Marvin Musquin wins at WW Ranch, Eli Tomac takes points lead

By Jun 22, 2019, 5:42 PM EDT
Rich Shepherd, ProMotocross
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In hot and humid conditions, riders have to find the right pace to make it to the end of the day. With his Moto 1 win at WW Ranch Motocross Park in Jacksonville, Fla. and a third in Moto 2, Marvin Musquin claimed the overall victory over the new points leader Eli Tomac. And in doing so, Musquin became the first rider to win an overall beside the two riders who entered the Round 5 tied at the top of the leaderboard.

It was Musquin’s first win of the season and his first since Unadilla last year.

Musquin was chasing Tomac for the Moto win to sweep the event, but in the final third of the race he began to fade.

“I tried my best and ran out of energy a little bit,” Musquin told NBCSN after the race. “The track was demanding. It was tough. So to pick up the pace was difficult.”

Tomac won Moto 2 to finish second overall – but that was not the big surprise of the afternoon. With a terrible start to the start of Moto 1, Tomac completed Lap 1 18th and must have seen his championship start to unravel. He was barely able to recover for a seventh.

“It was the result of a really bad start in the first Moto,” Tomac said after the race. “I didn’t even move when I let out the clutch; I just didn’t go anywhere with the sand.”

While Tomac collected himself after his poor start, Ken Roczen kept the leader in sight after a thrilling handlebar-to-handlebar battle at the halfway point with Musquin that saw both of the Frenchman’s feet come off the pedals. Roczen finished second in Moto 2 and banked 22 points. At the conclusion of that race, Tomac briefly fell eight points out of first.

Moto 2 would prove to be even more disastrous for Roczen than Moto 1 was for Tomac. He fell to 10th at the end of the race and banked only 11 points as Tomac rode to the win. When it was all over, Tomac left Jacksonville with a six-point advantage.

Zach Osborne mounted a late-race charge and tried to deny Tomac the Moto win and three of his points. After finishing fifth in Moto 2, he was forced to settle for third overall.

Coming back from injury, Jason Anderson (3-4) podiumed in his first race and finished fourth overall.

Cooper Webb (4-5) rounded out the top five.

Roczen’s disappointing Moto 2 relegated him to sixth overall.

450 Moto 1 Results
450 Moto 2 Results
450 Overall Results
Points Standings

Justin Cooper is the bridesmaid no more.

After winning Moto 1 in the first three rounds, but falling behind points’ leader Adam Cianciarulo each time, he was even more frustrated last week with a ninth-place finish overall.

This week, he gave up the Moto win to score the overall with a 2-2. It was a hard fought victory after which the rider was forced to complete his interview sitting next to his bike, gasping for breath.

“Got out front. Man it felt good,” Cooper said haltingly on NBCSN after finishing second in the Moto 2. “That was the longest event of my life. I can barely stand up right now. I’m about to pass out. It’s so hot right now. Just want to give it up to my whole team.”

Cooper shaved eight points off Cianciarulo’s advantage and served notice that it will not be as easy as the leader might have imagined.

Wedged between the two points’ contenders, Dylan Ferrandis scored his first Moto win of the season in in the second race. Coupled with a fourth in Moto 1, he handily beat Cianciarulo for the second rung on the overall podium.

Like Tomac in the 450 class, Cianciarulo was handicapped with a bad start in Moto 1. Riding eighth at the end of Lap 1, he was also forced to charge forward.  Finishing 5-3, this was the rider’s worst performance of the year on his home track.

“There wasn’t a whole lot wrong with me today,” a collected Cianciarulo said. “They were just ripping. This speaks to their skill on the bike. I didn’t feel too great all day. I didn’t gel with the track. My body didn’t feel real good.

“It’s just one of those days that’s tough. You’re going to have them over the course of a long season.”

Michael Mosiman (3-5) and Hunter Lawrence (8-4) rounded out the top five.

Chase Sexton won Moto 1, but could barely mount his bike for Moto 2 after suffering heat exhaustion. He made a pair of laps around the track and was then forced into the pits when it became obvious he would not earn any points in the second race.

Derek Drake earned the holeshot in Moto 1 and pulled away from Cooper – then fell on Lap 3 hard enough to bend the bike.

250 Moto 1 Results
250 Moto 2 Results
250 Overall Results
Points Standings

Moto Wins

450MX
[5] Eli Tomac (Hangtown II, Pala I & Pala II, Thunder Valley II, WW Ranch II)
[3] Ken Roczen (Hangtown I, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[1] Blake Baggett (High Point I)
[1] Marvin Musquin (WW Ranch I)

250MX
[4] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown II, Pala II, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[3] Justin Cooper (Hangtown I, Pala I, Thunder Valley I)
[1] Hunter Lawrence (High Point I)
[1] Chase Sexton (WW Ranch I)
[1] Dylan Ferrandis (WW Ranch II)

Next race: The Wick 338, Southwick Mass, June 29

Season passes can be purchased at NBC Sports Gold.

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With throaty roar, NASCAR Next Gen Camaro is taking Le Mans by storm on global stage

Associated PressJun 8, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
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LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.

“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.

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France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.

A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.

Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.

The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.

“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”

The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.

The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.

“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”

This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.

Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.

“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”

The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.

“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.

“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”

The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.

“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”

For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.

“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”

Le Mans 24 Hour Race - Car Parade
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).

General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.

“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”

The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.

“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”