quick, and then when I made the pass on Kenny, he actually gave it to me. He pretty much did after the finish line there. I went to the inside—he was on the outside—and he just let off. At that point, I took it and just laid it down after that.”
Ken Roczen: (2nd in 450MX) “I’m pretty happy. Washougal hasn’t been on of my favorite tracks. I had a great first moto but that was the driest I’ve ever seen the track. Obviously, the sun and the shadows played a role later in the day so that was a little sketchy, too. Eli was just riding a great pace in the second moto so I was just kind of stuck riding in second. I didn’t lose any points to him so I’m glad to have another race done. I grabbed two good starts so overall I’m happy with the day. We’re going into a couple week break so I think that will be handy for everyone. It’s all good. [About the 3-week break] My mom and my sister and little niece, they’re coming in,” Roczen said. “We’re going to hang out a little bit and do some hiking and mountain biking. All that kind of fun stuff. We’ll do that, go back to Florida and get to work. It’ll be good to take a little bit of a breather and be home on the weekend. If you count Supercross, we’ve raced 26 times in 29 weeks so we’re all ready for a little break. The biggest thing is not having to travel.”
Marvin Musquin: (3rd in 450MX) “I honestly expected better from myself in the second moto after a decent first moto and good lap times. The track was really tough – it was dry and kind of sketchy so I was trying to be safe and finish the moto but I should have had better lines. No excuses, though, 3rd overall is good but I know I can do better.”
Tyler Bowers: (11th in 450MX) “Today went really well. The Kawasaki boys and I got some great work done during the week and came into this weekend feeling good. From the first practice to the last lap of the second moto I felt way better on the bike and I believed it showed as I went 12-12 for 11th overall. I’m really looking forward to breaking into the top-10.”
Christophe Pourcel: (13th in 450MX) “Washougal was tough. Everything was going great. I was in the top-five in practice. I was on the box in the first moto, Marvin and Tomac were behind me and I think we had a good groove going. Everyone was going fast and everything was flowing pretty well. I don’t know, it happened so quickly. I think I caught my foot peg or my leg on the edge of that jump and just caused a bad crash. It surprised me. I got scared for a moment because I couldn’t really move. I was pretty beat up for the second moto and wasn’t really sure if I was going to be able to race. Navarro fixed my neck up as much as he could. I got a bad start from all the way outside in the second moto and had to fight my way through to sixth so it’s not too bad. I’m very disappointed about my crash for sure. I was super focused and I just made that small mistake. It would have been nice to not crash.”
Alex Martin: (1st in 250MX) “Coming into Washougal, typically this track doesn’t really suit me too well. The hard slick conditions can sometimes be tough to ride for me. I think all the time we spend in California during the winter helps us out, though. Just getting used to the West Coast type of dirt. Not the best qualifying for me. I think I was 10th and then 6th, but I really don’t put too much emphasis on qualifying because there’s a lot of good gates here. I continued my holeshot streak here—three in a row now. I’m pretty excited about that—getting the holeshot in the first moto. To lead every lap pretty cool. I had some serious pressure from Joey [Savatgy] there for a little bit. It felt good to hold on to it. I’ve been so close so many times this year. It’s been frustrating. So to cross the finish line for the first time this year in first, I was beyond ecstatic. Even when I won the overall at Glen Helen, I still went to 2-2. To get that moto win, that was the best feeling I’ve had so far this year. I didn’t get the best start in the second moto, but there was a lot of chaos in the first lap and I was able to kind of weed my way through the carnage. I came out around fourth and then had a good battle with Jessy [Nelson]. I was able to get in there at the end, and Martin Davalos when a little crazy there.H e went over the fence and got hurt. I didn’t know it at the time, but hopefully he’s okay. It felt good to get the overall, for sure. The crowd was nuts.”
Austin Forkner: (2nd in 250MX) “Today was awesome. I spun off the start in Moto 1 which hurt us going into the first turn, but I did what I could and climbed my way back up inside the top-10. I knew my speed was there in Moto 1, but I just needed a start. So I adjusted a few things for the second moto and got off to a much better start. When my teammate left the door open for me to pass him and the leader, I took it and the next thing I knew I couldn’t hear anyone behind me, so I began to sprint as hard as I could to get away. I basically just rode as smooth and consistent as I could to maintain my lead and sure enough it worked and came home with the win. I was so happy that I was screaming in my helmet the entire last lap.”
