James Stewart and Marvin Musquin score wins in the first-ever Red Bull Straight Rhythm in Pomona, California.
You can just about count on Red Bull to make the normal abnormal, to put its own oddball spin on traditional sporting events and make them fresh.
That’s what the Red Bull Straight Rhythm was all about, and what better place to hold a head-to-head, bracketed, supercross/drag race event than Auto Club NHRA Raceway drag strip in Pomona, California.
The Red Bull Straight Rhythm was set up just like a drag race: Head-to-head based on a drag race, ladder-style bracket that places the fastest qualifier and the second fastest qualifier on opposite sides of the ladder, with number one facing number 16, number two facing number 15, and so on.
And while they’re at it, Red Bull might as well toss the technical rules as well, right? Thus, the 450cc field at the Straight Rhythm could only loosely be called that, with the inclusion of Travis Pastrana on his RM-Z450-framed 500cc two-stroke (Honda CR500R engine). It stands to reason that a 500cc two-stroke that puts out about the same horsepower as a good 450 four-stroke nowadays, but does so with a light-switch power curve (unlike a 450, which has a nice, broad power curve), wouldn’t seem to be competitive. But let’s also remember that Travis Pastrana is a freak.
Pastrana had a tall order with his opening pairing as he faced off against Josh Hansen. Pastrana made a few mistakes that cost him the first race, but with each round being a best-two-out-of-three affair, Pastrana came through in their second race to better Hansen, celebrating with a massive backflip over the finish line. In their final match, though, Pastrana came up just short and had to pack up his RM-zilla after only one round. But, true to form, Pastrana was likely one of the most talked-about riders of the day.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart faced Scott Champion, then Hansen, and then his brother Malcolm, who had the unofficial best lap of the day at the end of the day. The brothers were a remarkably even match, but James came out on top to move to the final against BTOSports.com KTM’s Justin Brayton, who had to eliminate Ryan Morais, Kyle Partridge, and then Dean Wilson to go into the final.
Malcolm Stewart ended up taking down Wilson in the bronze-medal match, and then top qualifier James Stewart bested Brayton for the inaugural win in the Red Bull Straight Rhythm.
In the 250cc class, Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin was the favorite going in, and he was also the top qualifier. Musquin took down Jarryd McNeil and Darryn Durham (in his debut ride for the TLD KTM team) on his way to the semi-final, where he met up with GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle, who just managed to eke his way by his amateur teammate Jordon Smith to face Musquin. However, Musquin was able to beat Bogle and move onto the final against his new teammate, Justin Hill, while Bogle went on to face Jessy Nelson (also from the TLD KTM team) in the bronze-medal race.
Nelson came out on top in the battle for the bronze, and Musquin actually had a little easier time with Hill than he did with Bogle, as Hill was still recovering from Strep Throat and said he was so weak he was shaking on the start line.
And just like that, Red Bull snatched the wins in both classes at the inaugural Red Bull Straight Rhythm.
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