2019 Paris Supercross | Saturday Night Race Report

2019 PARIS SUPERCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

2019 PARIS SUPERCROSS | FULL RESULTS WEBSITE

The first night of racing at the 2019 Paris Supercross was eventful for every rider in the field, as no one in the SX1 class got through the three races (two Sprint motos, one Finale with a combined score to determine the overall) without having some sort of issue. There were take-out passes, poor line choices, pile-ups, and wash-outs, which made the points totals for the night hard to keep track of. But the commotion made for excellent racing and three different riders took the checkered flag over the course of the night. Here are our takeaways from the evening’s action, which will be combined with Sunday’s to-be-run races that will determine the 2019 King of Paris.

Justin Barcia has a big lead over the competition. The Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing rider was admittedly off the mark in the afternoon practice, as he didn’t know which jump was the finish line in the first session and was out of sorts in the second. Things got better for Barcia when the night’s racing started, as he bashed up to third place in Moto One, reeled in Jeremy Martin and diced with Malcolm Stewart on his way to second place in Moto Two, and stayed clear of any competition in Moto Three. With 3-2-1 scores, he has a total of six points headed into Sunday’s final, which is half the number of the second-place rider. It will take a serious issue for Barcia to miss out on the overall win and KoP honors.

Vince Friese has always been skilled at the start, but in the last two races (Monster Energy Cup and night one here in France), the SmarTop/MotoConcepts/Bullfrog Spas/Honda rider has managed to stay near the front of the field for the full duration of the race. He worked his way as high as fourth place in Moto One until contact with Barcia severely damaged the rear brake system on his bike and he limped home in fifth place. That Friese was able to be consistent in Moto Two and Moto Three was the big factor in his overall score and the pair of fourth-place finishes were well-earned thanks to long battles with other riders in the field.

Joey Savatgy’s first weekend with the JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing team has been good, and competitive lap times in qualifying showed how quick he can be on the yellow bike. Savatgy sat behind Justin Hill and Dylan Ferrandis in third place during Moto One and when contact between the two put one of them on the ground, Savatgy moved right into second place. A crash in the opening laps of Moto Two put him at a disadvantage and he spent the entire race in a fight to reach the eighth place, but his overall score rebounded thanks to a solid runner-up finish in the night’s last moto. With this, Savatgy is third overall.

Dylan Ferrandis is the fan-favorite of the weekend, as this is the first time the Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha rider has been in France since winning the 250 SX West Coast title. He was the fastest of the field in timed qualifying, was second in the Super Pole hot lap, and followed Justin Hill closely for much of Moto One. In the last two laps of the race, Ferrandis setup Hill for a blockpass and slammed his way into the lead for a very popular win. Moto Two was not as good because an early issue put near the back of the pack early, but he got back to fifth place by the finish line flag. The night’s last race was the roughest because a crash in turn one left him with a cut on the face and at the very tail of the field. His effort through the rest of the race was to salvage as many points as possible and the eighth-place result put him fourth overall at 14 points.

Malcolm Stewart’s night was marred by two crashes that were caused when the pack was tight on the opening lap. He went down in Moto One and remounted in last place, but wasted no time getting back to the SmarTop/Bullfrog Spas/MotoConcepts/Honda and reached ninth place at the flag. He was buried in the pack a bit during the first laps of Moto Two but soon settled into a groove and took over the lead. This was by far Stewart’s best race of the night because he never was rattled by Barcia’s block pass attempts or downed riders on the track, two things he encountered in the final laps on his way to the win. Stewart was involved in the first-turn crash with Ferrandis and fared the better of the two, as he got up quickly and used the long race to reach fifth place.

Cedric Soubeyras was the highest-finishing regular of the French SX Tour and he’s sixth overall 8-6-7 scores through the night.

Jeremy Martin did well in the first two motos, as he led a handful of laps and posted 4-3 finishes, but a bad suspension setting in Moto Three caused him to crash multiple times on the choppy track. The 13^th place result in the last race puts the GEICO Honda rider seventh overall.

Chad Reed was willing to mix it up with anyone that got close on Saturday night. Onboard his independent Honda CRF450R for what could be the last races of his long career, the veteran traded passes and crafty moves with riders on his way to 6-7-10 finishes. Reed wasn’t able to avoid incident, though, and he went down at different points in the night.

Jordi Tixier’s limited Supercross schedule continues with this weekend’s race and this weekend has been an indication of his true skill on the technical track. The French rider was on pace with the American guests and went 7-11-6 for ninth overall.

Justin Hill was the rider whose night was impacted most by incidents. The SmarTop/Bullfrog Spas/MotoConcepts/Honda rider had a mechanical issue with his race-spec engine in practice and had to switch over to the stock CRF powerplant but was the fastest in the single Super Pole lap and lead the majority of Moto One until the aforementioned take-out from Ferrandis. The two talked the issue over as soon as the race was over and there was no further drama between them. Hill was eighth in Moto Two, but regrouped and ran near the front for all of Moto Three and finished in third place. The overall is out of reach, but he could make things interesting on Sunday.

Ben LaMay is the last American in the SX1 class and was quiet but consistent on the night with 10-9-12 scores. LaMay is basically his own mechanic at this race, so it’s impressive to see him balance the two tasks so well.