WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
VOL. 54 ISSUE 18 MAY 9, 2017 P73
"I mean, it's already a high-
pressure situation, and then
you come down to one big
bowl-turn and a set of whoops
to go, and that's what stands
between you and being a cham-
pion," Osborne said. "I was just
overwhelmed with emotion and
nerves and pressure and every-
thing. And I just broke down.
Right there on the starting line."
And in the race, which was
almost inconsequential, 250SX
West champ Justin Hill finished
second behind his teammate
Cianciarulo, and Harrison's
teammate Aaron Plessinger
finished third, just in front of his
other teammate Dylan Ferrandis,
Smith's teammate Mitchell Old-
enburg, Geico Honda's Jimmy
Decotis, and then 250SX East
champ Zach Osborne. Ciancia-
rulo ended up just two points shy
of Osborne in the championship
chase, as it turned out.
"It actually kind of killed my
vibe when I was doing my live
TV interview, because I saw it
was getting closer, but still
not close enough to strike.
Cianciarulo took the win, and
the crowd didn't even notice,
because Osborne closed up on
Savatgy through the first set of
whoops, and then through the
second set, Osborne "sent it,"
Savatgy left the door open in the
left-hander—the second-to-last
turn of the race—and Osborne
punted him. For the champion-
ship.
"I saw him the whole time,"
Osborne said of Savatgy. "The
whole moto, I could see him.
Like, I'd turn left to come back
into the stadium, and he'd be
in those doubles in the back
and it seemed insurmountable.
I looked over once and there
was like three minutes left to go
and he was still the whole alley
in front of me—it seemed insur-
mountable at that point. I was
keeping tabs, and even going
into the first set of whoops, we
still weren't close enough, and I
guess he didn't get a good run
through them on the last set.
And I sent it. Pretty hard. Prob-
ably a little too hard into the
whoops, and it got me close
enough and I was able to make
a pass."
Savatgy hit the deck and
was dejected at the finish, but
Osborne completed perhaps
the greatest single-race perfor-
mance in the history of the sport
to take home the 2017 250SX
East championship.
250SX EAST/WEST HIGHLIGHTS
