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Joey Savatgy competes in the 2016 Pro Motocross Championship season at the Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado.
NEWS

Joey Savatgy On Top of the Rocky Mountains

Jun 072016

Last Saturday afternoon at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki MX250 rider Joey Savatgy struggled at the second round of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. However, a week later at the Thunder Valley National outside of Denver, Colorado, it all came right for the Californian as he used impressive 2-1 moto scores to claim the overall victory on the day. Back in possession of red number plate – which signifies the championship leader in the division - Savatgy spoke about his commanding performance in the Rocky Mountain State.

Monster MX riders compete in the 2016 Pro Motocross Championship season at the Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado.
Joey Savatgy competes in the 2016 Pro Motocross Championship season at the Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado.
Monster MX riders compete in the 2016 Pro Motocross Championship season at the Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado.

Joey Savatgy On Top of the Rocky Mountains

Joey, excellent performance at Thunder Valley. Your second overall victory in three races thus far in the ’16 Nationals. A great rebound result from your off-song day at Glen Helen, huh?

Last week was unfortunate, it wasn’t the best weekend. I’m not sitting up here and make excuses—I was little under the weather, didn’t ride well, didn’t get good starts. I didn’t put myself in a position to win and that’s nobody’s fault but my own. Whether or not I’m under the weather, I need to be able to perform at all times. That’s something that I learned, and we were able to rebound here. Had good starts for the most part and had a good week back at the farm with Ricky and Jeannie [Carmichael]. Now we have the weekend off and we’ll put in some more work these next two weeks and come out swinging at High Point and try to put ourselves in a good position.

Rocky Mountain highs and lows?

It was a little bit of both. Coming from eight in the first moto and passing Cooper [Webb] and passing Jeremy [Martin] and putting time between us, that’s a confidence booster. They aren’t slouches, so to be able to come from behind and put time on them, that’s good for me, a pat on the back. I’ve been putting in a lot of work, and I know everyone says that, but I’m not in California where everyone else is so people don’t see what I do. I’ve been putting a lot of work in and it feels good it’s paying off. Crashing took the wind out of my sails momentarily. It was one of those deals where I was more frustrated and angry with myself for making a mistake like that when I had that lead. I should’ve been more cautious, but I wasn’t. I learned from it, and got a good start in the second moto and put myself in a good position. In a class like this where there are as many guys as there are who can win, the Martins, the Webbs, [Zach] Osborne was up there, my teammates, you can’t get a bad start and expect to be up there with those guys. There are just too many fast guys. So we’ll keep working on the starts and like I said, the most important thing is just to put myself in a good position.

You were out front for 16 laps in the second moto. How did that moto go?

We got a good start and passed Adam up that hill and I was struggling a little bit at first with flowing. I was braking too late or rushing the turns, and once I got that down I started to put a little bit of a gap but then I heard someone catching me. I saw lap times on my pit board and I looked back and it was Alex. It was one of those deals where when you’re in the lead you feel like you’re going fast, but when someone starts putting pressure on you, you always find that little bit of extra speed. I was trying to control the race and he caught up to me. He was going fast, he was going for it. I had to pick up my pace and I ended up finding better lines. Once he caught me I knew he wasn’t going anywhere, he has good fitness like his brother. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was up to the challenge. I’d make a few mistakes here and there and he’d catch me, then he’d make a little mistake and I’d get away. There was a lot of yo-yoing but overall it was a good day.

Your coaches Ricky Carmichael and his mom is Jeannie had to be stoked with your efforts today!

No, not really. Not happy at all, you’d be surprised. We’ve been working a lot on motos and trying to get the fast laps in early and trying to break away. I already got a text from her and she’s not happy I got caught. Her words were, she’s used to working with Ricky and Ricky never gets caught! It’s hard to please someone who’s been in that position, but all in all it was a good weekend. I’m sure she’s happy that I rode well, but she was the first person to text me. She said, ‘We’ve got work to do,’ so it’ll be a long two weeks at the farm. But I’m up for it. Long weeks are worth it as long as you’re on the box at the end of the day.

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