Steve Cox | June 3, 2017
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results: There’s a saying in racing that goes, “If you knew the results ahead of time, there’d be no point in running the race in the first place.” That’s especially true of the Thunder Valley MX National in Colorado today. Most people, if polled, would’ve probably picked Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac to win this race; he’s a Colorado native, so he’s more used to the altitude, and he had literally won the majority of races run in 2017 prior to round three of the Lucas Oil/AMA Pro Motocross Championships in Lakewood, Colorado. Who would bet against him?
Maybe Blake Baggett would…
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM’s Baggett has been picking up momentum as the outdoor series has been ramping up. He made it through the first round of the series with solid finishes, but nothing spectacular, and then went testing with the team to sort out his factory-backed KTM 450 SX/F. At round two, he had another solid finish in the first moto, and then a great start in moto two had him duking it out for the lead for the entire moto, eventually finishing a solid second, and third overall.
At Thunder Valley, though, it seemed like a disaster for both Baggett and Red Bull KTM’s series points leader Marvin Musquin, as they got collected behind Tomac’s teammate Grant in a first-turn pileup and had to come from way back.
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Martin Davalos got the holeshot, but went down about halfway through the opening lap, handing the lead to RCH Suzuki’s Justin Bogle over Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson, Autotrader/Monster Energy/JGR Suzuki’s Justin Barcia, Bogle’s teammate Broc Tickle, Tomac, Honda’s Cole Seely, Monster Energy/Yamalube/Chaparral Yamaha’s Cooper Webb, Barcia’s teammate Weston Peick, Davalos and his other teammate Dean Wilson.
Baggett rounded lap one in 26th, and Musquin in 19th, while Grant was slow to get back to racing and eventually dropped out of the moto.
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
Out front, Bogle put on a show, eventually pulling away to a seemingly easy moto victory. It was his first-ever outdoor moto win in either class, and the first time he’d ever finished in the top three in a 450cc moto. Anderson hung on to second for the whole race as well and was barely challenged.
Behind them, though, there was a lot of action. Tomac eventually worked his way up to third before falling in a turn and having to restart his bike, losing a few spots. When he got up, in sixth, only six laps into the race, somehow Musquin was right on his tail, with Baggett gaining on both of them in eighth.
The train of riders went around Tickle, and then Musquin passed Tomac before finding a quick way past Barcia for fourth, but Baggett had some brilliant outside lines, reminiscent of his 250cc National Championship days, and used them to go around Barcia and Tomac, then set out after Musquin, whom he zapped only a couple laps later. Baggett had a few seconds to make up on Seely in third, but he did it in only a lap, then went right around the Honda rider. Musquin followed suit a lap later. Next up for Baggett was Anderson, but he was over 8 seconds in front of Baggett at this point. Still, Baggett chased him down, only to come up 2.5 seconds short at the finish.
Behind Baggett came Musquin in fourth, then Seely in fifth, and then Barcia in sixth, after he passed Tomac late in the moto, as it appeared Tomac had something wrong either with his bike or himself. Behind Tomac came Tickle, Wilson and Davalos.
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
Tickle snared the holeshot to start moto two with Baggett hot on his heels, then Barcia, Tomac, Bogle, Anderson, Webb, Grant, Musquin, Seely and Wilson. Baggett quickly went by Tickle, and Tomac followed him through before using a nifty outside line in a switchback to take the spot from Baggett and put in a sprint to lead the early laps. But Baggett held tough, and after a handful of laps he started looking for a way back around Tomac.
Tomac hung tough, but Baggett used the same outside line at the top of a hill that he had been passing people with all day and forced his way around the Kawasaki pilot to take the lead, then immediately broke Tomac by sprinting the next few laps to get away.
Baggett sped off to what seemed like an easy moto victory for him, and his 3-1 score was good for the first overall win of Baggett’s 450cc career (and the first in the history of his team).
Behind Baggett in the moto came Tomac, Musquin, and then Webb, who fought it out with Grant and Anderson on the final lap to take a strong fourth place. Grant was fifth, Anderson sixth, Wilson seventh, Tickle eighth, Bogle ninth, and Seely 10th.
Musquin ended up second overall on the day with a 4-3 over the 2-6 of Anderson. Bogle’s 1-9 was good for fourth, while Tomac’s 7-2 was good for fifth.
In the championship, Musquin managed to extend his lead by two points over Tomac and now leads 127-110, and Baggett is lurking only two points behind Tomac with nine rounds (18 motos) still left to run.
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
2017 Thunder Valley 450 MX Results
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