250

The Good: Alex Martin | 1st Place

Two rounds in, Alex is by far the biggest surprise of the season. Not only did he win his first overall at Glen Helen, but he is now the 250 points leader! I’m pumped for him, and it seems like the rest of the industry is as well. It’s great to see one of the most likable and hardest working riders running up front and winning overalls. The next step is for him to keep that red front number plate.

The Good Bonus: Star Racing Yamaha Podium Sweep

The three fastest riders in the 250 class this weekend were all on board Star Racing Yamahas, and I’m not surprised in the slightest. Now, I was surprised that the rider leading the charge for Star Racing was Alex Martin, but this team is so stacked it was a given that they would eventually sweep the podium. Save this picture, these three could very well be the top three in the standings at the end of the season.

The Bad: GEICO Honda

It was not the best weekend for the GEICO Honda squad as Christian Craig broke his leg, Tristan Charboneau fractured his collarbone, Jordon Smith was landed on by Craig, Justin Bogle couldn’t hold onto the bike due to a cut on his hand, and finally RJ Hampshire flew into a fence during moto two. Sorry, did I say not the best? I actually meant it went about as terrible as it could possibly go. On the bright side, Jordon Smith, RJ Hampshire, and Justin Bogle should be back at Colorado, and I hope they bounce back with some solid results.

The Ugly: Joey Savatgy | 7th Place

Definitely not the weekend Joey Savatgy or Mitch Payton wanted. He came into Glen Helen with a 15-point lead, and he left the track third in the championship standings. The main reason may have been his terrible starts throughout the day, but he didn’t work his way through the pack very well either. It’s not time to hit the panic button as everyone has an off weekend at some point during the season, but he does need to bounce back with at least a podium in Colorado. Otherwise, this championship could start slipping away and be completely out of reach by Red Bud.

450

The Good: Ryan Dungey | 1st Place

Ken Roczen may have had Ryan Dungey covered in the first moto before he had bike problems, but a win is a win. Nonetheless, Ryan does need to start closing the gap to Ken sooner rather than later. Because he may only be sitting two points out of the championship lead, but Ken has shown he is the fastest guy so far. I think the best thing he could do is beat Ken straight up at Thunder Valley. A win like that would give him a huge confidence boost, and possibly even the points lead. Get it done, Ryan.

The Bad: Ken Roczen’s Bike Issue

This was a much bigger deal than I think it should of been, as the second Ken’s forks went bang the forum exploded with people talking about air forks. I’m not gonna swim too far into these shark-infested waters. Instead, I’ll let Michael Lindsay give you the low-down about what happened to Ken’s bike.

“The wire you can see here, coming out of this left-side fork, isn’t normally there. This sensor was just recently added by the RCH group and is not placed there by KYB. There’s not normally a hole or insert area there for this type of data acquisition, so RCH had to modify the fork cap to add this in. To note, it’s only located on the left side fork as well.

After the first moto, this was fairly quick for the team to diagnose as they pumped the fork back up and discovered this leak. I, like most, initially thought it could be fork seal failure. But to see for myself, I chased the team back to the pits to watch the tear down process and I noticed neither lower fork leg was covered in oil, as you would normally see during a fork seal failure, especially when there’s air pressure pushing out and taking more oil than usual with it.

This is why you see the RCH team apologizing, as this wasn’t KYB or their component’s fault. For those that will argue how RCH wouldn’t throw a sponsor under-the-bus… RCH pays KYB for their services and components, not the other way around. If it was KYB’s fault, you would hear it. Ken Roczen started and won the second moto on a set of KYB PSF1 forks as well.”

Bummer for Ken, but at least he still has the red plate heading into round three.

The Ugly: Weston Peick / JGR Yamha

I’ve written about Yoshimura Suzuki’s struggles throughout this year, but I don’t believe I’ve acknowledged the nightmare year JGR has been having. Long story short, it hasn’t been good folks. The team had a terrible Supercross season as Justin Barcia got injured, Weston Peick had inconsistent results, and Phil Nicoletti nearly died a few times while filling in. After such a rough season, they were hoping that they could hit the reset button and come out firing for the national season, but it doesn’t seem like the reset button worked. Justin Barcia has been struggling once again, and now Weston Peick crashed hard for the second week in a row. Weston has hit the ground a lot this year, so it may be best to take some time off and heal up after this last run in with the dirt. Hopefully Barcia can get back on track and Filthy Phil can keep up the top ten results, or else it may be another rough season for the JGR squad.

Photos by Michael Lindsay & Steve Giberson

Article by Grant Dawson

Source: Glen Helen Motocross – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly