Muddy Creek - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Motocross Feature

250 Class

The Good: Shane McElrath | 1st Place Overall

Who had their money on Shane McElrath winning the overall on Saturday with 3-2 moto scores? Anyone? No, no one did. Shane has been having an "okay" outdoor season, but he really hasn't had the speed to run up front, and he has had a few motos where he has faded back pretty hard towards the end. It sounds like part of the reason for his early season struggles was his bike setup, as he said that they went "completely in the wrong direction," so they've been having to play catch up to get him comfortable. Well, clearly his set up worked much better with the East Coast conditions considering how he seemed to be charging the entire time in both motos. There are no fade, there was no backing down, just quick and consistent laps. He did seem to hit a wall when trying to pass Justin Cooper in the first moto, but just about everyone has had a hard time passing that kid this summer, so I can't fault him for that. Anyway, it was a great weekend for both him and his team. It's hard to believe this is KTM's first outdoor win in the 250 class since Marvin Musquin was on a small bike, eh? I'm interested to see how Shane does this coming week at Southwick, which has not been the best track for him these past two years.

The Good Bonus: Dylan Ferrandis | 2nd Place Overall

Dylan doesn't seem too interested in "slowly working himself back into race shape" after returning from the injury he sustained in Supercross, because he has been letting it rip these past two weeks. This was his second race back and he was second on the podium. Quite impressive, if you ask me. I don't think it'll be long until he wins his first overall of the season. Star Racing Yamaha may have had a rough Supercross season, in which every rider besides Aaron Plessinger dealt with injuries at one point or another. It even got to the point where they had to hire Thomas Ramette to even have a rider behind the gate on the East Coast. But, this outdoor season is shaping up to be successful on many levels for them. Aaron Plessinger has the red plate, Justin Cooper is showing incredible potential, Dylan Ferrandis could very well compete for race wins every weekend from here on out, and Colt Nichols is back on track. That's a much better set of circumstances than most of the other teams right now, and Bobby Regan has to be pleased with how things are currently going.

The Bad: RJ Hampshire | 12th Place Overall

RJ was doing it! He looked to have the speed to snag his first moto podium of the season early on in the first moto, and then he started making mistakes left and right. Those mistakes pushed him back to fourth place, and while he did make a charge towards the end of the moto, he'd finish in fourth. That was alright, though, because he still had a solid chance of landing on the overall podium with a decent moto two finish. And for most of the second moto, he was running around seventh and it seemed like he had a chance of making the overall podium with how wonky the overall points were looking. But then he had a "big get off" (according to him) on the last lap which resulted in him not finishing the moto. He still scored a 19th, but that relegated him back to 12th overall which is definitely not where he was hoping to end up. The hits keep coming for GEICO Honda. He stated on his Instagram after the race that he hopes to get cleared in time to race Southwick, but I guess we'll have to wait for the official word later in the week.

The Ugly: Jeremy Martin | 9th Place Overall

Oof, this one was rough, guys. It's bad enough when someone gets hurt and the broadcast either shows the crash or the rider on the ground, and your attention turns from watching the racing to wondering how the rider is doing. But the sight of Jeremy laying motionless not he side of the track, his goggles off, his face full of fear, was downright scary. It took all of the fun out of that race. It was a deflating feeling, and the wait for any news on him felt like an eternity. Steve Matthes came through later in the race with the news that he had full motion of his limbs and that he was responsive, which was great to hear, but then the attention turned from his immediate condition to what the injury actually is. And, well, that news wasn't so great. He sustained a burst fracture of his L1 vertebrae, and while he is expected to make a full recovery, he's going to be on the mend for a while. This is the ugly side of our sport. Every rider on the line knows that they could get injured at any point during a race or practice session. It's an unwanted, potential consequence of riding dirt bikes, but that doesn't make it any less devastating when someone does go down in a brutal way. Unfortunately, this also took a title contender out of the mix, so hopefully someone else steps up to challenge Aaron Plessinger. Maybe Alex Martin will get back in the mix?

450 Class

The Good: Justin Barcia | 2nd Place Overall

It's crazy how some riders in this sport can fall to the very bottom, struggle to even find a ride, and then less than a year later be back up on the podium. That's been the story of Justin Barcia over the past eight months or so. He lost his ride with JGR, couldn't lock down anything so he did Monster Cup on his own, and then he eventually landed a fill-in (and now full-time) ride with Monster Energy Yamaha. And since he has been back on blue, he has been pretty damn fast and consistent. He had the potential of having one of his best Supercross seasons in years before he got injured in Arlington, and now he could very well be on his way to having his best outdoor season since 2015. It seems like he has finally found a bike that he's completely comfortable on again, and as always with Justin that means he's going to be looking like a wildman all the time. He may look like he's out of control, the rear end of his bike may be going every which way in the corners, but he knows exactly what he's doing. It's nice to see him performing at such a high level once again.

The Bad: Benny Bloss | 9th Place Overall

Was Benny's day really that bad? Not at all, ninth overall is nothing to cry over. However, he was at the tail end of the train of factory bikes and thus the worst finishing factory rider of the weekend. He just didn't seem to have the speed this weekend, as in the second moto he got a great start but quickly faded back to around eighth, which is where he'd finish. What does this mean for Benny in the long run? Not a whole lot, honestly. He has been doing great this season so to have one off weekend isn't bad. Further, he is the second rider on the team, so I don't think there's a ton of pressure on him as long as he keeps it inside the top 10 all season long. Of course, I'm sure Benny wants to nail down eye-opening results every weekend since he is set to become a free agent at the end of this year, but he has many chances left to do so.

The Ugly: Toshiki Tomita | 41st Place Overall

I'm not exactly sure what happened to Toshiki and why he didn't finish (or start, from the looks of it) either of the motos, but it's a bummer to see because he's quietly been having a rather impressive season. As they've mentioned on the broadcast before, he's expected to be Honda's next number one rider in the All Japan Nationals, but it seems like Akira Narita plans to continue racking up titles until he's about 92 years old. So Toshiki will continue to get seat time in our outdoor series until then. And like I said, he's been doing a pretty good job. So I hope nothing serious happened and that he'll be back on the gate next weekend. The last thing Honda needs right now is another injured rider.