Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin makes his 250cc supercross season a memorable one.
Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin has worked his ass off to win a Monster Energy AMA Supercross title, and Saturday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, all that hard work paid off with his first career AMA 250cc East Supercross Championship.
Through the disappointment of coming up short in 2013 and through the agony of missing the 2014 series due to injury, the French rider never lost sight of his dream, and that dream finally saw the light of day in the final points-paying East round at MetLife Stadium, which was run in the daytime to coincide with a live broadcast of the event on the Fox Network channel instead of the usual Fox Sports channels. Musquin put the icing on the cake by riding to a convincing sixth main event win in the eight-round series. Performances don’t get much more dominant than that.
“It feels so amazing to get this title,” Musquin said. “To get the win at the final race makes it that much better. My bike was great today as it has been all season. I want to thank my team and my family for all of their help in allowing me to accomplish this goal.”
With all eyes on the last series title left to be decided in the 250cc class, the 450cc main event was bound to be anti-climactic after Ryan Dungey had already sewn up the Monster Energy AMA Supercross title two rounds ago, but the premier class still hosted a fantastic main event that went to GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac.
250cc
Musquin’s day wasn’t without drama, as he was involved in a first-turn tangle with Dakota Alix, with both riders crashing to the ground. Musquin was able to pick up his bike and rejoin the race in 11th place, and he quickly passed his way inside the top nine, finishing fourth to earn a direct transfer into the main event. That put Musquin in an advantageous position as he would only need to finish 16th or better should defending 250cc East Champion and closest rival Justin Bogle win the main.
Bogle tried to do his part, pulling the holeshot to take the lead. However, Musquin was right on Bogle’s tail when the 22-rider field blasted off the starting line for the final 250cc East main event of the season. Second heat winner Joe Savatgy put his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki into third place in the early going, but Bogle and Musquin quickly put time on the rookie, running about 7 seconds ahead of Savatgy by lap five.
The battle for the lead began to intensify just one lap later as Musquin began to pressure Bogle. It was clear that the Frenchman wasn’t content with playing it safe, and he wanted to put an exclamation point on his championship run by beating Bogle on the track. Musquin appeared to try and set up Bogle through the whoops. Lapped riders came into play at the halfway point, allowing Bogle to put some distance between himself and Musquin.
In the meantime, Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin caught up to Savatgy, and he cut underneath him in a right-hand corner, only to go wide off the exit and allow Savatgy to come right back and block Martin’s path, forcing the Yamaha man off the track and back to fourth place.
Up front, Musquin decided to take another shot at Bogle with five laps to go, and he cut to the inside of Bogle, the two going wheel to wheel over the triple jump just past the scoring tower. Musquin backed off briefly to give Bogle plenty of room in the next corner, but he still found away under Bogle and into the lead just before the tunnel turn. Bogle had no answer for Musquin, who went on to win the main event and claim the title that he had worked so hard to earn.
“This [number one] plate, I have been dreaming about it, and I almost had it two years ago,” Musquin said. “I know will Hahn is watching right now, and I battled so hard against him, and it was a great year in 2013. Then last year I could not race [due to injury]. This year was my last year on the 250, so I am really happy to have gotten that number one plate, and now let’s move on and work harder and chase the dreams.”
Bogle was magnanimous, although not happy, about losing his title to Musquin.
“It hurts bad, losing the championship, and it hurts losing that race the way I just did,” Bogle said. “Congratulations to Marvin. He had an incredible season. He was the better man this year. I’ll keep working. We’ll come back, get back up here and fight for another one of these things.”
The battle for third, between Savatgy and Martin, tightened up again with two laps to go. Savatgy was able to make himself wide to prevent Martin from making a pass, and that forced Martin to try even harder, which forced a mistake; Martin got loose at the end of the whoop section and tucked the front end, crashing hard. That ended the battle, although Martin was able to remount in plenty of time to finish fourth ahead of GEICO Honda’s RJ Hampshire.
450cc
BTO Sports KTM’s holeshot king Andrew Short once again rounded the first turn in the lead, but Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely swept around the outside of short in the very next turn to take the lead. Behind Short, Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing Yamaha teammates Justin Barcia and Weston Peick battled for third place with BTO Sports KTM’s Justin Brayton fifth, just ahead of Tomac. Brayton would lose fifth place to the flying Tomac on lap two.
Peick passed Short for second place on the same lap, but he wouldn’t hold it for long as Tomac quickly got past both Barcia and Short in two consecutive jump sections to take over third place. One lap later, Tomac jumped to the inside of Peick and cut underneath him in a corner to move into second place.
