Whether you call it the 250 class, the Lites class, or MX2, the usual amount of time a rider stays on the small bike is right around three years.
Whether you call it the 250 class, the Lites class, or MX2, the usual amount of time a rider stays on the small bike is right around three years.
By:Paul Quesnel
Now this rough estimate of time usually fluctuates depending on a number of different variables, but barring any disasters, this timeline is pretty much always standard procedure. This brings us to the 2012 outdoor series, and with so much hype surrounding the Dungey/Stewart battle in the 450 class, it’s easy to overlook the numbers behind the headlines in the 250 ranks. Coming into the first round, we had five guys who were regarded as title contenders, and of those five each one is on their third 250 season or more. Although only one of these contenders is guaranteed to be moving up to the big bike class next year, I still thought it would be interesting to take a look at the numbers and compare them to some of our great 250 riders and what they did on the small bores. Also, I thought it would be cool to gather up some numbers from the European lites guys and what they had for statistics before they made the move over here. Enjoy.
Contenders
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Interesting Facts
-Justin Barcia won his only national with a 1-3 moto score while his teammate, Eli Tomac, won his only national with a 3-1 moto score.
-Last year, there were 6 tracks that Blake Bagget had never competed at professionally. Of those 6 nationals, he would win the overall at 3 of them.
-In 2010, Eli Tomac earned a 6th place in the series with 327 points. In 2011, he earned only 314 points and scored a 4th place finish in the series.
-Last season, Dean Wilson became the second foreigner to win the 250 MX title. The first was Grant Langston in 2003.
-Out of the 49 motos he competed in, Dean Wilson has only finished outside the top ten twice, and one of them was the first moto at Hangtown.
The Greats
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Interesting Facts
-Out of the 31 nationals he competed in, James Stewart was on the overall podium 28 times, and each of those were for wins. He never got a second or a third overall podium.
-The battle between Ryan Villopoto and Ben Townley in 2007 marked the first time since 1990 that the top two guys earned over 500 points in the Lites series. Moreover, they ran 13 races in 1990 compared to 12 in 2007.
-Both Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart started and ended their MX lites career at the same track. Carmichael started his at Steel City in ’96 and ended it at Steel City in ’01. James started at Glen Helen in ’02 and ended at Glen Helen in ’04. They both won their final race.
-In his final 250 race here in the states, Ryan Villopoto went 38-16 for 20th overall. It was his worst finish in the class by far.
-Ricky Carmichael would end up racing Steel City 5 times on a 125 but surprisingly, it would turn out to be his worst track on paper. He would only win 4 out of the 10 motos he competed in at SC and he would only win the overall 2 times. These figures would be great for anyone else but for Carmichael, they were well below average.
Europe’s Finest
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Interesting Facts
-Since the inception of the new MX1 and MX2 class’s in 2003, KTM has won the MX2 world title 6 out of 9 times.
-When Ken Roczen won his first O/A Grand Prix at only his 5th race, many thought the kid was about to go on a streak. Unfortunately though, it would take him another 16 races before he would get his second win.
-Marvin Musquin’s average overall finish for the last three races of 2008 was a 20.7, while his average overall finish for the first three races of 2009 was a 2.3.
-So far this season, Jeffrey Herlings has led 53% of the laps in the MX2 class, whereas Tommy Searle has led just 28%.
-2010 was the only season that all three of these guys raced against each other, but surprisingly they only swept the podium 7 times out of 30 motos and only 3 times out of 15 overall Grand Prix’s.
