2021 Monster Energy AMA Supercross
Round 16 Salt Lake City 1 | Rice-Eccles Stadium
Report by Trevor Hedge – Images by Jeff Kardas
450
The 16th and penultimate round of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross Championship was staged inside Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium overnight. Cooper Webb started the event with a 16-point buffer over Ken Roczen. Eli Tomac was a further 24-points behind Roczen and largely out of the championship chase. Thus it was coming down a two-man battle between Webb and Roczen, the German had held the upper hand over the first half of the season before Webb struck back with wins at round 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and last week at round 15 to move into a commanding position as we head towards next weekend’s finale.
Tomac had topped qualifying ahead of Webb while Roczen had set only the seventh quickest time. Webb won his heat race while Tomac won Heat Two with Roczen third.
450 Main
Ken Roczen chose the inside line heading into turn one when the gates dropped and scored the hole-shot while Justin Barcia started the Main on the deck after the GasGas man went down early on. Musquin was second and Savatgy third for the majority of the opening lap before Savatgy went down which let Anderson through to third and championship leader Cooper Webb up to fourth just ahead of Malcolm Stewart, Chase Sexton, Eil Tomac and Dylan Ferrandis.
Roczen looked set for the win after pulling two-seconds out of the field over the first couple of minutes of the Main which grew to as much as four minutes before the ten-minute mark. As the second half of the 20-minute Main started though the gap was back down to under two-seconds as Cooper Webb took third place from Jason Anderson and was six-seconds behind Roczen.
Musquin continues to close on Roczen and with eight-minutes remaining the German succumbed to the pressure and folded the front. Roczen got back on his bike quickly but not before he had watched Cooper Webb, Malcolm Stewart and Chase Sexton fly by him. Another hugely costly mistake by the 26-year-old and one that sees his championship chances go out the window…
Marvin Musquin then went on to pull away to a three-second lead over Webb but Webb put his head down and with four-minutes remaining he was all over the back of his team-mate.
It looked almost certain that Webb would blow past Musquin to victory but the Frenchman knuckled down and managed to keep Webb at bay to take his first victory of the season.
That was also only the fourth podium on Musquin’s score-card this year in what has been a season where the Frenchman has really failed to fire quite as hard as most had expected. It was also more than two year’s since his last victory as the 31-year-old battled ongoing knee problems.
He might have come second tonight but 25-year-old Cooper Webb looks almost certain to capture his second 450 Supercross crown as supercross returns to Rice-Eccles Stadium again next weekend, May 1, for the grand finale. The KTM rider has a 22-point buffer over Ken Roczen and with more wins under his belt, Webb only needs to score four-points from a 19th place finish in order to lift the crown next weekend, even if Roczen takes the win.
It was somewhat of a breakthrough round for Malcolm Stewart as he scored his first 450 podium ahead of Dylan Ferrandis and Chase Sexton while Ken Roczen was left ruing what might have been after finishing sixth.
450 Video Highlights
450 Quotes
Marvin Musquin – P1
“I can’t believe it right now – I’m standing on the top of the podium. I have had some struggles this season but my goal is to come back and keep getting better. There are so many good riders, so the start is super important and I was just trying to be consistent, those whoops were really tough. I’m so proud, I gave it my all tonight.”
Cooper Webb – P2
“I didn’t get a great start tonight, which hindered me a little bit. Those whoops were super tricky, I finally found a good line and made a charge there at the end. I thought I was in a good position and Marvin picked it up a lot there at the end. Getting points is key but you want to win when you’re that close. We’ll come around next Saturday and see what we can do!”
Malcolm Stewart – P3
“It was a great day! I felt good and rode well all day and just let the race come to me. I didn’t have the best start in the Main Event, but we made it work the first couple of laps. Then Coop (Cooper Webb), (Jason) Anderson, and I had a pretty gnarly battle. I was really strong in the whoops tonight, and even the corner after the mechanics’ area, and kept gaining ground. I’m just so stoked to finally get on the box. It’s been hanging over my head for a long time, and we finally got it. We finally did it! It’s a dream come true. It’s one of those moments I’ll never forget. Everybody says that after your first one, it comes easy, so this is one of many. I’m looking to have some more fun next weekend and go out here for a repeat.”
Dylan Ferrandis – P4
“It was a tough day. We made some changes this week to improve the bike, and it didn’t really work in the first practice, so we had to keep working on more changes, which made it hard to get comfortable. In the heat, we went the wrong way, but we made another big change and the bike was really awesome in the main. I had a good start, then Anderson pushed me off the track, and I lost a couple of positions. It took me a few laps to learn the bike and to feel comfortable on it because it was a new setting that I had never tried before. Then when I felt comfortable, I pushed and gave everything that I had. I made some good passes on some strong riders and I came back to fourth. It’s a good result overall, and we look to come back next weekend and do better at the finale.”
Chase Sexton – P5
“Round one here in Salt Lake City started off rough. I had a big crash in qualifying, which could’ve ended my night; it was pretty gnarly. After the crash I was really sore and my heel, left shoulder and right hip were pretty banged up. We did some work and we got myself to where I was able to race. I had a pretty good heat race, coming from from a ways back. I didn’t get a good start in the main event, but like the heat race, I just tried to fight my way up. I feel like I was riding pretty good, but kind of lost it with about five minutes to go and got passed by [Dylan] Ferrandis. It was a good top-five after what could’ve been no race at all. It’s something to build off of and we have another race to go, so we’ll just try and get better.”
Ken Roczen – P6
“What a bummer, once again. I got the holeshot in the main and gapped the field, but just found myself on the ground after tucking the front before the whoops. I dropped back to sixth, and that’s where we finished as well. There’s not much that I can say about it, to be honest; it’s unfortunate. I’m finding myself on the ground lately in general, which normally is not my style. I’m just trying to put my team and myself on the top step and it just hasn’t been working out, so I’m looking forward to next weekend.”
Aaron Plessinger – P8
“The day started out a little slow, I wasn’t really gelling with the bike in practice. That was kind of how it went all day long; I was just struggling with the bike setup and trying to get going. I had a good heat race going but about ripped my shroud off and then couldn’t really turn right that well and finished fourth. In the main, I didn’t get a good start and was battling mid-pack. I made my way up to the back of Dylan, but I just couldn’t get around him. Then I made a few bonehead mistakes and finished eighth. The track was tough tonight. There was a bunch of crashes. Eli (Tomac) passed me and then jumped right into some hay bales right. A bunch of people went down tonight, so I’m glad to stay up, stay healthy and be back for next Saturday. We’re going to go back to California this week and try to get the bike a little bit better and finish out the season strong.”
Eli Tomac – P10
“Man, I was feeling so good on the bike all day long and I’ve been looking forward to coming back to Salt Lake City. I always enjoy riding here and felt confident heading into the main, especially after qualifying fastest and winning my heat race. Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes and ran out of time. I’m looking forward to coming back next weekend to finish out the season strong.”
Justin Barcia – P14
“I felt really good in practice and in the heat but unfortunately, I ended up going down and tearing my radiator. Thankfully the team got it repaired quickly and got me ready for the LCQ. The Main Event was difficult to say the least. I got pushed out off the start, somehow cross-jumped into the bails and ended up going down and the bike hit me in the back. I charged up to 11th and was still moving forward and then I ended up endo’ing and bending my bike up pretty good. It’s definitely super disappointing on my end but I’m going to regroup and do the best I can do next week to finish the season out strong.”
450 Results
Source: MCNews.com.au