Motocross Illustrated by Meyer Publishing

Unstoppable Force Story Feld Images Kawasaki In a stadium devoid of fans but fulfilling the promise of the full 17-round 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, Round 11 Presented by Toyota, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac took the 450SX Class victory after some early-race battles at round 11 in Rice-Eccles Stadium. Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb fought his way up to, then defended the second-place position, and Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen held onto the bike during a scary near-crash in the closing laps to grab the final spot on the podium. In the Eastern Regional 250SX Class, Monster Energy / Star Yamaha Racing’s Shane McElrath took the top spot. When the gate dropped after an unprecedented 85-day break in the season, Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM WPS’ Blake Baggett jumped into the lead ahead of Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo and Team Honda HRC’s Justin Brayton. Cianciarulo went down hard early while the three main title contenders, Webb, Tomac, and Roczen, battled and scrapped in tight formation. Tomac at one point dropped back to fifth, then found a pace no one could match and marched his way to the front. Six and a half minutes into the race Tomac got by Webb, and a minute and a half later the Kawasaki rider was past Baggett and never challenged for the lead. It marked Tomac’s sixth victory in 2020 and complemented his win in Daytona, Florida on March 7, the previous round in the modified 2020 Supercross schedule. The win stretched Tomac’s championship points lead from three to eight. Tomac said from the victory podium, “It’s so cool to get to go back to racing here in Salt Lake City and get back to riding and racing and doing what we know. Overall, awesome day there. The track got really slick at the end, lots of dust flying and lots of hunting for traction. I was a little slower early on, got to improve on that next time, especially if these guys up their game. So overall, really good day for points and just thanks to everyone.” In the Eastern Regional 250SX Class it was 2020 opening round division winner Shane McElrath leading from the drop of the gate until the checkered flag. The win closed McElrath to within 7 points of the championship lead with four rounds remaining in the division. Eastern Regional points leader GEICO Honda’s Chase

Sexton was third at the holeshot line and quickly into second by the second corner. Sexton kept within two seconds of McElrath for most of the race but could never make a pass attempt. Utah-local Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Garrett Marchbanks, winner of the previous round 85 days prior, was fifth off the start; two and a half minutes into the racing he got into third with an aggressive contact-pass on GEICO Honda’s Jeremy Martin and held the position until the end. Fresh from the win, McElrath said, “This is what we work to do. We had, I wouldn’t say some struggles, but it was like a big learning curve for me the first four rounds [on my new team]. Our results don’t show the progress we made. And now I’ve gotten to spend another 85 days since our last race on this bike and working with the team and making changes; and man, it’s been a growing time, not only mentally, physically, but also spiritually. The Lord is using this time, whether you believe it or not, I believe that this is for a reason and I want to be a light. I want to honor this team and the Monster Energy Star Racing team. They want to win, they’re competitive, and I feel like I fit right in there.” The Salt Lake City round kicked off seven races to run over the next three weeks. Races will take place and air live every Sunday and Wednesday, each held at an elevation of 4,637-feet inside the University of Utah’s football stadium, to complete the full 17-round 2020 series on June 21. Feld Entertainment’s Responsible Return to Racing has enabled the world’s premiere action sport to return for the fans, racers, and teams. The compressed but not truncated schedule allows the completion of the full seventeen-round series. The original Round 11, scheduled for Indianapolis on March 14 was the first race in the sport’s history to be cancelled. In a sport that traditionally brings racing to stadiums across the continent, Feld Entertainment’s new schedule keeps racers and teams in one city. They will adapt to the high altitude, alternating race-time schedules, more frequent rounds, social distancing guidelines, and the empty stadium seats; the 2020 events averaged 49,953 screaming fans through the previous ten stadium rounds. The next race takes place on Wednesday, June 3rd, at 10:00 PM ET. Race times will vary; please go to supercrosslive.com for the full schedule and don’t miss the action on NBC, NBCSN, and the NBC Sports Gold app.

Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations! The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost. Photo: R. Schedl

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Time To Win Interview Dan Lamb Images Honda

When the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross series went to Daytona way back in early March for round 10, HRC / Hondaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ken Roczen and Monster Energy / Kawasakiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Eli Tomac were tied atop the 450SX Championship points standings before Ken led every lap at Daytona except the last one and surrendered the points lead to Eli. After a nearly three-month unplanned hiatus due to COVID-19, the series reconvened today in Salt Lake City with all eyes on the Roczen-Tomac battle.

