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 P98 My Own Race: 3 ELI TOMAC 1 ST 450MX (1-1) For Eli Tomac and the Monster Energy Kawasaki Team, it was a great relief to get the win, the first for both in Pro Motocross and the second major victory all year (they also one the Daytona Supercross in March). "It feels great to win again," said Eli Tomac. "We've been working so hard as a team to improve every weekend and to see it pay off feels good. The track conditions were really rough today, so it really came down to maintaining momentum and riding as smooth as possible through the bumps. Overall I am pumped to be back on top. This is only the beginning." 94 KEN ROCZEN 2 ND 450MX (2-2) "I struggled today pretty bad with [my settings]," Ken Roczen said of his day. "It works pretty good on other tracks, but it's so sandy here, and the base is so hard and I just struggled in the first moto. We went back and made some changes and it was better but not ideal. I felt uncomfortable all day out there. I was trying to minimize the mistakes and do the best I can. We had a good battle going on, we were kind of yo-yo-ing it there for a while; he [Tomac] had certain spots that he was faster and I was closing in on other spots. We weren't ever really close enough to where I could've maybe have gone up the inside. It was tough out there; you can't really compare this track to European tracks, here there are very tight turns and a hard base, and I though it was pretty high speed." 25 MARVIN MUSQUIN 4 TH 450MX (3-7) Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin just missed out getting on the 450MX podium for the first time this season. "The first moto I felt happy with my ride, I got a good start and felt like I had a really good flow," Musquin said. "The second moto was a little more tough, I got caught up behind Justin Barcia and then I crashed and after that it was really hard to get back into a flow." He still managed to claw and scratch his way up to seventh after falling back outside the top 10 in that second-moto crash. 377 CHRISTOPHE POURCEL 6 TH 450MX (5-5) Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Christophe Pourcel had a strong day in the Southwick sand. The Frenchman took advantage of two good starts, includ- ing a near holeshot in the second moto. He took the lead from Justin Bogle (clipping his front wheel in the process, causing Bogle to go down) but was quickly swallowed up by Roczen and Tomac. He'd go on to finish both motos in fifth. "Today was decent," said Pourcel. "I finally got two top-five finishes—which has been the goal for a long time. I got great starts and felt really good on the bike. I'm just going to keep pushing and hopefully I'll get on the box soon." 16 ZACH OSBORNE 7 TH 250MX (8-7) Zach Osborne, on the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna, struggled a little bit with his starts, and a small washout in the second moto didn't help his day any. "Today was kind of a disappointment," said Osborne. "I had a little issue in the first practice and messed up my gate pick for the first moto. I still got a decent start, but I didn't ride that great. I got off to a better start in the second moto but had a run-in with another rider about halfway through the moto. That dropped me down pretty far, but I still came back to seventh. It was a tough day."