As the temperatures heat up across the South, the Lucas Oil Promo Motocross heads to Millville, Minn. at Spring Creek MX Park for Round 8 of the championship.
Both the 450 and 250 class have surging second-place riders who still believe they can win this year’s championship.
Marvin Musquin is determined to make the championship interesting after standing on the podium in three consecutive races. He won back to back at WW Ranch and Southwick. Last week, a terrible start to Moto 1 left him pinned under his bike on Lap 1, but rebounded to win Moto 2 and finish third overall.
While Musquin still mathematically controls his fate, Eli Tomac refuses to make it easy. Despite the occasional bad moto, Tomac has stood on the overall podium in every single race this year with wins at Pala, High Point and last week at RedBud.
The key to success will be in finding the perfect compromise between the ever shifting sand whoops and the hard-packed up and downhill sessions. Since the sand whoops often refuse to reveal their personality until Moto 1 is in the books, the overall will be in question until late in the day regardless of who dominates Race 1.
Likewise in the 250 class, second-place Dylan Ferrandis is making a charge on Adam Cianciarulo.
With three consecutive podium finishes, he was second overall at WW Ranch and Southwick. Last week he swept RedBud’s two motos while Cianciarulo stumbled to a fifth-place finish in Moto 1. The deficit currently sits at 25 points, but with 10 motos of action lying ahead of the riders, that can change quickly.
Chase Sexton will return to action this week after missing the last three motos and struggling with health issues for the last three rounds. With the championship out of reach, the 2019 250 East Supercross champion has nothing but winning on his mind.
MORE: Marvin Musquin interview
Schedule:
Qualifiers: 11:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold
Race: Live, 2 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold, Moto 2 at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold, (Moto 2, re-air at 1 a.m. on NBC).
July 6 - 2019; Redbud
450: Eli Tomac (1-2) won over Jason Anderson (2-4) and Marvin Musquin (7-1)
250: Dylan Ferrandis (1-1) won over Adam Cianciarulo (5-2) and Justin Cooper (3-6)
July 21 - 2018; Spring Creek
450: Eli Tomac (1-1) won over Ken Roczen (2-3) and Marvin Musquin (4-2)
250: Aaron Plessinger (1-1) won over Justin Cooper (4-3) and Alex Martin (7-2)
Overall Wins
450:
[3] Eli Tomac (Pala, High Point, RedBud)
[2] Ken Roczen (Hangtown, Thunder Valley)
[2] Marvin Musquin (WW Ranch, Southwick)
250:
[5] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown, Pala, Thunder Valley, High Point, Southwick)
[1] Justin Cooper (WW Ranch)
[1] Dylan Ferrandis (RedBud)
Moto Wins
450:
[6] Eli Tomac (Hangtown II, Pala I & II, Thunder Valley II, WW Ranch I, RedBud I)
[3] Ken Roczen (Hangtown I, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[3] Marvin Musquin (WW Ranch I, Southwick I, RedBud II)
[1] Blake Baggett (High Point I)
[1] Zach Osborne (Southwick II)
250:
[5] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown II, Pala II, Thunder Valley II, High Point II, Southwick I)
[4] Dylan Ferrandis (WW Ranch II, Southwick II, RedBud I & II)
[3] Justin Cooper (Hangtown I, Pala I, Thunder Valley I)
[1] Hunter Lawrence (High Point I)
[1] Chase Sexton (WW Ranch I)