Early in the Salt Lake City 1 SX 450 main event today, Kenny went around Eli while the two were battling for the last podium spot, but in the end, Eli was able to get around Kenny and everyone else to ride away with his sixth main event win of 2020. Kenny was solid today but not good enough to challenge Eli for the win, and he ended his day with third place points due to Red Bull / KTM’s Cooper Webb finishing ahead of him as well in second. With Eli getting the win and Kenny finishing third, Eli now carries a head full of confidence and an 8-point lead into the final six rounds. After the racing was over, our man Dan Lamb was invited to a virtual post-race press conference and he transcribed Kenny’s interview. You can hear what Kenny had to say about the first-ever spectator-less SX race in history below. MXl: We came into this race knowing things are going to be different, but now we are through it. What was the biggest challenge today with all the different variables? Roczen: From practice on, I felt right at home. There was nothing really weird about that. I feel like we’ve never raced during the day like this, the track conditions. Maybe Las Vegas every now and then? We hardly ever race conditions how they were today, so I think that was probably one of the biggest differences. MXl: I know you want to win races. You were on the podium, but you lost a few points. Is there anything you’re looking at now that you’ve seen the conditions or the schedule or anything and now you’re thinking maybe I can change these things to try and get the win that I’m sure you want at the next round? Roczen: It’s honestly not ideal, but I’m not stressing by any means. Even though we are doing all these races in three weeks, there’s still a lot of races to go—six rounds. I think the team and I, we have a good plan going ’cause I left my bike the same as it was on sea level. We have a couple of little ideas to give it a little bit more oomph to make it a little easier in some of the rhythms and stuff, especially once we’re racing at night. Hopefully, the tracks will get a little bit better. I’m okay with it. I’m glad to be on two wheels and be healthy after that little almost get-off. Not ideal, but I’m also not super bummed and getting down on myself. We talked about it; it was really hard to make a big difference. Obviously, Eli was really good for what the conditions were and passing us. I made a mistake, he went by and I couldn’t really latch on. Everyone was pretty much riding their own race at one point. Third place is not horrible and not awesome, but we have six more races to go to redeem ourselves. MXL: Are you okay after your big save after nearly crashing with a lap to go? Roczen: That was not good. There was a little rut on the downside of the tabletop and I got squirrelly in there. Right then, I shot off to the right and as I was in the air. I said, “I’m done”. I literally just hunkered down on the bike and on the handlebars. I don’t know how I rode it out, but then I rolled everything on the last lap. I was like, “Alright, let’s just bring this one home”.

MXL: You guys did quite a few laps (29) on a simple track to ease you guys back into things. How did it feel and how did the track break down as you got into the later stages of the race? Roczen: Honestly, you start and try to fix as much as possible, but I feel like you don’t really have that much time to think. The track’s breaking down, we kept cutting down and the power of the bikes is down out here a little bit, so it for sure made those kinds of things tougher. The rhythm [section] I almost crashed on, I don’t know how many times I went over the table then three, then cased that one and went double-single—probably five or six times. Once the bikes get a little bit hot, they actually lose a little bit more power. It’s not significant, but at altitude, you notice it even more. Our bikes are so powerful at regular altitude. It was getting so bad and so dry that it’s such a fine line of pushing and not pushing. You go around the start straight with that long left-hander, you could have literally sipped a coffee right there because you were going so slow around that thing. It broke down, it got rougher and we tried to move out of some of the rough stuff, but then you could barely make the jumps. It was challenging. MXl: How surreal was it for you out there without fans and seeing banners up there instead of fans? How did it affect your race? Did you feel like you had to manage it differently because you didn’t have anything there to give you that extra oomph? Roczen: It’s just different. While we’re racing, we are under our helmet and in our zone, but Supercross, in general, is a lot more of a show I think. With the crowd being there, all the music, the fireworks, and all that stuff. Not having that is simply just different. It feels like a day at the practice track. MXl: I talked to some riders after the race today and everybody said the track was so challenging— whether it was the ruts, the dry and slick conditions or all that you’ve talked about, but there are six more weeks on this dirt. How do you think it’s going to hold up and how is it going to change, if at all? Roczen: Good question. In general, you would think if we are racing on the same dirt six times in a row— same as when we race at Anaheim 1, Anaheim 2, Anaheim 3 that we used to have—and it just gets worse and worse and worse… I don’t think it can get worse than this. The fact that we are actually starting to race later in the day and at night, maybe it keeps more moisture in it. It can’t get much worse, so I don’t know what to expect. Hopefully, it will go the other way and get better, but who knows. The challenging side of things was just that the conditions were so tricky. The track, in general, was pretty basic and having the bikes being slower made it tougher to make some of the jumps. The whoops were okay, but that whole section with those rollers… I was wondering what they were doing. We were riding almost in the 30’s [30-second lap times]. I’ve never ridden an SX track that was that short or that fast, I should say. I feel like they could have done a couple of things better just to not have low 40-second lap times. Hopefully, they’ll make some changes in the next few rounds and maybe it will get a little better Roczen interview

Not Beaton Yet Interview Geoff Meyer images Husqvarna

Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider Jed Beaton decided to stay in Europe during the lockdown and now as the tracks in Belgium opened, the Aussie gets his chance to work on some basic things and improve his performances. There is no doubt Beaton will be challenging for GP wins in 2020, and this time off might help him get up to scratch when the season does get going again. We called him and did this interview.

