The opening round of the 2021 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season turned into a bit of a salvage situation for Team Honda HRC’s Chase Sexton, as a first turn crash in moto two ruled him out of contention for the overall.

As the gate dropped on the opening moto of the year in the 450 class, Sexton found himself in the mix at the front of the pack to kick off his bid for the championship in his sophomore season.

Charging through the pack toward the end of the race, he missed out on victory by less than a bike length, catching eventual overall winner Dylan Ferrandis (Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha) in the final straightaway.

Following the race, sexton recounted what was a frustrating first half of the day for him at Fox Raceway in Pala, California.

“Round 1 at Pala for me didn’t start off the greatest,” Sexton explained. “I had a rough time in practice, just finding a flow with the track and the bike. I turned it around in the first moto when I got a pretty good start.

“I kind of went backward a little bit and then found my groove and charged forward. I made a good push towards the end and got close to Dylan [Ferrandis] but couldn’t quite make it happen.”

After his near-win in the opening moto, Sexton’s hopes of an overall victory at Fox Raceway were dashed in a first turn pile-up forcing him to start from 40th place once he got rolling.

“In the second moto I went down on the start and from there it was an uphill battle, just trying to do as much damage control as possible,” he continued. “I got back to 10th and am looking forward to Thunder Valley.”

Salvaging fifth overall on the day, Sexton and the rest of the field now set their sights on the second round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season at Thunder Valley Raceway in Colorado this Saturday.