Motolytics: A2, err….Glen Helen

Who is Glen Helen anyways?

Who is Glen Helen anyways?

 

Round 2 of the 2017 nationals has come and gone, and Glen Helen delivers again on many levels. Bike failures, rider frustrations, first time winners, and all the stuff in between. There was plenty to talk about and observe from the Helen, so let’s jump in.

 

Jeremy Martin returned to expected form with a win in moto 1, leading from start to finish. Savatgy stepped his game up this week as well running in second for the length of the moto. Plessinger would finish with another third, after struggling in the early parts of the race and eventually being one of the fastest guys on the track late in the moto. Forkner was having a good ride until a bike issue ended his race, and I believe the same happened to Justin Hill.

2:24.964 | 2:25.109

Jeremy Martin’s ACTUAL fastest lap compared to the second fastest theoretical fast lap belonging to Joey Savatgy. Being able to string a full lap together to be faster than everyone else’s theoretical fastest time of their fastest segment times is no small feat, so I felt it deserved some praise.

1.39

Colt Nichols’ fast-to-average lap time difference, besting the field for the moto. Starting 5th and eventually ending up there for the finish, coupled with his ability to string laps together at such a consistent pace is building Colt a nice base here for some good finishes, especially considering how spread the results seem to be from one moto to the next.

27

Adam Cianciarulo’s start position. He made his way to 7th, but he left some points on the table that he could surely use as he stands second in the points to Osborne, who finished the moto in 4th.

 

 

The story of moto 2 would have to be Dylan Ferrandis (or if you’re J-Mart, “Fernandez”). He led the whole race and finished 23 seconds ahead of Osborne. Jeremy Martin got the holeshot but would be a victim of Phil Nicoletti’s track watering techniques. Just kidding, he spun on a wet part of the track, there is currently no evidence of it being an inside job (yet). Savatgy, who had a great showing in the first moto, fell prey to…whatever issue it was the Pro Circuit team was having and would score no points for the moto.

12-2

In a head to head, lap by lap comparison between Ferrandis and Osborne, Ferrandis was faster on 12 of the 14 counted laps.

1.553

Difference between the fastest lap of the race by Ferrandis, and the next rider’s fastest lap, Osborne.

27

Passes made by Jeremy Martin on his way to come back to 7th after his pit stop to play on the slip and slide.

5

Different manufacturers of the riders who finished in the top 5.

1

Amount of laps where J-Mart was the fastest rider on the track.

 

 

Just like Ferrandis in his second moto, Marvin Musquin was able to secure his first ever moto win in their respective classes, as well by leading the whole race. Tomac was nowhere to be found off the start it seemed, making life difficult for himself once again by having to move through the pack. Grant rounded out the top 3 yet again, making it seem as though we might be seeing a lot of this for the season. Christian Craig was able to hang on to 4th, also running the 5th fastest lap of the race.

Lap 8

The lap Eli Tomac put down the fastest lap of the race, and not by a little bit. He ran a 2:21.829, which was also his “theoretical best” since he strung all his best segment times together on the same lap. The next fastest lap was by Jason Anderson, 1.6 seconds slower.

Best Average Lap time? Eli Tomac

Every once in a while, someone who doesn’t win the race will be shown as having the best average lap time of the race. How is this possible, right? The AMA discards lap 1 times since it isn’t a complete lap around the circuit. But what does it all mean, Basil?! Since Eli started in 12th and finished 2nd, the main takeaway from this is that had he been in a better position at the end of lap 1, he would’ve won the race.

2:25.537 | 2:25.537

Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin’s average lap times IF you exclude both of their worst laps. Give them both a mulligan and ignore lap 1, and they ran the race in the same amount of time. NEATO.

 

 

 

Moto 2 kinda has you thinking “maybe Eli just REALLY likes a challenge”. Again with not the greatest of starts, though not as bad as moto 1, made him vulnerable to the wrath of Glen (Helen, obviously). Another front brake issue would force him to roll around the track to get to the mechanics area, where he would lose an entire lap and be forced to ride without a front brake for the moto. He ended up 19th to salvage 2 points. Whether those will make a difference remains to be seen. Jason Anderson put in a killer ride and was undoubtedbly the fastest man on the track all moto, followed by Blake Baggett. They’ve both had rocky starts to their seasons, so it will be interesting to see how, if at all, this affects them going into Lakewood.

4 minutes, 40 seconds

Eli Tomac’s lap time while he rolled to the mechanic’s area and waited for them to figure out a solution to his front brake dilemma. If you discount that lap, his average lap time would have put him in the 11-12th place range.

13

Tomac’s spot in the fastest lap category, 4.6 seconds off the fastest lap of the race by Blake Baggett.

.91

.91 seconds was Jason Anderson’s average lap time ahead of Baggett’s, whose in turn was .74 seconds faster than that of Musquin.

1.783

Fast-to-average difference of Broc Tickle, the best of the race. He finished 4th after a 7th place start. Classic Tickle ride.

 

4.25

Of the riders in the top 8 overall from Glen Helen (9 and 10 were Tomac and Grant who would’ve spoiled this statistic), 4.25 is the average difference of their moto finishes. There is still quite a bit of disparity between the guys as far as consistent finishes go, so it’s pretty tough to predict where they might end up each moto. Seely went 7-8 and Wilson went 6-7, and if you assume Tomac wouldn’t have had issues, they would have gone 7-9 and 6-8, respectively. Plenty of place swapping going on back there still.

10

Baggett’s average start position for the year so far. He’s moved up from the back in 3 of 4 motos so far, while the other he started up front and stayed there to finish second. He’ll be kicking himself if he doesn’t start getting more consistently better starts as he sits in 3rd in the points standings.

3/4

3 out of 4 motos in the 250 class have been won by the rider leading at the end of lap 1.

 

As always, thanks for reading and see you next week!