Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen captured his third 450 AMA Pro Motocross overall of the year in Tennessee at Muddy Creek Raceway today. The young German split wins with teammate Ryan Dungey, but his win in the tie-breaking second moto sealed the deal for the 450-class rookie. Unfortunately for him, however, he was unable to gain any ground in the points standings on Dungey. The gap between the two KTM stars remains the same at 16.
Putting in an impressive ride in his first race back since breaking his collarbone in May ( just prior to the Supercross final at Las Vegas) was GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac. After surprising everyone by topping the 450 class in qualifying, Tomac managed to get on the podium at the end of the day with third overall.
In the first moto, Tomac got the holeshot with Roczen in tow, but the former MX2 World Champion didn’t wait long to strike, passing Tomac on the second lap.
But Roczen’s lead was short-lived when he went down, giving the lead back to Tomac and positions to Honda Muscle Milk’s Trey Canard, BTO Sports/KTM’s Matt Georke and Dungey.
But eventually the Red Bull KTM duo — led by Dungey — would get past Tomac, Canard and Georke, making it a 1-2 finish for the KTM team.
Tomac finished third.
Dungey nailed the holeshot in moto two but couldn’t fight back his teammate, Roczen, the German getting around Dungey early in the race and running off with the win.
Dungey ended up second, with Tomac, once again, finishing third.
Fourth overall was Canard with two solid fourth-place finishes. BTO Sports KTM’s Andrew Short ended the day fifth with a 6-8 tally, followed by RCH Racing/Suzuki’s Weston Peick (10-5).
In seventh with a 9-7 tally was the lone Monster Energy Kawasaki rider Brett Metcalfe. Metcalfe’s teammate Jake Weimer did not suit up at Muddy Creek, as he is still recovering from an injury that he sustained at the previous round at High Point.
It was a rough day for Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart who got caught up in first-turn crashes in both motos, but he recovered to finish fifth in moto one and 11th in moto two (despite a second crash) to end the day eighth overall.
Rounding out the top 10 was the Toyota/JGRMX/Yamaha duo of Josh Grant (11-6) and Justin Brayton (8-15).
2014 Tennessee National
450 Motocross Overall Results
1. Ken Roczen (KTM) 2-1
2. Ryan Dungey (KTM) 1-2
3. Eli Tomac (Honda) 3-3
4. Trey Canard (Honda) 4-4
5. Andrew Short (KTM) 6-8
6. Weston Peick (Suzuki) 10-5
7. Brett Metcalfe (Kawasaki) 9-7
8. James Stewart (Suzuki) 5-11
9. Josh Grant (Yamaha) 11-6
10. Justin Brayton (Yamaha) 8-15
