Osborne adds Ironman win to 250MX title

The championship was settled last weekend, but you didn’t really expect these 250 Class boys to lay up did you? There were still bragging rights on the line headed into the off-season, as well as that boost of confidence for next year.

Many of these riders want to end the season with a win, including Aaron Plessinger in front of the hometown fans. Adam Cianciarulo looked confident and hungry this morning during qualifying and Osborne would obviously like to show why he’s the Champion and take the overall. Check out the break down from each moto below.

Ironman 250 Moto 1

Looking to improve from last weekend’s tip over, Jeremy Martin rocketed off with the holeshot. Martin was leading, but eventually went down about five minutes into the race after a collision with Cianciarulo. Cianciarulo was looking super confident and aggressive at the start of the moto.

Zach Osborne - Image by Simon Cudby — Zach Osborne – Image by Simon Cudby

Another GEICO Honda rider, Chase Sexton, finally got a good start and was running up front. Sexton commented that, “he just wants to get a start to see how he can do.” Today, his start was great, putting him in podium contention for the moto.

Once Martin had gone down, Cianciarulo and Osborne began to check out from the pack. Osborne was putting pressure on AC for the entire first half of the moto and they stretched it out to a lead of over twenty seconds on third place, Chase Sexton. Osborne eventually made the move on Cianciarulo as Adam went a little wide in a turn, opening the door for Osborne to sneak in.

As for Sexton, he held third place and was fighting off the pressure from Colt Nichols until the final lap. On the final lap, Sexton crashed hard as he ran into the back of a lapped rider. He then crashed hard again shortly after that before crossing the finish line.

The unfortunate events with Sexton gave Colt Nichols his first career podium, giving him third place. Osborne went on to win the moto with Cianciarulo getting second. Cianciarulo commented on the mid moto collision with Martin, apologising and saying, “he would never ever intentionally cross jump someone.”

Sean Cantrell - Image by Simon Cudby — Sean Cantrell – Image by Simon Cudby

Shane McElrath did not line up today after suffering an injury to his hand on the podium last weekend at Budds Creek with the champagne bottle, that actually ended up requiring surgery. The Class was also missing Joey Savatgy and Dylan Ferrandis both out with injuries.

Moto1 Results

Zachary Osborne
Adam Cianciarulo
Colt Nichols
Aaron Plessinger
Mitchell Harrison
Sean Cantrell
Bradley Taft
Jeremy Martin
Kyle Cunningham
Chase Sexton

Ironman 250 Moto 2

This was it, the final moto of the season. The first moto was definitely dicey and some late moto chaos showed these guys weren’t done just yet. Osborne got off on the right foot today by winning the first moto, and then takes another solid win in moto 2.

Adam Cianciarulo ripped a huge holeshot, hanging off the back of the bike, clearly looking to get out front and run away with the race. Osborne was right there pushing Cianciarulo early, though. Plessinger was up in the mix as well wanting to make moves in that final moto of the year.

After a wild first lap, Osborne made the pass on Cianciarulo. Plessinger then drives forward, passing Cianciarulo to push him back to third. But within the very same lap, Plessinger would go down. Plessinger would stay out on the track for a little longer but would ultimately pull off the track to end his day.

Jeremy Martin was once again looking to redeem himself after his first moto fall. Halfway through the moto, Martin was running third with some serious pressure from Colt Nichols. Nichols, fresh off his first-ever podium finish in Moto 1 looked hungry for more and applied the pressure.

Martins’ GEICO Honda teammate Chase Sexton ran a strong fifth place after a dissappointing Moto 1 where he crashed hard two times in the final minutes.

With just under ten minutes left on the clock, Chase Sexton got a case of the speed wobbles while in fifth place. Sexton was able to correct, only come together with his GEICO Honda teammate RJ Hampshire, causing him to go down.

Zach Osborne

“It was a dream ending to a dream season. To go 1-1 here today was super special. I finally figured out some things with my starts this week and was able to make it easier for myself. It was a really good day and I’m happy with this ending to the season. I’m looking forward to the Motocross Of Nations and it’s a true honor to represent the USA as the team captain.”