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/689331
MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 / JUNE 4, 2016 LAKEWOOD, COLORADO / THUNDER VALLEY RACEWAY P56 250MX Motocross is a funny sport. Then again, maybe all sports are like this, but... After the Hangtown MX National to start the 2016 Lu- cas Oil AMA 250cc Motocross Championship, Monster Energy Kawasaki's Joey Savatgy was all but crowned the new king of the class. He went 1-1 at Hangtown and made it look fairly easy. Most were at least hedging their bets a little bit that Yamalube/ Star Racing Yamaha's defending champ Jeremy Martin would get things sorted out in short order and that Savatgy wasn't going to run away with the title, but Sa- vatgy definitely seemed like the favorite in most pundits' eyes. Then came Glen Helen, where Savatgy struggled. Actu- ally, "struggled" probably doesn't quite cover it. He looked down- right bad. Sure, he managed to eke out a 9-7 day at Glen Helen, but considering the fact that Pro Circuit not only tests at Glen Hel- en more than any other 250cc race team, but even owns their own supercross track at the fa- cility, the last thing anyone would expect would be for Savatgy to struggle at Glen Helen. His poor performance made the pundits change their mind about him overnight. Obviously, Hangtown was just a fluke. He just had a really exceptional day that day, but it will be mostly Jeremy Martin and his teammates Alex Martin and Cooper Webb doing the winning from here on out. Right? "Last weekend I was a little under the weather," Savatgy said in Colorado. "Wasn't feeling good. Head wasn't there." In Colorado's first moto, Savatgy started outside the top five but benefitted from a battle between teammates Webb and Jeremy Martin to catch the pair and steal the lead away from Martin at the halfway point. A few laps later, though, Savatgy went down by himself out front and handed the lead, and moto win, to defending champion Jeremy Martin. Savatgy held on for second, just in front of Webb, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Zach Osborne, and GEICO Honda's Jordon Smith. "You know, I'm starting to feel better," Jeremy Martin said. "We're up here at elevation. I can still feel the effects of the beginning of the series when I got that cold, but we got off to a good start. [I] was riding good, had a great battle with Cooper. I was just getting roosted ev- erywhere. I could hear the fans cheering and I was like, 'Man, he's right on me. He's right on me.' And then I heard it was Sa- vatgy. I took a look back and saw him. He was going fast. He got by me and he was gapping me. I was like, 'I'm just going try to learn from him and just try to see if I could catch back up to him.' He made a mistake and went down and I was able to capitalize on it and get the win." Way behind the battle out front, Jeremy's teammate, broth- er and class points leader, Alex Martin went down early in the opening moto when another of his teammates—Aaron Plessing- er—went down in front of him and Plessinger's bike cleaned him off of his YZ250F. With four laps to go in the moto, Alex Martin still found himself running 16th, but he was putting in the fastest laps of anyone on the track, and by Joey Savatgy (37) gets a front wheel on the pack at the start of the 250MX class.