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/702723
MOTOCROSS LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 7 / JULY 9, 2016 SOUTHWICK, MASSACHUSETTS / THE WICK 338 P102 The Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil/ Red Bull KTM Team suffered another blow when it lost Shane McElrath for what appears to be the rest of the season. McElrath crashed just a few laps from the end of the second 250MX while battling with Alex Mar- tin. He reported via Instagram that he suffered a grade-three AC separation of his shoulder, bruised lungs and seven broken ribs. The injury comes at a particularly bad time since he has been surging as of late. He has finished in the top 10 in the last six of seven motos, which included a sec- ond place at Muddy Creek. McEl- rath was holding down eighth in the 250MX championship. Yoshimura Suzuki's Blake Baggett had a terrible day at Southwick. He suffered a big crash (aggravating his already injured shoulder) in practice that would later haunt him in the mo- tos. He was also collected in a first-turn pileup that put him deep in the field and he would end up 25th. He chose to sit out the second moto. "I had a big crash right off the bat in practice two," Baggett said. "It was one of the biggest ones I've had. I made a little mistake, [over-jumped] the tabletop and had a big get-off at the bottom; my shoulder is sore. I had it checked out, there is nothing wrong with it but couldn't fight through it. It's best not to fight through the second moto." One of the changes Ken Roczen made to his bike in between motos were tires. "I switched to a legit pad- dle [type] tire," Roczen said. "Since there is such a hard base I went to a self-cut tire, so it has a more forward pull coming out of the deeper stuff." This was the first time in three years that The Wick 338 has hosted a round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Three years ago, the track appeared to be doomed when the American Legion 338 wanted to end its ties with the track. Luckily, Mike Grondahl took over the reins to get it going again, with the help of long-time pro mo- tocrosser Keith Johnson. The leg- endary track held its first national in 1976, won by Team Honda's Pierre Karsmakers. 450MX 1. Eli Tomac (Kaw) 1-1 2. Ken Roczen (Suz) 2-2 3. Justin Barcia (Yam) 6-3 4. Marvin Musquin (KTM) 3-7 5. Weston Peick (Yam) 7-4 6. Christophe Pourcel (Hus) 5-5 7. Benny Bloss (KTM) 8-6 8. Broc Tickle (Suz) 10-8 9. Justin Bryaton (KTM) 9-9 10. Andrew Short (KTM) 11-11 250MX 1. Cooper Webb (Yam) 2-1 2. Jeremy Martin (Yam) 1-4 3. Austin Forkner (Kaw) 5-2 4. Alex Martin (Yam) 7-3 5. Aaron Plessinger (Yam) 4-5 6. Arnaud Tonus (Kaw) 3-8 7. Zach Osborne (Hus) 8-7 8. Luke Renzland (Yam) 12-9 9. Joey Savatgy (Kaw) 10-11 10. Martin Davalos (Hus) 16-6 Briefly... Now called The Wick 338 and run in the reverse direction, everyone was glad to have Southwick back on the national MX schedule.