Seely was 3.9 seconds ahead of Tomac at that point, but Tomac began whittling away at Seely’s advantage, cutting it to just over 2 seconds at the halwat point. Just a couple laps later, Tomac stormed past Seely to move into the lead. Tomac then simply ran away from the rest of the field to record his third main event win of the year and his seventh podium position in his last eight starts.
“This was one of the most technical tracks we’ve had all year, just with the soft dirt and the ruts,” Tomac said. “It made for good lines and [for me] to able to make moves on guys. Me and Cole had a good battle there for almost half the race. That was a lot of fun.”
Dungey made his way past Seely late in the race to finish second and record his 15th consecutive Monster Energy AMA Supercross podium finishes.“
Seely held on for third place, while Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett moved all the way up to fourth place, ahead of Short and RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Broc Tickle. Then came TwoTwo Motorsports Kawasaki’s Josh Grant—the only active rider on the team at the East Rutherford race after tream owner and two-time former series champion Chad Reed dropped out due to injury. Kawasaki rider Kyle Chisholm was eighth, followed by Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson and Peick.
Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series
MetLife Stadium
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Results: April 25, 2015 (Round 16 of 17)
250cc Main
1. Marvin Musquin-KTM
2. Justin Bogle-Hon
3. Joey Savatgy-Kaw
4. Jeremy Martin-Yam
5. RJ Hampshire-HonJ
6. Kyle Peters-Hon
7. Anthony Rodriguez-Yam
8. Mitchell Oldenburg-Yam
9. Kyle Cunningham-Hon
10. Luke Renzland-Yam
11. Jace Owen-Hon
12. Justin Starling-Yam
13. AJ Catanzaro-Suz
14. Gannon Audette-Kaw
15. Preston Mull-Yam
16. Levi Kilbarger-Yam
17. Logan Karnow-Hon
18. Jimmy Decotis-Hon
19. Nick Desiderio-Yam
20. Daniel Herrlein-Hon
21. Dakota Alix-KTM
22. Luke Vonlinger-Hon
Monster Energy AMA 250cc East Supercross Series Point Standings (After 8 of 8 rounds)
1. Marvin Musquin-196/6 wins
2. Justin Bogle-171/1 win
3. Jeremy Martin-143/1 win
4. Joey Savatgy-133
5. RJ Hampshire-100
6. Anthony Rodriguez-98
7. Kyle Peters (HON)-91
8. Jimmy Decotis-87
9. Kyle Cunningham-72
10. Martin Davalos-63
11. Luke Renzland-62
12. Mitchell Oldenburg-61
13. Vince Friese-58
14. Colt Nichols-53
15. Jace Owen-50
16. Justin Starling-45
17. Gannon Audette-41
18. Matthew Lemoine-39
19. Arnaud Tonus-38
20. Jordon Smith-36
*Clinched 2015 AMA 250cc East Supercross Championship
450cc Main
1. Eli Tomac-Hon
2. Ryan Dungey-KTM
3. Cole Seely-Hon
4. Blake Baggett-Suz
5. Andrew Short-KTM
6. Broc Tickle-Suz
7. Josh Grant-Kaw
8. Kyle Chisholm-Kaw
9. Jason Anderson-Hus
10. Weston Peick-Yam
11. Shane Mcelrath-KTM
12. Nick Wey-Kaw
13. Ben Lamay-Hus
14. Nick Schmidt-Suz
15. Kyle Partridge-Hon
16. Ronnie Stewart-Suz
17. Dustin Pipes-Suz
18. Tevin Tapia-Suz
19. Deven Raper-Kaw
20. Justin Barcia-Yam
21. Alex Ray-Hon
22. Justin Brayton-KTM
Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series Point Standings (After 16 of 17 rounds)
1. Ryan Dungey-365/7 wins*
2. Eli Tomac-283/3 wins
3. Cole Seely-259/1 win
4. Chad Reed-212/1 win
5. Blake Baggett-208
6. Trey Canard-204/2 wins
7. Jason Anderson-200
8. Broc Tickle-183
9. Andrew Short-180
10. Ken Roczen-156
11. Davi Millsaps-147
12. Josh Grant-143
13. Weston Peick-140
14. Kyle Chisholm-105
15. Justin Barcia-89
16. Nick Wey-85
17. Jake Weimer-74
18. Phil Nicoletti-66
19. Justin Brayton-54
20. Mike Alessi-48
*Clinched 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship
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