250SX
Defending champ Yamalube/
Star Racing Yamaha's Cooper
Webb has been completely
dominant in the 2016 250cc
West, winning all three main
events leading into Oakland
without starting particularly well
in any of them. In Oakland,
he started out second behind
GEICO Honda's Christian Craig,
with whom Webb had a really
tough time a week earlier in Ana-
heim. Craig made life easier on
Webb by washing out the front
end on lap four and handing the
lead over to Webb.
At that point, it seemed as if
the race was over. Webb, the
winner of the first three rounds,
was out front, and Monster
Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki's
Joey Savatgy was barely hanging
on to Webb's draft a couple of
seconds behind.
Savatgy was staying close to
Webb despite battling a bent
shifter (bent outward when he
clipped a Tuff Block early in
the race), and he found himself
more or less stuck in second
gear (and occasionally acciden-
tally knocking the bike down into
first). And with three laps to go,
Savatgy's tenacity paid off when
Webb's motorcycle quit run-
ning, due to an apparent vapor
lock issue, which prevented fuel
from flowing from the tank to the
motor. (Webb said he eventually
opened the fuel cap, which al-
lowed fuel to flow again.)
From there, Savatgy held on
to take his first-ever victory, and
even took over the points lead
since it took Webb two laps to
get his bike running again. Webb
was credited with 21st place and
now trails Savatgy by two points
as the series heads to Phoenix.
SUPERCROSS
MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD
ROUND 4 / JANUARY 30, 2016
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA / O.CO COLISEUM
P44
Joey Savatgy (37)
used a combination
of tenacity and luck to
take down his first-ever
supercross victory.
