Instead of the usual night race under the lights, Supercross fans at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., were treated to a sunny afternoon of racing thanks to a first-time live national broadcast of the race on Fox.
The Monster Energy AMA Supercross Eastern Regional 250SX Championship was decided, along with some spirited SX racing for the last spot on the podium. Let’s see who was on the Upside or Downside of the final points-paying race of the season.
2015 East Rutherford 250SX, Upside
Marvin Musquin – Red Bull KTM: For a time it looked like Musquin was not going to bother chasing down Justin Bogle for the win at Jersey Supercross. He certainly didn’t need to with a 21-point lead in the series, and through the first half of the race Musquin wasn’t close enough to challenge.
But as the laps ticked off, Musquin inched his 250 SX-F closer until it became inevitable that he was going to ride right past Bogle and Musquin would claim his 6th win of the season. “It feels so amazing to get this title,” said the two-time MX2 World Champion. “To get the win at the final race makes it that much better.”
Joey Savatgy – Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki: Finding consistency in the latter part of the season, Savatgy rode his KX250F aggressively at MetLife Stadium to secure his third consecutive 3rd place finish.
Savatgy put a hard pass on Jeremy Martin at one point, sending Martin off the track, and they faced off once more several laps later with Savatgy prevailing. Despite his podium result, Savatgy was frustrated: “Today’s one of those days where I struggled all day. I struggled from the first lap to the last lap, it’s just one of those deals where it wasn’t a good weekend. I want more, I think all of us want more, except Marvin, so just got to keep working, get ready for the east/west shoot out.”
RJ Hampshire – GEICO Honda: Hampshire has had an eventful rookie season with flashes of speed, and some spectacular tumbles. It was nice to see him bounce back to a fifth place finish after missing the previous round in St. Louis due to a hard crash in practice. On Twitter after the race Hampshire posted, “Finished out the east coast series with another top 5, and also 5th overall in points. For sure had my struggles but glad we toughed it out.”
Kyle Peters – Motorsport.com/Honda: Turning in his best result of the season at the last race, Peters took his CRF250R to a 6th place finish at MetLife Stadium and completes the season 7th overall in points, an 11-position jump from his series finish last year.
One Guy: It was his last chance of the year to make a 250SX Main and Luke Vonlinger made it happen on his Buddy Brooks Honda, qualifying out of Heat #1. Unfortunately, the Stanford, Kentucky rider was unable to start in the Main.
2015 East Rutherford 250SX, Downside
Justin Bogle – GEICO Honda: Bogle had the fastest qualifying time, took the SupercrossLive.com Holeshot Award, and led two thirds of the race, but could not hold off Musquin. From the podium Bogle said of his second place finish,
“Never satisfied without winning. It hurts, it hurts bad losing the championship, it hurts losing that race the way I just did. I don’t feel very well about that, so, congratulations to Marvin, he had an incredible season he was the better man this year, I’ll keep working and be back up here to be fight for another one of these things.” While a 2nd place is hardly a Downside, Bogle only managed to best Musquin once this season, and clearly that is not what the defending champion was aiming for when he was running his #1 plate all year.
Jeremy Martin – Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha: Letting Savatgy get the best of him in what was the closest racing of the night, Martin got shoved off the track in the middle of the race as the two were battling over the last podium position. Martin was clearly faster and quickly raced back up to challenge Savatgy several laps later, but then tucked his front end while trying to make the pass and went down. Martin still finishes the season in third (ahead of Savatgy), but letting a slower rider dictate results will not serve Martin well as he prepares to defend his Lucas Oil Pro MX Championship outdoors in a few short weeks.
Jimmy Decotis – Riverside Harley-Davidson/Honda: It was a shame to see Decotis end the season with an 18th place result, after putting together a string of top ten finishes in the past five rounds. “Today was one of the hardest days of my life,” Decotis said. “Had a stupid endo in practice and took a hard hit to the chest. Did everything I could to salvage some points. Just couldn’t ride the bike properly. Thank you to everyone who went above and beyond for me today.”
2015 New Jersey Supercross 250SX Results – Round 8 – East Rutherford:
1. Marvin Musquin – KTM 250SX-F Factory Edition
2. Justin Bogle – Honda CRF250R
3. Joey Savatgy – Kawasaki KX250F
4. Jeremy Martin – Yamaha YZ250F
5. RJ Hampshire – Honda CRF250R
6. Kyle Peters – Honda CRF250R
7. Anthony Rodriguez – Yamaha YZ250F
8. Mitchell Oldenburg – Yamaha YZ250F
9. Kyle Cunningham – Honda CRF250R
10. Luke Renzland – Yamaha YZ250F
11. Jace Owen – Honda CRF250R
12. Justin Starling – Yamaha YZ250F
13. AJ Catanzaro – Suzuki RM-Z250
14. Gannon Audette – Kawasaki KX250F
15. Preston Mull – Yamaha YZ250F
16. Levi Kilbarger – Yamaha YZ250F
17. Logan Karnow – Honda CRF250R
18. Jimmy Decotis – Honda CRF250R
19. Nick Desiderio – Yamaha YZ250F
20. Daniel Herrlein – Honda CRF250R
21. Dakota Alix – KTM 250SX-F
22. Luke Vonlinger – Honda CRF250R
2015 Eastern Regional 250SX Final Standings:
1. Marvin Musquin, Corona, Calif., KTM, 194
2. Justin Bogle, Cushing, Okla., Honda, 171
3. Jeremy Martin, Millville, Minn., Yamaha, 143
4. Joey Savatgy, Thomasville, Ga., Kawasaki, 133
5. RJ Hampshire, Hudson, Fla., Honda, 100
6. Anthony Rodriguez, Cairo, Ga., Yamaha, 98
7. Kyle Peters, Greensboro, N.C., Honda, 91
8. Jimmy Decotis, Peabody, Mass., Honda, 87
9. Kyle Cunningham, Aledo, Texas, Kawasaki, 72
10. Martin Davalos, Cairo, Ga., Husqvarna, 63
