View From the Infield: Sand Blasted

Ken Roczen led the first four laps of moto one, but there was a three-rider (Barcia, Musquin, and Tomac) freight train assembling behind him. After falling to fourth, he stayed there until Blake Baggett got by him with less than a handful of laps left.

Eli Tomac was on a mission to work his way to the front. He got there...with two laps to go. But it was a good battle between him and Marvin Musquin.

Justin Barcia led for a lap until Marvin Musquin both got by him. On any given weekend he's solidly the third-fastest guy...but it's a lonely spot. He's good at chasing the guys up front and keeps them honest, and there's not really much of anyone else who can challenge him.

Blake Baggett carded a pair of fourths in Massachusetts.

Moto two's start looked a lot like moto one, except Eli Tomac wasn't quite as buried.

One thing you can count on at Southwick (maybe more than any other track on the National circuit) are some really fast locals showing the out-of-towners how to do it. Chris Canning filled that role this year with an 11-15 score and 12th overall.

The other thing you'll get at Southwick is one of the tracks where two-strokes are pretty effective. Gared Steinke didn't make the show this week, so it was up to Kyle Murdoch to show the two-stroke faithful how it's done.

Lorenzo Locurcio scored a pair of seventh-place finishes, his best of the season.

After a tough weekend at Muddy Creek, Benny Bloss looked like he was more up to his usual pace, finishing sixth with a pair of sixth-place moto scores.

After winning moto one, Eli Tomac looked like he was on a mission in moto two. He's built a big lead, and unfortunately, he sent it a bit too far into the braking bumps here and got tossed over the bars.

After relighting the big Kawi, Eli quickly got back up to speed...but was dealing with a clutch lever that was way lower than he'd like.

With the big lead gone, and Marvin hot on his heels, Eli quickly started working on rebuilding the gap. But another crash handed the lead to the KTM rider.

It was good to see Cooper Webb back in action. His 8-9 tally was good for eighth overall.

Marvin may not have had the speed to race heads-up with Eli here, but consistency worked for him, with a 2-1 overall.

Afterwards, Eli said he was gutted giving one away like that.

The last time we were in this region, it was when Marvin and Eli tangled at Foxborough. Apparently, some of the fans aren't totally over it yet, but they're coming around.

Wow, talk about a fragmented pack early in the race. Shane McElrath was on his way here to quickly build a big lead, while fast qualifier, Justin Cooper settled into second.

Much to the delight of the Southwick fans, Jimmy DeCotis was near the front of the pack early on. Aaron Plessinger (behind Jimmy) was third in moto one, and seventh in moto two to finish off the podium for the second straight week. However, he still does have a 23-point advantage over Alex Martin in the 250 title chase.

Justin Cooper was looking good until he went down in the rollers where he was run over by the trailing rider.

Chase Sexton was fifth in moto one, but had to settle for a 14th in moto two.

Looking at the huge lead he'd built after only three laps, you'd have guessed that it'd be an easy moto win for Shane McElrath. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way, and he slipped back to sixth. He rebounded with a second in moto two, good for his second straight podium finish.

Austin Forkner was the man on the move in 250 moto one, jumping from fifth to first by the midway point.

Alex Martin was another rider on the move, jumping from seventh to second at the checkers.

Here, Ferrandis gets by Chase Sexton in the rollers with three laps to go.

Coming into Southwick, RJ Hampshire didn't even know if he'd be able to race after a hard crash late in the second moto at Muddy Creek. He got a great jump at the start of moto two.

Austin Forkner looked like he was on his way to a 1-1 day...right up to where he and Alex Martin tangled and they both went down. The bad news was that it knocked the wind out of him and he was slow to remount. He finished the day with a 1-20 score.

Joey Savatgy was fifth in moto one, and obviously in the mix in moto two. We're not sure what happened, but he ended up in 16th in moto two.

RJ Hampshire finished a strong third in moto two.

When Forkner and Martin went down, Dylan Ferrandis was in the right spot to inherit the lead, which he held to the finish. He and the Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha crew were all pumped on his overall win.

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View From the Infield: Sand Blasted 4

Dylan Ferrandis and Marvin Musquin were the big winners in Southwick. But that's only half the story.

View replies to: View From the Infield: Sand Blasted

View From the Infield: Sand Blasted 4

Dylan Ferrandis and Marvin Musquin were the big winners in Southwick. But that's only half the story.

View replies to: View From the Infield: Sand Blasted

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