LAS VEGAS, NV, MAY 5 – As the saying goes, when the cat’s away the mice will play. Unfortunately for those thinking they could take full advantage of the long list of injured stars in the Las Vegas Supercross season finale and come away with their first wins of the year, or first of their careers, one of the cats was here and healthy – Ryan Dungey.
Dungey rode his Red Bull KTM to his fourth win of the season, the Minnesotan walking away with this one, leading by over 13 seconds before slowing in the final laps to beat JGR Toyota Yamaha’s Davi Millsaps by 8.5 seconds. Despite the beating at the hands of Dungey, Millsaps got the last laugh as far as the championship goes as he ended the season second in the championship behind Ryan Villopoto.
Muscle Milk Honda’s Justin Brayton finished third, some three seconds behind Millsaps, and he ended up in a tie for third in the championship with Dungey in the final standings, though Dungey gets the spot in a tiebreaker based on his four race wins. Dungey won his four races despite missing five rounds after suffering a broken collarbone mid-season.
“After the heat race, we made a change to the bike that really helped out in the main event,” said Dungey. “The track was hard-packed tonight and a little tough. I am really happy that I could get this win for the KTM team.”
Fourth place tonight went to Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer, the Idahoan two seconds behind Brayton at the finish. Josh Grant had his second best outing of the season, the Jeff Ward Racing Kawasaki rider finishing a strong fifth.
Star Valli Yamaha’s Nico Izzi ended up sixth, four seconds ahead of the fast starting Mike Alessi. Alessi grabbed the holeshot at the start of the race on his MotoConcepts Suzuki, but proceeded to go backwards in a hurry. He ended up seventh. R2MX’s Weston Peick was eighth with Chaparral/L&MC Racing’s Andrew Short ninth with Motosport.com’s Nick Wey rounding out the top 10.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Brett Metcalfe pulled off mid-race, the Australian having banged his head earlier in the day in a practice crash. Metcalfe started the race strong, and ran in the top five for the first half of the race.
Supercross Final
1. Ryan Dungey (KTM)
2. Davi Millsaps (Yamaha)
3. Justin Brayton (Honda)
4. Jake Weimer (Kawasaki)
5. Josh Grant (Kawasaki)
6. Nico Izzi (Yamaha)
7. Mike Alessi (Suzuki)
8. Weston Peick (Yamaha)
9. Andrew Short (Honda)
10. Nick Wey (Kawasaki)
