Houston SX II: Five big surprises…
Dylan Ferrandis – ‘Who you calling a rookie?‘
Many 250 class champs jump straight onto the struggle bus when they finally make the move to the big boy class. Arron Plessinger, Cooper Webb and even Ryan Villopoto are prime examples of this. But there mustn’t be a French translation for ‘rookie nerves’ as Dylan Ferrandis doesn’t seem to be aware of this phenomenon. We knew the dude was fast and aggressive, but were we really expecting him to be muscling around both the big 450 and the big-name competition so early on? We certainly were not.
The Jett
We heard the hype and we knew he had potential, but did anyone really expect Jett to be quite so dominant? The 17-year-old had a dream day in Houston, he decimated the 250 field in both the heat and the Main Event and he consistently posted lap times that would’ve put him at the front of the 450 field. Jett’s fastest time in the Main Event was 42.515, Tomac’s was 42.557. The only guys quicker than that were Adam Cianciarulo (42.272) and Chase Sexton (41.787 – insane!).
Jett lapped well into the top ten during the 250 Main Event and stretched open a sizable margin over his closest rival. The Jett will be riding a wave of confidence coming into round three, which combined with his incredible natural talent could be bad news for the rest of the 250 field…
New winners galore
Lawrence wasn’t the only man to grab his first chequered flag on Tuesday. Including Jett, we saw three new races winners. Michael Mosiman became the second rider to put GasGas on the top step as he grabbed the win in 250 Heat 1. As mentioned, Jett Lawrence won his first heat race and main event and Chase Sexton claimed the first heat race win of his young 450 career.
Should we be surprised to see so many fresh-faced winners in this new age of ultra-competitive racing? Probably not, but it’s still cool to see!
Max Vohland – The real deal
He may be getting overshadowed by the other 17-year-old wonder boy, but Max Vohland is quietly making great strides in his debut season. The lone Factory KTM rider logged a notable performance in his heat race, going toe to toe with the experienced RJ Hampshire in a battle over third. Vohland also improved upon his main event result, grabbing eighth place at the chequers this time around. We reckon this kid is the real deal and if he can stay fit and healthy we expect him to be challenging for race wins and championships by this time next year, if not before. Watch this space…
Old man Justin
This was the best kind of surprise. Justin Brayton is just the kind of guy that everyone roots for, and the moto world was happy to see the 36-year-old earn a piece of podium pie in Houston. But let’s be honest, if you said you had JB10 down as a real podium threat in 2021 you’d be a big fat liar…
Bonus – Brandon Hartranft
Seriously, someone tell this guy that you’re not supposed to be able to start like this on a Suzuki! The Twisted Tea warrior grabbed another insane start in the 450 LCQ on his way to transferring to the Main Event.
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