2019 RedBud Motocross | GoPro Onboard & Analysis

2019 REDBUD MOTOCROSS | COMPLETE COVERAGE

INSTAGRAM | @adamcianciarulo
INSTAGRAM | @shanemcelrath_
INSTAGRAM | @locurcio56
INSTAGRAM | @deanwilson15

Time to watch the GoPro onboard footage from the 2019 RedBud Motocross. The seventh round of the 2019 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship took place at one of the most iconic venues in American motocross and the GoPro footage lets us all get a sense of what it’s like to ride through the sand rollers, drop down the ski jump, and send it off LaRocco’s Leap.

Thanks to recent developments, the camera company is back as a supporter of the series and has the popular HERO7 camera on the lids of Adam Cianciarulo, Shane McElrath, Dean Wilson, and Lorenzo Locurcio. The footage was uploaded online the other day, but before we posted, we watched all of the videos and made notes about what we saw. Let us know if you like our analysis, it validates what we’re doing…

ADAM CIANCIARULO | 250 MOTO ONE & 250 MOTO TWO

There’s a lot to take in from Cianciarulo’s opening lap in Moto One. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider was even with Alex Martin as they came out of the first turn and when they approached the second turn, AC pulled in the clutch and revved the engine in an attempt to break the JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing rider’s concentration, then blocked out the exit and took control of the lead. His time at the top was short-lived, though, because the decision to run an outside line around the hairpin turn located in the center of the track allowed Dylan Ferrandis to close the gap and he pushed Cianciarulo wide at the landing off the wall jump. This was the first notable issue in AC’s footage and it seemed to rattle him through the next few sections. The most important part of the video comes at the end of the opening lap, when a mistake up the face of the finish line jump threw him sidelines and off the track. Thanks to the GoPro perspective, we get to experience AC’s quick reactions, hear how much he was on the throttle, and see the way he re-entered the track at the end of the straightaway. 

The footage from Moto Two is equally hectic. Cianciarulo narrowly avoided Kyle Peters, who had a great start but went down after contact with Shane McElrath, and picked off a few riders in the first lanes of the track. Crafty line choices helped him close in on Ferrandis as they approached the tabletop that connects the two different parts of the RedBud property, but the Monster Energy/Star Racing/Yamaha rider closed off the inside line in the turn before the sand rollers and kept AC at bay.

Let me preface this next part by saying I have never raced at the professional level, so my notes could be disregarded at any time and it’s fine, but Cianciarulo has a tendency to use the outside line around every track and isn’t always the best route, especially in the opening laps of a race. It left him open to the move Ferrandis was able to do in Moto One and could be a small part of his mistake up the face of the finish line jump later in the same lap. Cianciarulo probably prefers the outside lines because he allows him to maintain momentum, something important considering his size on the 250, but all of that is for naught when the bike gets buried and bogged down by the soft dirt of some turns.

SHANE MCELRATH | 250 MOTO TWO

Shane McElrath’s start in 250 Moto Two was stellar and the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM rider was at the front of the field the moment the gate dropped. His contact with Kyle Peters is tough to breakdown from this angle because it’s obvious that he was on the brakes as the two prepared for the tight left turn, but the run-in was enough to put Peters on the ground while McElrath maintained his balance and pulled away unfazed. It led to his move on Ferrandis a split-second later and that shows just how focused and aware a pro racer is on the track. The back and forth between McElrath and Ferrandis is the opening lap is the sort of battle we love to watch; they used very different lines, stayed close together, and used their technique to get around the rough track. McElrath pointed his bike towards the smoother lines around the track and you can hear how he’s able to stay on the throttle longer or harder than those around him. It has to be a little stressful to make the run towards LaRocco’s Leap at the start of a race knowing that you aren’t going to send it over the big jump, hence the look over the shoulder that made sure no one behind him was going for it or that he was at risk of being landed on.

DEAN WILSON | 450 MOTO TWO

Little risky to go for the inside gate, huh? Not if you’re aboard a full factory bike and have as much muscle as Wilson. The Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider got out of the gate okay and his tight apex around the first turn helped him get by all of the riders that pushed wide through the bend. Moto One didn’t go well for Dean, as he went down two times in the opening lap, but he bounced back in the day’s second race and was in the mix with the rest of the factory riders for a spot in the top-10. We all know how out of sorts you can be in your first race after a long time away, so that had to play a part in Wilson’s return to action at RedBud. His opening laps seemed a little stop and go, as he seemed to bounce a lot over the bumps and was nearly at a standstill in some turns. Expect that to go away as he dials in the setting of the white bike and gets comfortable going all-out the moment the gate drops.

LORENZO LOCURCIO | 450 MOTO TWO

Like we said a few weeks ago, it’s wild to see how same exact moments in a moto look from a different perspective. Lorenzo Locurcio was just a few feet away from Dean Wilson at the start of the race, but the footage from the privateer’s camera shows the bar-banging of the first turn, the heavy roost, and the sense of urgency that everyone had deeper in the running order. And how about the big braking bump Wilson hits next to the mechanic’s area that throws the back-end of his bike up? You couldn’t tell this happened in Wilson’s video, but Locurcio’s clip shows how Wilson countered the move and maintained his drive.

Pay close attention to Locurcio in the next few weeks. The privateer is doing a lot with a little and he’s holding his own against the well-paid factory stars of the sport.