Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1078866
CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 56 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 5, 2019 P57 Tomac said. "I was just hop- ing that thing didn't get sucked into the sprocket, because it would've been over at that point. I got that off, then going into that turn before the triple there, I'm not sure who it was, but I got blasted in the face, he fell down, and then I couldn't see and I had to stop again to pull my roll-off to keep going. Luckily, I had that little gap there to do that." Tomac's final lap went in the books at 1:35.301; compare that to his earlier qualifying-best time of 58.663 seconds. Justin Bogle (Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/WPS KTM) ran sec- ond for much of the race after Roczen crashed out of the lead and remounted fourth. Bogle rode well but stalled his bike with four laps to go, giving Roczen second place. Then, Musquin found his way by Bogle a couple laps later. Bogle would stop the bleeding there and finish out the race in fourth for his best finish of the year. In final two laps, Musquin found a flow and took four sec- onds out of the gap between he and Roczen. On the final lap, Musquin put in his fastest lap of the race (the second-fastest lap of the entire race) which carried the Frenchman past Roczen, who bobbled, with one turn left and got to within four seconds of Tomac at the finish line. Roczen hung on for third, ahead of Bogle and Chad Reed (JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Racing), who always seems to PC 1-2 SWEEP The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team had more reason to celebrate than just their racer Adam Cianciarulo winning in San Diego and taking over the series points lead. SX rookie Garrett Marchbanks actually finished second on the night, giving the PC guys a 1-2 sweep. March- banks specifically grew up in Utah practicing riding in the mud relatively regularly. "I had a little turn-track at my house I used to go ride at all the time probably from the age of 9 to, I'd say, 13," Marchbanks said. "Me and my dad used to just water it with the sprinklers and just flood it to make it all muddy, and that's basically what made me a pretty good mud rider. It was pretty fun to ride out here in the mud today. It didn't affect me too bad, so..." TREY COOL Trey Canard might be done racing, but his role at Honda has been met with some really great appreciation by the team's racers, Ken Roczen and Cole Seely. Apparently, during the week before San Diego, Canard found a suspension setting that sounds very promising. "Actually, the good thing is we have Trey," Roczen said. "Trey Canard. He's maybe better than ever. He's really up to par when it comes to riding and speed, so he's been doing a lot of testing for us, so that's really been helping out a lot. They did some testing this week and seemed to have found something which I actually haven't even put on the bike yet just because by Thursday we didn't even know if we'd be able to ride in the rain, and I rode with Adam [Cianciarulo] on Tuesday, so I wasn't really ready to just throw something on there on Thurs- day, so close to the race. But we were just messing around with starts a little bit. I switched something up on my clutch a little bit, and we were mess- ing around with a couple different start modes, and that seemed to have really helped out. We got a super-good start in the heat race, and then in the main I haven't gotten a start like that in a long time." MUSQUIN'S KNEE Marvin Musquin suffered a knee injury in the off-season, but he says it's not bothering him now. "I'm actu- ally doing great, and I'm really happy because I don't have any more pain in the knee, which feels awesome," Musquin said. "I can do all the train- ing I want during the week, and to just ride pain-free is a big plus. It was tough at the beginning for the first three rounds; or I would say the first two, and Anaheim 2 was a lot better. Now that's behind me and I'm totally focused on the training and the rac- ing, so obviously coming into San Diego, I was ready." TOMAC'S BACK Eli Tomac confirmed at San Diego that he did, indeed, suffer a back injury in the off-season. Apparently, he broke off the transverse process from three vertebrae in a big crash in early December. He said that between the injury and his becoming more mature, he believes both play a role in his performance so far in 2019. "It's almost both," Tomac said. "I feel like, as I've gotten older, I've been able to control the mind a little bit, so I feel like I think a little bit differently now that I'm kind of a seasoned 450 guy, but that being said, I was off to a slower start also because I jacked Briefly... Cont on pg 63