Millville is a consistently great presence on the AMA Pro Motocross schedule and 2021 was no different. A pair of first-time winners this season highlighted some spectacular racing on one of the world’s premier tracks in Minnesota. On top of a change at the top of the 250 pecking order, and an injury scare for a 450 title contender averted with a strong Moto 2.
250 Class
Moto 1
In a slight shakeup, the 250 riders raced after the 450 riders this week. Not a new practice, but the first time this has happened in 2021. Justin Cooper would pull out a monster holeshot and set off to an early three-second lead. Meanwhile, his teammate Nate Thrasher went down hard on his first pass through the sand whoops. When he came up he was not moving his right arm at all, his day would be done from here. Points leader Jett Lawrence did not have a very good start and would have to get to the front the hard way. Sitting outside the top ten five minutes in.
Soon enough, however, “The big dog would eat”, as Lawrence began picking guys off inside the top ten. By the eight-minute mark, he had gotten by his brother Hunter Lawrence and found himself in fifth. With that happening, hometown rider Jeremy Martin had erased a nearly four-second gap to Cooper in first with under five minutes to go. It would be just a few minutes later where JMart would make one of the boldest passes of the year in the downhill section for the lead. And with a broken hand and all would pick up the win at his home track.
Moto 2
Martin and Cooper would start out first and second in this second tilt, but the bigger surprise would be the rider behind them. That would be Austin Forkner, who has had a miserable 2021 campaign. Getting hurt in Supercross and yet to have a top-five overall in Motocross. Micheal Mosiman would get by him for third, but Forkner for the time being held out in fourth.
Minutes later absolute disaster struck for over a half dozen riders. R.J. Hampshire and Pierce Brown got tangled coming to the finish jump, but this was just the beginning. Garrett Marchbanks got into Brown’s bike, then Brown was hit by an oncoming Jett Lawrence, and then again by Stilez Robertson when he was on the ground. Jarrett Frye and a couple of others also got involved. Hampshire ended up getting his chain tangled with a sponsor banner which ended his day, while Brown was hurt from getting hit. Both riders were done after.
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Back out near the from, Cooper and Mosiman were caught in a heated battle for second for most of the race. Mosiman around the 10 minutes mark made it by Cooper for second. But by this point, Martin was long gone. He would pick up his first-ever win at his home track. As well as becoming the record sixth consecutive different 250 winner in a Motocross season. His teammate Cooper would take the points lead from Lawrence at the halfway point of the season.
Top 10 Overall in 250 Class
No. 6 Jeremy Martin 1-1
No. 42 Micheal Mosiman 3-2
No. 32 Justin Cooper 2-3
No. 18 Jett Lawrence 4-6
No. 41 Hunter Lawrence 5-5
No. 64 Colt Nichols 7-7
No. 30 Jo Shimoda 8-9
No. 38 Austin Forkner 17-4
No. 39 Carson Mumford 14-8
No. 47 Jalek Swoll 12-10
450 Class
No. 51 Justin Barcia– Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull GasGas Factory Racing (1-2 for first overall)
Barcia has now gotten GasGas their first wins in America in both Supercross and Motocross. A pair of holeshots on the day made the difference for the veteran. As in Moto 1, he led wire to wire despite the hard-charging Dylan Ferrandis and Eli Tomac behind him down the stretch. While he gave up the lead to Ken Roczen early in Moto 2, Barcia did what he needed to do, running second for close for the entire moto.
This was Barcia’s first overall win dating back to Ironman in 2018, also is off the heels of a season-best third overall at Southwick. A good time for BamBam to get hot with Team USA getting set to lock in their Des Nations team this year. Which Barcia has participated for multiple times in the past
No. 14 Dylan Ferrandis- Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha (2-5 for third overall)
The bad news today for Ferrandis was that his fifth in Moto 2 was his worst moto result of the season. The good news is that a fifth is still really good, and his second Moto could have gone a lot worse. The points leader went down multiple times rather early in his second outing of the day. Putting himself as low as 24th in the early going. This easily could have ruined his second-place result in the opening Moto, but he did not allow that.
Ferrandis charged through the field and was able to salvage a fifth place in a little over 30 minutes’ time. The only rider to gain points on him today was Barcia, which is a gigantic win all things considered. He is now firmly in the driver’s seat at the halfway point in this championship.
No. 94 Ken Roczen- Honda HRC (DNF-1 for seventh overall)
Things looked rather scary early on for Roczen. Literal seconds into Moto 1, he was tangled up in an incident off the start. He was then shown on the ground in what looked to be considerable pain for a couple of minutes afterward. Needless to say, his first moto was done and there was some serious concern for his availability for Moto 2 at that point.
But after getting checked out by the Aplinestars Medical Unit, Roczen was good to go. Roczen proceeded to look like a different person from that opening incident, getting by Barcia early and cruising to a relatively easy victory. Although he still lost points on the day to Ferrandis, Roczen’s run was super impressive and kept points losses to a minimum.
No. 2 Cooper Webb– Red Bull KTM (6-23 for 15th overall)
The optics for Webb looked good early on. A sixth in Moto 1 was a respectable outing but would get a good effort in Moto 2 ripped away from him. In the second Moto, Webb would get hit in mid-air by a scrubbing Chase Sexton and would take a hard fall after a squirrelly landing. Luckily Webb was able to finish the moto but ended up outside the top 20.
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No. 9 Adam Cianciarulo– Monster Energy Kawasaki (34-DNF for 41st overall)
Yet another disappointing day for one of the sports bright young stars. AC was running really well in Moto 1, shadowing Barcia in second for a good while. But a tip over later on basically ended his day. He would pit a lap after that fall and then would not be seen at the gate for Moto 2. A bummer of a season to this point for a preseason championship contender.
Top 10 Overall in 450 Class
No. 51 Justin Barcia 1-2
No. 3 Eli Tomac 3-4
No. 14 Dylan Ferrandis 2-5
No. 23 Chase Sexton 7-3
No. 29 Christian Craig 4-6
No. 7 Aaron Plessinger 5-9
No. 94 Ken Roczen DNF-1
No. 17 Joey Savatgy 11-7
No. 15 Dean Wilson 10-10
Championship Battles at Halfway Mark
250 Class
No. 32 Justin Cooper 243 Points
No. 18 Jett Lawrence 237 Points
No. 41 Hunter Lawrence 210 Points
No. 6 Jeremy Martin 167 Points
450 Class
No. 14 Dylan Ferrandis 262 Points
No. 94 Ken Roczen 230 Points
No. 51 Justin Barcia 207 Points
No. 3 Eli Tomac 205 Points
The back half of the season begins next weekend on the west coast at Washougal, Washington. Followed by a two-week break before five consecutive Weekends of nationals to close out the season.
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Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
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