Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy made his 2017 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship East Coast 250SX title intentions clear with an impressive opening round performance in Minneapolis.

Winning last year’s Las Vegas season finale and missing the West Coast 250SX title by just one-point, Savatgy picked up where he left off with a win inside U.S. Bank Arena and claiming the heat race victory along the way to mark a perfect start to the season on a tough and technical circuit.

“It was a tricky track, soft underneath and crumbly on top,” said Savatgy. “We had a good start in the heat race and another good start in the main, and from there it kind of played out how it did. We were in second for a while and able to make the pass for the lead, from there we just tried to manage the little gap that I had.”

Not completely satisfied with his performance, the 22-year-old will continue to perfect his racecraft at Ricky Carmichael’s training facility ahead of Atlanta’s second round of the east series.

“It was a good night,” Savatgy added. “We’ll go back to the farm and work on some things that we can be better at and come out for Atlanta swinging and try to be better than we were this weekend.”

Savatgy now leads the east series by three points over second place finisher Jordon Smith, rounding out the top five is Zach Osborne, RJ Hampshire and Kawasaki teammate Adam Cianciarulo.