VOLUME 58 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 24, 2021 P71
"I got the holeshots and
stayed out as long as I could,"
Roczen said of his day. "I strug-
gled a little bit with my bike setup
today, it wasn't ideal for the con-
ditions, it was pretty unstable, so
I rode where I was comfortable,
and it was enough for second. It
was really all I could do."
At the end of the second
moto, "I made a run again [on
Ferrandis] with a lap and a half to
go and got super close again,"
said Roczen, "but I got messed
up by a lapper again."
Eli Tomac was third overall
with a 4-3. The Kawasaki rider
was right there in the mix of
things both motos and at times
looked as though fans would
get to see the famous "Tomac
Attack" in action, but he just
couldn't pull off the passes he
needed to get his first win of
this season. Tomac, like all the
top riders of the day at one time
or another, was held by lapped
traffic in both motos, which was
unusually bad at Budds Creek.
Tomac, however, seemed to get
the worst of it.
Roczen's Honda teammate
Chase Sexton was right there,
as well. Sexton had two good
starts and after a strong first-
moto third, had his eyes on the
overall going into moto two.
He passed both Ferrandis and
Cooper Webb to get into sec-
ond place and was challenging
Roczen for the lead when he
succumbed to Ferrandis and
then dropped off the pace, later
saying he was dealing with bike
TOO MUCH
Aaron Plessinger suited up for
Budds Creek despite still feeling
the effects of last week's big crash
at Unadilla, but he was in too much
pain to make it through the day. He
retired to the pits midway through
the first moto after running as high
as seventh before calling it a day.
"We were going pretty good in
qualifying and in that first moto,"
Plessinger said. "I really tried to grit
my way through it today, but I was
just too sore from last week's big
crash. We're going to keep working
on some therapy this week and will
try again."
BIG CRASH
Christian Craig suffered a big crash
in the first 450MX moto and went
back to the pits to regroup. He
came back for moto two and rode
well despite feeling less than 100
percent. "I was pretty shaken up and
unable to finish the moto," he said,
"but I felt good enough to go out for
moto two and was able to get some
points and finish eighth."
RAIN, RAIN WENT
AWAY
Heavy rain a few days leading up to
the race turned the Budds Creek
track into a quagmire of mud.
However, the track crew put in a
lot of overtime and on race day, no
one would have ever known the
track was nearly underwater the day
before. A steep off-camber U-turn
on the track, however, had to be
eliminated, which helped account
for the relatively short lap times and
contributed to the heavy lapped
traffic that all of the top riders talked
about. "The lappers were definitely
a struggle this weekend," Roczen
Briefly...
(Above) Tomac
wasn't pleased
about getting
passed early in
the first moto
after getting a
good start. Joey
Savatgy (17)
had a solid day,
going 6-7 for sixth
overall. (Left)
Chase Sexton
(23) once again
showed winning
speed but lost
the pace in the
second moto and
just missed out
on the podium.
