Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Story and photos by Krystyn Slack (@freestylephotocross)
Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, has logged 12 of the 17 rounds of the season for 2017. Round 12 took us to Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, home of the Detroit Lions. Unique to this stadium is the absence of a pit party due to the limited space in the middle of the downtown area. However, even without the “Party in the Pits”, plenty of excited fans filled the outer perimeter of the stadium, hoping to get a glimpse of their favourite riders before the Night Show began. 2017 continues to be one of the most exciting and surprising seasons of Monster Energy Supercross in recent years with plenty of career-firsts, breakout stars, and unexpected title contenders – a season that will surely come down to the last laps of the finals in Las Vegas before crowning our 2017 Monster Energy Supercross champions.
Round 12 of racing was scattered with plenty of both ups and downs for riders in the 250SX class. Coming off a very strong ride in Daytona a couple weeks ago, including landing his career first podium, the #108 of Dylan Ferrandis came out swinging in Detroit. The flying Frenchman qualified with the fastest qualifying time and then went on to take second in his heat race. Following the Heat, the #108 had an incredibly strong showing in the Main Event, leading 9 laps of the 18-lap Main. Ferrandis would finish the evening just off the podium in 4th place. Detroit led us to yet another career-first, something we’ve seen plenty of this 2017 season. This time the career first would go to the #44 of Jordon Smith who claimed his very first career Monster Energy Supercross victory. For teammate Alex Martin, however, the evening certainly didn’t go as well. Martin was involved in a practice crash with Christian Craig. An aggressive move by Craig caused Martin to be thrown from the bike and hit the ground hard. The crash resulted in Martin being ruled out of competition for the evening, and sustained injuries that would keep him out of competition during Round 13 in St. Louis as well. The incident also resulted in Christian Craig being fined by the AMA and penalized with the last gate pick for the Main Event. It wasn’t the best night of racing for current points leader Zach Osborne, who was involved in a first-turn pileup that would leave him in last place off the start and an immediate return to the mechanics’ area for a new front tire. As Osborne unfortunately lost valuable time, both Monster Energy Pro Circuit riders took advantage of the opportunity. Osborne would ultimately claw his way back to 18th to salvage as many points as he could, but not enough points to retain the red number plates and points lead heading into Round 3. Osborne’s misfortune played to the advantage of #17 of Joey Savatgy and #36 of Adam Cianciarulo who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Savatgy’s 2nd place finish and Osborne’s 18th place finish were enough of a gap to put Savatgy in the points lead heading into St. Louis. Osborne now sits in 3rd place in the points standings, only 10 points behind Savatgy.
The 450SX class continues to be an all-out battle for points each week. The evening started off with great momentum for the #20 of Broc Tickle. Tickle, who hails from Michigan, raced in front of his hometown crowd at Ford Field and came away with the fastest qualifier position heading into the Night Show. The local boy would go on to finish 9th in his Heat Race, 2nd in his Semi, and 7th in the 20 minute + 1 lap Main Event. Tickle currently sits in 9th place in the championship standings as we head into Round 13 of racing. But the big question on everyone’s mind, “Can Eli Tomac be stopped?” We heard current points leader Ryan Dungey give a very emotionally charged response in Glendale when asked if he thought the championship was “handed” to him after Ken Roczen’s season-ending crash in Anaheim. Ryan responded that this is a 17 race series and the championship is not handed to anyone. It’s not over until that number 1 plate is awarded at the end of the season. Perhaps this was a bit of foreshadowing for the defending champ as Eli Tomac has been on a near perfect run since collecting his first win of the season in Glendale. His dominating run continued in Detroit when he passed Marvin Musquin for the lead on lap 4. He would take the checkers on lap 24, 8.459 seconds ahead of Musquin, who would finish in 2nd place. Most impressive about Tomac, besides the number of wins he continues to rack up, is the enormous gap between his finish and the second place finisher each week, typically at least 6 seconds ahead of the next rider. What is the secret sauce Tomac has discovered and where has the unrelenting speed and endurance come from? It’s no secret that it took Tomac some time to adjust to the Monster Energy Kawasaki team after the transition, but it’s clear now that he is not only comfortable on the bike but easily the fastest rider in the premier class, by far. With only 5 rounds remaining, Ryan Dungey’s once sizable and comfortable points lead has been chiseled down to a mere 7 points between him and Tomac. Dungey finished 3rd behind his teammate, Marvin Musquin, losing 5 points to Tomac in Detroit. Not quite the results we expect to see from the defending champion and definitely not the results he expects of himself, but will Dungey or anyone else be able to stop the Tomac Train before it departs 2017 as the new Monster Energy Supercross champion?
This weekend we travel to St. Louis, Missouri for Round 13, the last Eastern Regional Championship round before we make the return to the West Coast contenders. Who will come away victorious in the Lites and premier classes? Is this Dungey’s championship to lose? Stay tuned to find out.
