Good, Bad, 'n Ugly: RedBud

250 Class
The Good: Dylan Ferrandis | 1st Place Overall

Dylan Ferrandis finally secured his first overall win of the season at RedBud. And while I'm sure he would have preferred to have won much earlier in the season, he still has plenty of time to make this championship a close one as we head down the final stretch. I'd say we're at a an interesting point of the season in terms of rider momentum. Dylan is definitely making a play for the rider on the move right now. He has won the last three motos, and if he hadn't struggled with bike setup in the first moto at Southwick it might be four straight. Meanwhile, Justin Cooper has had a couple of mediocre rounds since High Point and hasn't won a moto since Thunder Valley. He is still in it if you look at the standings, but he needs to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. Adam Cianciarulo still has a lot of momentum considering he has won five of the seven rounds, and he was able to minimize the damage at what are arguably his two worst tracks on the circuit, but he is the one being chased right now and that's always a hard position to be in. Dylan can go out each moto and just lay it all out there. He has 25 points to make up and riding conservatively isn't really an option anymore. If he goes out at Millville and wins the overall, Adam is probably going to start sweating a little bit. 

The Good Bonus: Alex Martin | 11th Place Overall

Oh, what could have been. It was hard to watch Alex's bike labor the last few laps in the first moto as it was losing all of its coolant. There was hope that he'd be able to make it to the end, and he almost did. Three more corners and he would have had third place, but it died right before Larocco's Leap. It was heart-breaking to see, but it was a freak accident type of thing and it wasn't anyone's fault. He did get some redemption in moto two, as he went out and locked down a third place finish. But, of course, the first moto hurt him severely in the final result tallies and he ended up 11th overall. Still, this was a very positive day for Alex. I don't know if JGR found something, or if Alex and Kyle Peters were nailing it out of the gate, but their starts were great and this could be a sign that things are turning around for the team. Alex made it clear that if he is able to start up front on the Suzuki he'll run up front just like he has the past few years. It's also a great time for Alex's luck to start changing for the better, as I'm sure he'd love to snag a podium finish at his home race in Minnesota. 

The Bad: Adam Cianciarulo | 2nd Place Overall

What?! Second place is "Bad"? I mean, not really. Adam clearly made a mistake with his setup in the first moto, and the subsequent position penalty he received didn't help things any. He was far better in the second moto, and even though Dylan was clearly better this weekend he did minimize the damage with a second place finish. Still, as I mentioned above, Dylan has won three straight motos. Forget that Adam still has a comfy points lead and five overall wins; I highly doubt that he wants the rider who is second in the points standings to catch fire in the final five rounds of the series. He needs to beat Dylan at Millville. 

The Ugly: Mitchell Oldenburg | 14th Place Overall

After receiving some gnarly burns at the final round of the Supercross season, Mitchell had to take some time off to recover and returned to racing at High Point. Well, he has raced four rounds now and there hasn't been a ton of progress as far as his results go. He got a top ten result in his first moto back, but since then he has hovered around 12th-15th in the majority of the motos. I could be jumping the shark here a little bit since I don't know exactly where he is physically, but I will say that if he doesn't get himself back into the top ten by the end of the season it's not going to bode well for him. He's a solid Supercross rider so I'm sure he already has a deal in the works for next year, but some improvement outdoors would be nice to see. 

450 Class
The Good: Eli Tomac | 1st Place Overall

After a couple of disappointing appearances at RedBud, Eli Tomac left the track Saturday evening with an overall win and a decent cushion in the points standings. His lead now sits at 34 points, and while that's not enough of a lead to just sit back and relax for the last five rounds, I think it is big enough to say that I think he'll once again be the champion this year. The only way I see him losing that kind of points lead is if he were to have bike issues, and we never expect bike issues to happen until they happen. Anyway, he was pretty freaking fast at RedBud and put on a riding clinic in the first moto. I don't think he would have stretched it out as much if Marvin Musquin didn't crash on the first lap, but he was going to win that moto, regardless. He didn't get a great start in the second moto and it took him a while to work around everyone to get into second place. Marvin was gone by then, but he had the overall in the bag at that point. I think Millville will be a huge round for the likes of Marvin and Ken Roczen. If Eli stretches the points lead on them there, it may really be over. 

The Good Bonus: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC-KTM-WPS

It hasn't been a horrible season for the Rocky Mountain KTM team, but I hasn't been great, either. They have come to expect that they'll contend for titles with Blake Baggett, and it just hasn't happened this year. However, RedBud was a very good day for the team. They didn't win any motos, but all three of the team's riders finished inside the top ten. Justin Bogle ran up front for a chunk of the first moto before settling into fourth place, and he got another decent start in the second moto to finish in sixth place. Those are his two best finishes of the season so far and might be a sign that he's returning to his old form. Blake still isn't quite where many of us expect him to be, but he did get better starts this weekend and showed that the speed is still there. As for Benny Bloss, he's still getting back up to speed after missing nearly the entire year with an injury, so top ten finishes at this point are pretty solid for him. So overall, it was a confidence-boosting day for the team heading into the break, and I hope they're able to carry this momentum through the rest of the season. 

The Good Double Bonus: Dean Wilson | 9th Place Overall

Deano is back! Regardless of where he finished, it was awesome to have him back at the races. And, honestly, I think that his performance was not too shabby after being away from racing for so long. He is in a better spot than I expected, and it'll be cool to see him progress over the next few rounds and see where he is by the end of the season.

The Bad: Justin Barcia | 14th Place Overall

A DNF in the first moto hurt Justin's day right out of the gate, and then he was almost dead-last off of the start in the second moto, which immediately doomed him to finishing towards the back of the top ten. It was a day of bad luck for him, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this has been a very "meh" outdoor season for him. After re-building his career over the past couple of years, the expectations are back to where they were when he rode for Honda and JGR. He should at least be battling with the top guys and making occasional appearances on the podium. And while I understand that he had to rebuild physically after a rough and tumble Supercross season, he needs to show something before the end of the outdoor season. 

The Ugly: Zach Osborne 

Zach was really starting to come on strong leading into RedBud, and he was even starting to get some championship contender buzz. Momentum was on his side, until it wasn't. A practice crash leading up to RedBud took him out of the race and effectively killed any championship aspirations he had. Luckily, he now has a week off to recover and hopefully get himself in good enough physical condition to line up at Millville. However, I don't know exactly how bad it is so there isn't an official timetable for his return. Keep your fingers crossed for the number 16. 

Words by Grant Dawson
Photos by Steve Giberson