Round two of the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross season was just about as action-packed as they come. The short lap-times meant that the track got incredibly rough by the end of the night, and the circuit took many a victim .
The action began in chaotic fashion for the 450 class as Heat 1 was quickly red-flagged after a first corner pile up, which involved Justin Bogle and Martin Davalos among others. Marvin Musquin and Chase Sexton were the fast starters when the race finally got going again.
Dylan Ferrandis and Justin Brayton ā who sat third and fourth early on ā were very lucky to avoid Vince Frieseās flying motorcycle as the Smart Top Bullfrog Spas Honda rider went for wild ride in one of the weirdest crashes youāll ever see. Like we said it was an action-packed start to the night.
Chase Sexton went on to win the first heat race of his 450 career, not a bad way to bounce back after a rough round one and hard crash in qualifying earlier in the day. It was a battle of the Frenchman for second place, with Dylan Ferrandis ultimately getting the better of Marvin Musquin.
Ferrandis looked dangerously fast and impressively comfortable on that YZF450. Something that has not been said for the last few rookies to jump up onto big blueā¦
450 Heat 2 was a little less hectic. But with no more than seven former 250 class champions taking to the line it was certainly going to be a highly contested competition.
Saturdayās main event winner, Justin Barcia, picked up where he left on just two days earlier. The GasGas man grabbed the holeshot and never looked back. The fastest man in the race however was Zach Osborne, but the Rockstar Husqvarna pilot wasnāt able to get close enough to mount a real attack for the lead.
The fight for third was a good one, with Eli Tomac, Adam Cianciarulo and Ken Roczen all squabbling over the position. Cianciarulo ultimately got the best of his Monster Energy Kawasaki teammate by pulling the trigger on a huge 76ft rhythm lane quad, to take control of the final podium spot.
Vince Friese bounced back after his heat race troubles to take the LCQ win ahead of Brandon Hartranft, Broc Tickle and Alex Ray.
The 450 Main Event was so action packed it was almost difficult to keep track of! Chase Sexton rocketed out of the gates on his HRC Honda to grab an incredible holeshot ahead of Adam Cianciarulo, Eli Tomac and Justin Brayton who were second, third and fourth. Cianciarulo quickly tried to make a hard pass on his training pal Chase Sexton but couldnāt quite make it stick. Nevertheless, the pair were setting a blisteringly fast pace.
In a reversal of fortunes from last time around both Justin Barcia and Ken Roczen found themselves stuck in the mid-pack early on. The pair of them were battling hard with Jason Anderson for 11th place during the opening laps.
About five minutes into the race the dreaded sand section claimed its first victim of the Main Event. Adam Cianciarulo crashed out of second place and dropped all the way down to 14th. The Kawasaki rider never fully recovered from this and was only able to salvage 12th position when all was said and done.
With the pressure from behind eased off a little it looked to be plain sailing for Chase Sexton, who was flying at the front of the field. But it wasnāt to be.
With 15 minutes of the race still to go the 450-class rookie became the second rider to be claimed by the sand. Sexton tried to wrestle his bike under control, but the attempt was futile, and he was ejected in spectacular fashion. He was unable to remount and finish the race.
This meant that Eli Tomac was now the new race leader, a nice turnaround for him after Saturday. Justin Brayton was promoted to second and Zach Osborne third.
Marvin Musquin was the next rider to fall victim to the sand pit. He dropped outside of the top ten momentarily but was able to fight back strong to recover a sixth place by the time the flag dropped.
At the half way mark ā yes all of the above happened in just half a race! ā several battles within the top ten were beginning to transform into all out war. Zach Osborne was able to make a pass stick on Justin Brayton to take over second as Malcolm Stewart and Dylan Ferrandis fought over fourth, with the Frenchman eventually taking the position from his Star Yamaha teammate.
Cooper Webb, Ken Roczen and Justin Barcia were also going back and forth as they vied for a top six position. Cooper Webb certainly seemed more like himself this time around, although he wasnāt battling for a leading position the fight and desire that took him to the top in 2019 appeared to be back.
With the clock ticking down Zach Osborne attempted to make a run on Eli Tomac for the race lead. The Husqvarna ace was able to get Tomacās advantage down to just one and a half seconds, but with one lap to go Osborne became the fourth rider to crash out of a leading spot. He dropped back to tenth.
Meanwhile the Frenchman Dylan Ferrandis found his way around the veteran Justin Brayton to take over second place. Eli Tomac lit the candles to bring home the win, adding another score to his tally and making him officially the sixth most winningest man in supercross history.
Class rookie Dylan Ferrandis took second on his Star Racing Monster Energy Yamaha and 36-year-old Justin Brayton fended off an attacking Cooper Webb to put his Muc-Off Honda on the box.
Tomac was satisfied with his bounce back performance. ā”Saturday was pretty scary for the points chase. So for tonight there was no choice but to rebound and stay in this fight, and thatās exactly what we did.
“The start was huge for us, I moved to the outside for the main and it paid off. I was able to sweep around the outside and come out with second. Then the two guys in front of me were going at it, they were laying down the laps, burning the pace.
“I settled in and I knew it was going to be a long race, just because the lap times were so short, I think we did 28 laps or something like that. Both of those guys made mistakes and I was able to capitalise on that.”
Championship points
1 51 Justin Barcia Greenville, FL 40 26 14
2 14 Dylan Ferrandis Lake Elsinore, CA 39 16 23
3 10 Justin Brayton Charlotte, NC 38 17 21
4 25 Marvin Musquin Corona, CA 38 21 17
5 94 Ken Roczen Clermont, FL 37 23 14
6 1 Eli Tomac Cortez, CO 36 10 26
7 27 Malcolm Stewart Haines City, FL 34 18 16
8 2 Cooper Webb Newport, NC 33 14 19
9 9 Adam Cianciarulo New Smyrna Beach, FL 30 19 11
10 16 Zach Osborne Clermont, FL 26 13 13
11 15 Dean Wilson Murrieta, CA 23 11 12
12 7 Aaron Plessinger Hamilton, OH 22 15 7
13 21 Jason Anderson Rio Rancho, NM 19 8 11
14 20 Broc Tickle Holly, MI 16 6 10
15 17 Joey Savatgy Clermont, FL 14 12 2
16 11 Kyle Chisholm Valrico, FL 13 4 9
17 40 Vince Friese Menifee, CA 11 7 4
18 23 Chase Sexton Clermont, FL 10 9 1
19 28 Brandon Hartranft Brick, NJ 8 2 6
20 83 Alex Ray Milan, TN 6 1 5
21 36 Martin Davalos Tallahassee, FL 5 5 0
22 37 Benny Bloss Oak Grove, MO 4 0 4
23 722 Adam Enticknap Lompoc, CA 3 3 0
