Motocross: Musquin Victorious At High Point

The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship advanced to High Point in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, where Marvin Musquin left with the overall win in the 250 class. Here is how the 250 racing went down for the day. 

250 Moto 1

Marvin Musquin got off to the early lead in 250 moto 1, and was followed by RJ Hampshire, Adam Cianciarulo, Christian Craig, and Zach Osborne. Points leader Jeremy Martin got off to a bad start and finished the first lap in 10th place. J. Martin slowly began to work his way through the pack, and was up to eighth place by the end of Lap 4. The top-five riders remained the same for these first four laps despite some very close racing, but this changed in Lap 5 when Adam Cianciarulo passed Hampshire for second, and Osborne passed Craig for fourth. At this point, Marvin Musquin had already opened up a comfortable lead, and had very little pressure from Cianciarulo behind him. Alex Martin got off to a good start in sixth, and picked up his pace in Lap 6 to pass Craig for fifth. His brother Jeremy remained back in eighth for the next 10 minutes, but then was able to pass both Joey Savatgy and Craig to move into sixth. Back up front, Musquin was maintaining his lead over Cianciarulo, who was riding great and had opened up his own lead over the Hampshire/Osborne battle for third. This battle went on for the next five minutes, until a small mistake from Hampshire allowed Osborne to pass. However, Hampshire’s mistake slightly slowed down Osborne as well, which allowed A. Martin to pass both riders for third. Hampshire continued to slowly fade back, and also got passed by a hard charging J. Martin a couple of laps later; this put J. Martin into fifth, dropping Hampshire outside the top-five. With the race dwindling down, J. Martin put in a last ditch effort to get around Osborne for fourth place and catch all the way up to his brother Alex, but Alex was able to pick up the pace and hold him off the for the last two laps. Musquin ended up taking the checkered flag only five seconds ahead of Cianciarulo, with A. Martin rounding out the podium. After starting in the top-four, both Christian Craig and RJ Hampshire got passed by Joey Savatgy in the last two laps of the race.

250 Moto 2

The holeshot in 250 moto 2 went to Zach Osborne, but a small mistake in the opening laps of the race allowed Marvin Musquin to pass and take over the lead. Matthew Bisceglia, Joey Savatgy, and Christian Craig rounded out the top-five after Lap 1. Musquin immediately put down some fast laps, but Osborne and Savatgy were able to match Musquin’s pace to keep Musquin fairly constant for the first half of the race. Meanwhile, after starting in sixth once again, Alex Martin was able to get around Craig and up into fifth, while his brother Jeremy Martin was struggling back in 10th after a start way outside the top-20. Bisceglia began fading after the halfway point, which allowed A. Martin to move into fourth, and Jordon Smith to get up to fifth. However, Smith didn’t keep the position for long due to a very fast J. Martin; J. Martin continued his charge through the pack and quickly got around his brother Alex for fourth. By this point though, the top-three were way too far off, and J. Martin was essentially forced to settle for fourth. Musquin eventually took the win a mere six seconds ahead of Osborne, with Savatgy rounding out the podium. After his second place ride in moto 1, a bad start and a crash resulted in Adam Cianciarulo finishing outside the top-10 in 12th. RJ Hampshire also had some bad luck in moto 2, and DNFed due to a bad crash early in the race.

Here are the top-10 overall finishers in the 250 class at High Point:

And here are the updated championship point standings after five rounds of racing:

Marvin Musquin was able to take advantage of some bad starts from Jeremy Martin to retake the points lead; Musquin now appears to have all the confidence and momentum nearing the halfway point in the series. Jessy Nelson and Adam Cianciarulo remain in third and fourth respectively in the series, but more good results from Joey Savatgy will really cause the battle for the top-three in points to tighten up. The series now heads into a one weekend break before round 6 at Budds Creek in Mechanicsville, Maryland. For coverage of Budds Creek, be sure to follow @VAVELMotocross on Twitter. 

Scott Yargeau is the lead motocross writer of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @ScottYargeau.