Cooper Webb: (3rd in 250MX) “For what happened, it was good. Obviously we want to win but we weren’t close to that today so that was a bit of a bummer. In the first moto, I got a bad start. I just didn’t put myself in a good situation. I came back up to third which I was stoked on. Joey [Savatgy] and Alex [Martin] were riding really good that first moto, so I was happy with that. In the second moto, I got the holeshot, and then we all got tangled up and we all three went down. It was just a mad dash to get up and go for it and get the positions you can get, so I just put my head down. The track was really sketchy, so it was tough to really push. With the shadows and everything like that, it was hard to push through it, so I was pretty stoked on being able to come back up.”
Joey Savatgy: (4th in 250MX) “Today started off really well. After practice I felt the most confident on the bike I’ve felt all season. The first moto was good, even though I should have made the pass for the lead a few times but didn’t want to take the risk in falling down. I got off to another great start in the second moto until I tangled with another rider. Unfortunately, the incident bent a lot of parts on the bike in which hurt my overall performance. I’m stoked to leave in one piece and looking forward in having a nice long break.”
Justin Hill: (5th in 250MX) “It’s not too bad. I would have like to be on the podium, but you know how it is. In the second moto, I lined up feeling real good and real fresh. But the day got to me—my first one back. I had just about the right amount of time to come back with my fitness and everything. I felt like I was in a pretty good place, but I had a little bit of kind of like a stale point in the middle the race. But I got it back and I finished it strong. It was all just kind of a learning curve this weekend. It was good to break into it at home. That was nice.”
Mitchell Oldenburg: (10th in 250MX) “I’m really looking forward to a few weekends off. It’s been fun representing the team with many of my teammates out but with outdoors being so intense, I’m ready to enjoy a some down time. I’ll be back to end the season on a high note.”
Zach Osborne: (13th in 250MX) “I had two good starts. But it was still a big disappointment. I got fifth in the first moto and was right there for a podium position in the second moto but wasn’t able to finish the race. It’s unfortunate that I’ve had two DNFs in the past two weeks. It’s tough. Hopefully I can regroup during this break and I’ll try to come back swinging for the next round.”
Martin Davalos: (16th in 250MX) “Everything started out great. I really like Washougal and wanted to go into the break on a good note. I changed my settings a little bit for the first moto and couldn’t find a really good flow. I went back to what I knew for the second moto, got a good start, and just pushed hard. I really wanted to win and was pushing as hard as I could to try and overtake the lead, but I got caught off guard. I made a mistake, went over the bars and hurt myself a little bit. I’m really disappointed about that, but I’m super pumped with my riding. It’s been awhile since I’ve been up front outdoors. I’ll definitely take the positives from this weekend and hopefully I’ll be able to heal up for Unadilla.”
Tristan Charboneau: (18th in 250MX) “Got to the track and had the confidence, but practice I was a bit off, just struggling with suspension and tire setups. Came off the gate for my first moto, got a good jump but got pinched in the first corner. I tucked in behind Austin Forkner for a few laps and we were picking off people then I managed to go down, twice. In the same corner! Made my way back to nineteenth. Second moto, had an awesome start! Came into the S turns after the downhill and Cooper Webb decided he wanted to make a road block, so everybody was piled up going everywhere. I actually made my way through about seventh but then I fell in the next corner and went back to thirtieth. Managed to come back to sixteenth. I learned this much: I need to work on not crashing!”
Jimmy Decotis: (23rd in 250MX) “Washougal was better, good progress with the bike. Mike [LaRocco, Team Manager] helped me make changes throughout the day and by the second moto I was really happy with my setup. Just two bad starts put me way back in the beginning of each moto. Charged hard and made progress but this class is stacked and starting thirtieth makes it hard to make up ground. I’m happy to be racing no matter the results, tough day but we’ll keep digging for more progress.”
