feeling good. Hopefully I can get a
better start and do my thing."
Behind those two came Tonus,
Plessinger, Forkner, Oldenberg and
Alex Martin. Savatgy finished 10th,
severely damaging his championship
hopes.
In moto two, Webb did exactly
what he said he wanted to do; he got
a better start. He got the holeshot,
actually. And, really, that was all she
wrote. Webb took off while the rest of
the field fought over his table scraps.
Behind him, Forkner worked his
way into second place early on, just
in front of McElrath, Jeremy Martin
and Savatgy. However, even though
he was in a much better position in
moto two, Savatgy tossed it away
with a couple of crashes late in the
race that saw him drop from fourth to
an eventual 11th-place finish.
On the last lap, McElrath was
making a push to get by Alex Martin
for third place when he overcooked
it going into a corner and went down
hard. He scored a DNF.
Webb took the moto win go-
ing away, 20 seconds in front
of Forkner, Alex Martin, Jeremy
Martin, Plessinger, the Rockstar
Energy Husqvarna duo of Martin
Davalos and Zach Osborne, Tonus,
CycleTrader.com Yamaha's Luke
Renzland, and then Star Racing's
Mitchell Harrison. Not only was half
of the top 10 made up of Yamalube/
Star Racing Yamaha racers, but they
made up four of the top-five spots as
well.
For Webb, it was his third AMA
National victory in a row. "Well I actu-
ally got a holeshot that time, so it was
nice," Webb said. "I felt good all day.
I knew if I had a good start I could
really let it rip at this place. I like this
track. Southwick is always one of
the gnarliest—just the sand. We need
more sand tracks is what I've always
said. I love it here. The fans are awe-
some. I just want to give it up to the
whole team. They've been working
their butts off, I've been working mine
off and everything has been clicking,
so I'm stoked."
Teammate Jeremy Martin was sec-
ond overall at Southwick with a 1-4
score just in front of Forkner's 5-2 to
round out the podium.
"I'm super-stoked," said the rookie
Forkner on the first overall podium
finish of his career. "The first moto
was good. I got pretty good starts all
day and just really charged hard at
the beginning. I was straight send-
ing it the second moto, just trying to
keep up with Cooper and actually
almost made a pass after the me-
chanic's area. But man, I was send-
ing it so hard just trying to keep up. I
kind of got winded the second moto,
so I just tried to settle into a good
pace. This is probably the most
brutal track of the year. It was pretty
much like survival mode from like the
20-minute mark on—just finish and
not go down. I know a lot of guys did
so I was just trying to ride smooth
and ride smart and got an overall
podium. I'm super happy."
Savatgy ended the day a dejected
ninth overall.
With five rounds remaining, Webb
is now solidly in control of the 2016
250cc National MX Championship,
with 37 points in hand over Savatgy,
who only has one point on defending
champion Jeremy Martin in third. CN
VOL. 53 ISSUE 27 JULY 12, 2016 P97
Austin Forkner
just keeps getting
better every week.
He chased winner
Webb and finished
on the podium for
the first time.
