MORE POINTS FOR TRIUMPH DUO IN PRO MOTOCROSS SECOND ROUND
The Triumph Racing duo of Jalek Swoll and Joey Savatgy left the second round of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross season with more points and showing further promise. Swoll had the most success at the Hangtown Motocross Classic in Sacramento, California, placing eighth in both motos to finish seventh overall. Teammate Savatgy suffered a technical issue in the first moto but recovered with a strong seventh in the second race.
With the team having spent a lot of their development and training time with the all-new Triumph TF 250-X on the dirt of the east coast of America, the first two rounds of the series in California on the west coast were always going to be about staying healthy and gaining as many points as possible.
The event started well with the two Triumph riders showing fast pace in the opening qualifying session, but it was Savatgy once again who turned up the pace on the #17 bike in the second session. As per the first round, he was sitting in the top spot with the fastest time only to be toppled in the very final moments. He took the second gate pick while Jalek achieved eighth fastest overall.
The first moto promised a lot with both riders fast out of the gates and staying clear of a first turn incident, with Swoll in sixth and Savatgy a little further back. Once the first lap settled, Joey fired through the pack and was up into the top five. Hanging on to the tail of eventual race winner, Haiden Deegan, Joey then encountered an unfortunate issue with 19 mins to go, forcing him out of the moto. For Swoll, after an initial strong start, he found himself back in 15th at one stage, but the Californian rider rallied to place eighth at the flag.
The track was well watered for the second moto, which made it very different from the first outing. When the gate dropped, it was Swoll who clinched a strong start and settled into sixth. He showed his fitness and class during the long moto in the Californian heat with strong battles throughout with many of the top ten riders. Teammate Savatgy was keen to make amends for the first moto disappointment and used his experience to overturn a bad gate pick to run in the top 20 in the first lap. The charge from the #17 continued and he progressed to an amazing seventh at the flag, pushing his fellow Triumph rider into eighth in the closing moments.
Jalek Swoll #33
“It was an ok day with good moments of riding and some bad moments - nothing to be pumped about, but at the same time nothing to be bummed about! I need to get some better starts next time out and get on the back of the leaders. But I feel good on the Triumph TF 250-X and we leave the California rounds with decent points. We are going to be climbing our way back up when we get to the softer dirt tracks, so I’m looking forward to Colorado and the rounds after that.”
Joey Savatgy #17
“There are still positives to take away from the weekend. Qualifying was good again and my starts were a bit better. In the first moto I felt like I was in a really good spot behind Deegan and believed I was in a good place to go with him. Unfortunately we had an issue which left us in a pretty bad gate position for moto two. For that race I just charged the whole way to the flag as I felt good and the bike was working well. I just need to keep my head up, keep working hard, and do it all over next weekend!”
Bobby Hewitt – Triumph Racing Team Principal (US):
“We knew these first two rounds for us in California would be a little tougher for us. We train mainly on the east coast and the tracks here are different – they are dry, hard and with square edges. But the Triumph TF 250-X still performed well here. Both guys qualified well and for the second week in a row we were almost the fastest. For Jalek, these have been the best two opening rounds he’s ever had in the outdoor season and the reward is being one point off fifth overall. For Joey, it was a rough day. He once again showed his speed and the electrical issue while at the sharp end in the first moto meant that he had it all to do in the second. But he showed his strength to recover and we’ll fully investigate the issue. As I’ve said before, our season will really start at round four at High Point.”
Results AMA Pro Motocross 250 MX - Round 2, Hangtown, Sacramento (Ca)
1st Haiden Deegan (Yamaha) 1-2
2nd Tom Vialle (KTM) 4-1
3rd Levi Kitchen (Kawasaki) 3-3
7th Jalek Swoll (Triumph) 8-8
14th Joey Savatgy (Triumph) 35-7
Standings 250MX Class 2024 after 2 of 11 rounds
1st Haiden Deegan (Yamaha) - 97 points
2nd Levi Kitchen (Kawasaki) - 84
3rd Tom Vialle (KTM) - 81
6th Jalek Swoll (Triumph) - 61
10th Joey Savatgy (Triumph) - 41
Round 3 of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross season takes place on June 8 at Thunder Valley Motocross Park in Lakewood, Colorado.
