Steve Cox | April 23, 2017
2017 Salt Lake City 450cc SX Results: Everything seemed to be going in the right direction for defending champion Ryan Dungey leading up to the start of the 450cc main event in Salt Lake City. Tied atop the points standings with Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac, Red Bull KTM’s Dungey looked as if he had narrowed the gap to Tomac’s blistering race-pace in recent weeks, and Dungey held Tomac off to win the second heat race of the night.
2017 Salt Lake City 450cc SX Results
Then, off the start of the main event, RCH Suzuki’s Justin Bogle took the holeshot just in front of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson, Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM’s Blake Baggett and Dungey, while Tomac rounded turn one around 15th. Dungey quickly moved into the lead as he started lap two and put his head down, but behind him, Tomac was a freight train.
From laps 5 to 15 – 11 laps in a row, during many of which he was in traffic – Tomac scored laptimes in the 45-second range. No other racer on the track got into the 45s a single time, including Dungey.
During that 11-lap stretch, Tomac went from 15th to 2nd, passing Anderson for the runner-up spot at the halfway points of the timed race – 10 minutes into the 20-minute main event. Tomac trailed Dungey by seven seconds at that point, but he was on Dungey within only a couple laps, and then pushed Dungey wide between the rhythm lanes, only to mess up on the exit of the corner and hand the lead back to Dungey. However, only about 20 seconds later, Tomac made the pass stick in the turn after the whoops before pulling out to a comfortable 6.3-second lead at the finish over Dungey, with Anderson hanging on for a distant third just a few seconds in front of Dungey’s teammate Marvin Musquin, who started just behind Tomac and finished fourth.
Tomac’s teammate Josh Grant, who won his heat race in Salt Lake City, matched his best finish of the year with fifth place.
For the first time in Tomac’s 450cc career, he leads the supercross championship, and there are only two rounds left for Dungey to find what’s necessary to beat Tomac and defend what may end up being his last title defense if Dungey decides to retire as rumored at the end of 2017.
2017 Salt Lake City 450cc SX Results
2017 Salt Lake City 450cc SX Results
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