Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Zach Osborne prevailed with his second straight 450 Class victory at Round 2 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Loretta Lynn's.
The 450 Class was greeted with a muddy track and sunny skies for its first moto of Loretta Lynn’s 2. As the field stormed out the start gate it was Yamaha Factory Racing’s Justin Barcia who captured the holeshot and sprinted out to a comfortable lead early on. Behind him, JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Fredrik Noren settled into second, with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Broc Tickle in third.
Barcia continued to pull away from the field, soon establishing a 20 second gap within a matter of a few laps. Behind him, the battle for position jockeyed between several riders. Noren crashed and lost several positions, leaving Tickle to battle Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac and the Team Honda HRC duo of Chase Sexton and Christian Craig. A determined Tomac was able to sustain his forward progress and eventually made the pass on Tickle for second. Several laps later Tickle lost his hold of third to Craig.
Craig then encountered misfortune and dropped out of podium contention, which appeared to all but ensure a runner-up finish for Tomac. However, the reigning series champion’s bike lost pace in the closing laps and caused him to lose several positions before eventually coming to a stop on the final lap. Barcia took the win by 48 seconds over his teammate Tickle, who brought home a second-place finish, while Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo made a late charge to finish third. Noren followed in fourth, while Osborne rounded out the top five. Tomac ended up with a ninth-place finish.
When the gate dropped for Moto 2 it was the Suzuki of Max Anstie who charged claimed the holeshot ahead of KTM Factory Racing’s Marvin Musquin. The Frenchman was able to get by the Brit for the lead, but Anstie responded to reclaim the top spot. Behind them, Tomac made contact with his teammate, Cianciarulo, and went down in the first turn, which forced him to start at the rear of the field. In his search for the overall win, Barcia began the moto in sixth, but later crashed and dropped deep in the running order.
The lead duo was able to build a gap over the rest of the field, with Anstie enjoying a multi-second advantage on Musquin. Cianciarulo gave chase from third and positioned himself with an opportunity to claim the overall in doing so. As the race wore on Osborne started to make a move to the front. The points leader was able to close in on Cianciarulo for third and make an aggressive pass for the position. From there, Osborne continued his charge and tracked down Musquin for second. After making the pass on the KTM rider, Osborne had Anstie within sight and dropped the hammer in pursuit of the lead. Anstie responded initially, but when a lapped rider crashed in front of him and briefly halted his momentum it opened the door for Osborne to get by and seize control of the moto.
As things changed dramatically at the front of the field, the same could be said for both Barcia and Tomac as well. Both riders encountered misfortune and were ultimately unable to finish the moto.
Osborne was able to hold off a charge from Musquin on the final lap to take the moto win by 2.2 seconds. Anstie capitalized on his stellar start to bring home a first career moto podium in third.
Osborne’s win moved him to the top of the overall classification (5-1) for his second straight victory.
“Man, what a day. To be the points leader and miss a practice like we did earlier in the day, it’s just crazy,” said Osborne, who needed to join the slower qualifying group after his bike failed to start in his scheduled session. “I couldn’t have done this without my team today. I know it’s cliche, but they did everything they could to keep me and my teammates out there with a shot to make things happen. I wasn’t necessarily looking to win, but stacking points was on my radar today. I had to fight hard and battle back to finish fifth in that first moto, and then we were able to come away with a win in moto two. I’m so grateful to be up here.”
Cianciarulo earned his first career 450 Class podium finish in second (3-5). “I’m pretty stoked with how today went. A couple of solid motos in absolutely brutal conditions. Second overall and my first 450 class podium in AMA Pro Motocross.”
Musquin’s late push helped him round out the overall podium in third (8-2). “I’m pumped to be back on the podium for the second race, it’s been a while,” said Musquin. “The conditions were tough, so it was my goal to be upfront battling and I was able to do that in the second moto. I would have liked to be more consistent in both motos but that’s racing, everybody was having issues and crashing. Also, you have to save the bike and my bike was running well today, I had no issues.”
Osborne extended his lead atop the 450 Class standings to 19 points over Musquin, who moved into second. Barcia now sits third, 29 points out of the lead, while Tomac dropped to seventh and sits 40 points behind Osborne.
It was a tough start to the day for Osborne’s teammate Jason Anderson, last week’s Moto 1 winner, who got caught in the muddy cross-fire with a crash off the start in Moto 1. He re-mounted at the back of the pack and began working his way through the field until another crash set him back once again. He came back strong in Moto 2, rallying his way from a 13th place start all the way up to an impressive fourth-place finish in the moto. With 27-4 scores, Anderson salvaged a top-10 overall with ninth-place for the day.
“The weekend was kind of rough but the second moto went much better and I was able to work my way up to fourth,” Anderson said. “I’m ready to move on to the next round and keep pushing.”
Loretta Lynn’s 2 Results
1 Zach Osborne 5 – 1
2 Adam Cianciarulo 3 – 5
3 Marvin Musquin 8 – 2
4 Broc Tickle 2 – 9
5 Max Anstie 15 – 3
6 Christian Craig 10 – 6
7 Justin Barcia 1 – 32
8 Blake Baggett 14 – 8
9 Jason Anderson 27 – 4
10 Justin Rodbell 12 – 12
450MX Championship Standings
1 Zach Osborne 88
2 Marvin Musquin 69
3 Justin Barcia 59
4 Jason Anderson 58
5 Blake Baggett 51
6 Adam Cianciarulo 51
7 Eli Tomac 48
8 Broc Tickle 48
9 Max Anstie 47
10 Chase Sexton 44