A clutch pass with five minutes left on the countdown clock in the second 250 Class moto at RedBud gave Blake Baggett the moto win and shifted the tide to overtake Jeremy Martin for the overall victory as well.
When the gates dropped, Jeremy Martin earned the MotoSport.com Holeshot Award with Christophe Pourcel and Jason Anderson rounding out the early top-three. Behind them was a first-turn pileup that involved Marvin Musquin.
Baggett didn’t get a great start but seemed to have more in the tank than the rest of the field on a day that featured the first truly hot and humid race of the season.
The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider passed Anderson to take over third within the first four minutes of the moto, but he would have to contend with Pourcel next, which is never easy. It wasn’t until the midpoint of the moto that Baggett finally got around the Frenchman, and while they battled, it seemed like Martin might pull away out front.
Baggett flashed the vintage “El Chupacabra” second-half speed in this moto though. Having cut Martin’s lead down to two seconds with about eight minutes left on the clock, Baggett was on his rear fender just two minutes later and made the move for the lead on Lap 12, passing Martin on the inside.
The final margin of victory ended up being nearly 15 seconds, which may be slightly deceiving, as Martin seemed to admit defeat and back off once he had been passed. Still, Baggett was very clearly the superior rider in this moto.
“I got off to a great start,” Martin said after the race. “Tried to put on a charge for a little while, but we hit some lappers, and when we got to 20 [minutes into the race], I could see Baggett was right there.”
The late pass represented a huge six-point shift in the championship race. Rather than losing five more points to Martin, Baggett instead cuts into Martin’s lead by a single point and will enter the next round 27 points back in the standings.
After the race, Baggett said that even if it comes down to the final moto at the last race in Utah, “We’re not gonna stop fighting.”
Cooper Webb finished fourth in the moto and winds up fifth overall thanks his 5-4 moto scores at Budds Creek. Webb lost ten points to Martin in the points race and has fallen behind Baggett back to third overall in the standings, but the youngster is still very much in contention.
After winning the first moto of the day and getting a strong start in Moto 2, Jason Anderson would fall back and settle for seventh in the moto. It was still enough to land him on the overall podium in third for the second straight week though.
Budds Creek 250 Moto 2 Results
1. Blake Baggett
2. Jeremy Martin
3. Christophe Pourcel
4. Cooper Webb
5. Justin Bogle
6. Justin Hill
7. Jason Anderson
8. Jessy Nelson
9. Cole Seely
10. Anthony Rodriguez
11. Matt Bisceglia
12. Kyle Cunningham
13. Alex Martin
14. Marivn Musquin
15. Zach Bell
16. Dean Wilson
17. Matt Lemoine
18. Kyle Peters
19. Brady Kiesel
20. Jace Owen
Budds Creek 250 Class Overall Results
1. Blake Baggett (3-1)
2. Jeremy Martin (2-2)
3. Jason Anderson (1-7)
4. Christophe Pourcel (6-3)
5. Cooper Webb (5-4)
6. Justin Bogle (4-5)
7. Justin Hill (13-6)
8. Cole Seely (10-9)
9. Anthony Rodriguez (9-10)
10. Marvin Musquin (8-14)