Image: Octopi Media.

Following round six of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, Chase Sexton (Team Honda HRC) shared his thoughts on the massive moment that saw him touch wheels mid-air with Cooper Webb (Red Bull KTM), sending the latter to the ground in dramatic fashion.

As the duo battled inside the top five in the opening stages of the second moto at Spring Creek, Sexton pulled up alongside Webb on the face of the finish line jump as they started the fourth lap.

Scrubbing in opposite directions, their rear wheels connected after takeoff, causing Webb to crash hard. Sexton detailed what he determined was a racing incident following the race.

“It was really close,” Sexton explained. “I kind of thought I had the pass made and then I don’t know, we came up the jump and I kind of expected him to whip or scrub to the right side. I feel like he was pretty close to the side of the jump to scrub the other way.

“So I went and just kind of tried to get as low as possible because he was still close enough that he could have run it in on the next corner.

“So I scrubbed the jump and I kind of felt our tires connect in the air, but for me, it didn’t upset my bike at all, but it kind of through him into – after watching it, it was crazy that he actually saved it as good as he did.

“I didn’t intend on getting that close and I was watching the video and it looks like it was pretty much my fault from the full speed video, but if you do slow it down you can see him kind of go right. Not saying it was his fault either but I think it was more of a racing incident.”

“I think he was pretty upset because I came around and he was revving his bike at me and stuff like that, so obviously he wasn’t happy with the situation.

“But again I didn’t mean to do any harm or make him crash so yeah, it was just we got close and I’m just grateful that it wasn’t worse and he got out of it pretty good and it was just a racing incident.”

Sexton went on to finish third in the moto, his 7-3 moto scores giving him fourth overall on the day, a welcome boost after a tough first half of his sophomore season in the premier class.

“It’s been a little bit of a rough year, Supercross I had a few get-offs, and overall just trying to learn the 450, I had to kind of take a step back in Supercross and regain my confidence,” he continued. “I finished out the year decent, then coming into outdoors I felt like I was in a pretty good spot with the bike.

“Then we go to the first race and you change everything. The first moto of the year went really good for me then they all kind of snowballed and went a little bit downhill. It’s just hard, I haven’t really been feeling comfortable on race day, with my bike feeling a lot different (from my practice bike).

“I couldn’t put a finger on what it was, but the bike felt really unstable and it kind of felt the opposite of my practice bike. So when you go to the race and you start off first practice and you’re frustrated, it’s just – you feel like you’re in a hole and it’s hard to dig yourself out.

“For me, today I finally felt comfortable from second practice on. Obviously, the first moto result didn’t show it, but I feel like I’ve made a big step and yeah, we have six races left, we’re only halfway through and hopefully we can start getting good results and be where I’m supposed to be.

“Yeah it’s been a little bit of a rough go so far, but hopefully we’re on the upward swing and can start battling with these guys and being up front.”

Sexton will look to grab his first overall podium of the season this Saturday as the series heads to Washougal for round seven.