Vital MX Perspective: Changing Landscape

Coming into round four of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, a lot of the talk was about how much the track had changed. There were several former features; either jumps or entire sections; that were missing completely. We checked in with Davey Coombs about the revamp, and he told us, "It was time to do a little bit of freshening up...a nip-tuck, or whatever you call it when you do plastic surgery. But we actually decided to go deeper and use the hills, and also at the same time condense the viewing area so that the fans would get more for their money."

Was it a more old school design? "That was the goal. There are so many things going on at some of these tracks...they're so busy, that sometimes it seems like there's not a lot of time to race because you're too busy setting up for the next thing and the next thing after that. We just thought we'd make it flow a little better and sort of not worry about the amplitude and the altitude, but let the guys doing the racing on the ground as much as possible."

But just as big as the changes to the track, are the variety of winners this season. Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin, Jason Anderson, Justin Bogle, and Blake Baggett have all won motos so far in the 450 class. It's just as diverse in the 250s, with Zach Osborne, Jeremy Martin, Dylan Ferrandis, Joey Savatgy, and Alex Martin taking checkers in individual motos. Seeing the results spread around a bit more is big...both for the riders and fans. Fairly often we see riders settle into their level after a few rounds. It's unique to see a bunch of riders fighting for wins on any given weekend, and there are still riders out there who could break through and score moto wins. Having a diverse and deep field? That's some landscape change we can live with.

It took a couple tries, but the first moto on the new layout launched up the hill. The new start layout is much more fair than the old gate.

Josh Grant led four laps at the beginning of moto one before eventually landing in third spot.

Broc Tickle was impressive at High Point with a pair of fourth-place moto finishes, and third overall on the day in the 450s.

Aussie Dean Ferris took advantage of the break in the Australian series to come over and ride his first-ever Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship round. He took over the lead from Josh Grant for a lap, but Blake Baggett was on a mission, and passed him a lap later. Dean wasn't shy about saying that he'd like to come race in the U.S. full-time.