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/1157198
MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND 11 / AUGUST 17, 2019 BUDDS CREEK RACEWAY / BUDDS CREEK, MARYL AND P66 250MX With how things have been going so far this year for TLD/Red Bull KTM's Shane McElrath, nobody would've guessed him to win the Budds Creek National, much less dominate both motos the way he did, but at Budds Creek, nobody could touch him. In the first moto, Monster Energy/ Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha's Ty Masterpool took the holeshot, but points leader Adam Cianciarulo was into second place right away. As he looked for a way around Masterpool, he went over a berm and nearly went down, which lost him three spots. He rejoined in fifth place, but McElrath inherited second, then went by Masterpool for the lead and took off, winning by almost nine seconds over Cianciarulo, who enough for him to clinch the title even if he didn't show up. "I didn't know until the last lap [that he clinched the title]," Tomac said. "I thought I still needed one more spot on everyone, so... I'm just in complete shock right now. All we did today was just put our head down, put last weekend in the past, and it was just so cool. What a way to finish off; 1-1." Anderson was second overall on the day, with Musquin third (3- 3), Roczen fourth (2-7), Osborne fifth (5-4), Barcia sixth (6-5), Wilson seventh (8-6), Plessinger eighth (9-9), Bloss ninth (7-11) and Cunningham—a pure privateer, racing with his dad as his me- chanic, like the old days—grab- bing 10th with an 11-8 day. IIIMY OWN RACE: 32 JUSTIN COOPER 3RD 250MX (6-2) Jus n Cooper grabbed another podium at Budds Creek. "Just a li le bit be er of a start," Cooper said of his improved result in moto two. "I really got bo led up in the first turn in the first moto, so I changed up my gate selec on going into moto two and kind of got lucky be- cause a lot of people went down and I was able to sneak up the inside. I got through it clean and the track's rough, and it's hot out here, so I just put my head down and tried to put a dent in Shane [McElrath]'s lead up front, but I couldn't do it." 26 ALEX MARTIN 9TH 250MX (18-3) JGR/Yoshimura Suzuki Factory Rac- ing's Alex Mar n put his RM-Z250 on the box in moto two but didn't come close in the first moto. "That first moto couldn't have gone worse," Mar n said. "A bad start, got together in the first turn with Dylan [Ferrandis] actually, and then went down again with another rider on lap eight. I was definitely very mad si ng on the start line for moto two, and I didn't have a great gate pick, but I was like, 'Well, whatever!' I came out really great, actually, and was able to almost ba le for the lead there for a li le bit. Shane [McElrath] was ahead of me, and I had to be perfect everywhere. He was rid- ing really well. So it was pre y tough to Marvin Musquin was the closest rider to Tomac in the 450MX Championship; now he's defending second place from Ken Roczen.