MXL: How much better does it feel to be riding again? Beaton: Its way better is not it (laughing). MXl: I was thinking about you the other day and obviously you spent a lot of last year on the couch because you were injured. How different does it feel to be on the couch because of this virus? Beaton: Its way different. It is like, when you are injured you feel like you are missing out and with the virus, nobody is riding and not a lot of is happening, so I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss out on anything, so completely different feeling. MXL: I have spoken to many people and everyone also enjoys this period, the quiet and for the riders less stress and time to enjoy training and stuff. How have you found it? Beaton: It is different, relaxed now and I am still doing my training and stuff, but nothing like if we were in the season and it is nice to just calm it down a little bit. We would all love to go racing, but we just deal with it and there is nothing we can do about

it, or anyone else do anything about it. It is nice to spend time with my girlfriend, because when the GPs are on, its flat out. MXL: Mitchell (Evans) went home, did you think at all about going home? Beaton: To be honest, I did not think about going home, because I did not think it would last this long, you know what I mean. I thought about staying here and I am close to the team and my girlfriend moved over and that makes it easier. I did not feel the need to go home and I felt it was a bit risky, so I decided to stay. I also thought if I went home, I do not know what the go is for getting back into Belgium and the factors like that, I did not want to have to deal with that stress. Now we can ride again. It is not like we have pressure to ride, and in a GP team it is not often you get to go to the track and just have fun with your team-mates. Normally you are always trying to improve and hammer down, but now it is nice to have some fun at the track and just

ride around. MXL: You are still rather young, so you are still learning and a long way from your peak, are there things you can work on now to improve that, with this easier period? Beaton: For sure, you are exactly right. Right now, we are trying to improve on the basic things, something we know we are not good at. During the season you are just trying to get faster and do laps and not busy with the basic things. It is fun and enjoyable, and we have time to do that. I think it is good we can do this. When I go home in Australia, it is not like they have tracks like here and I have more time there, but its nice to be able to do those things I do at home on tracks here. MXL: Gautier Paulin mentioned to me he has changed his training a bit, because now he can push himself harder without having to worry that he is wearing himself out for the next Grand Prix. Can you do more physical

training and maybe try different things now, with no racing for months? Beaton: Yes, for sure. You are kind of not scared to wear yourself out. You can do a hard training and then rest and the next day might not be as intense. We are playing around with things, things we could not during the season, and it is nice to do those things to switch it up a bit. Just going back to the base building is really nice and the weather is good, so cannot complain. MXl: Most times in the good weather you guys are flat out racing and training, so it must be really a nice change to get this weather when you guys can relax a little more and enjoy it. You cannot sit on a terrace and drink a beer, but you can enjoy the sunshine, I guess? Beaton: 100%, it is. Like I was saying before it is more enjoyable, even training. When I normally come back to Europe it is freezing cold, so doing long cycles or riding at Lommel, is a lot more fun than in winter, when you are dreading you got a two-hour cycle in the rain. Its also nice to have a barbecue and chill out. MXl: MA in Australia have already mentioned they won’t send an Australian team to the Nations this year, and this years event might be a bit strange anyway, but would you still like to represent Australia if the event goes ahead? Beaton: Well, I have no idea what is going on. I heard the story the other day that they want to incorporation the championship into the Nations and I do not know how that will work. Its hard to select a team because we have more than three Aussies racing over here, so the none selected riders, they can’t sit out the event because it’s a point scoring race, so I don’t know what will happen there. I saw that Motorcycling Australia will not send a team because of the virus. I always want to represent my country and in the middle of the season I think most teams wouldn’t allow you to race it and depending on the situation, like if you are challenging for a championship they won’t let you race it. MXl: Everyone has an opinion when we might come back, do you have any type of opinion? Beaton: Not really, I am just waiting for them to come up with something that is realistic, because everyone is guessing and making up stories, so it will be easier if we have a final schedule. They had to do what they need to do, so double GPs might be needed, as long as we get to go out and do our jobs and keep the sport alive and get the ball rolling again. It will be nice to see how the supercross goes and how much television viewing that gets and that might make things interesting. I just go with the flow whatever everyone else is doing.

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