Ryan Dungey (Photography by Steve Cox)
Today was Press Day at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, for tomorrow’s final round of the 2015 Monster Energy/AMA Supercross Series, and it was an opportunity to see the top-three 450cc guys on the track, as well as a 1W on Cooper Webb’s YZ250F and a 1E on Marvin Musquin’s 250 SX/F Factory Edition.
Ryan Dungey
In addition to the Supercross boys, the series finale of the 2015 Amsoil Arenacross Championship is taking place tonight at South Point Hotel and Casino tonight, and Rockstar Husqvarna’s Kyle Regal and Babbitt’s/Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jacob Hayes are tied for the championship tonight. They were both on-hand for the press conference at Sam Boyd, but we heard that although the promoter sent a car to pick them both up at South Point and bring them to Sam Boyd, Regal chose to drive himself. It could get good tonight!
Jacob Hayes (left) and Kyle Regal (right)
Here are some other key points from today’s Press Conference:
It’s been since his rookie season in 2010, but Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey has finally become a two-time AMA Supercross Champion. Next year, he’ll be joined in the 450cc ranks by teammate and 2015 250cc Eastern Regional SX champ Marvin Musquin.
“If I had to be teammates [in the same class as anyone else] I would pick Marvin,” Dungey said. “I mean, right now we already ride together down in Florida with Aldon [Baker, trainer], at his place. And I think it’s good, obviously with him being on the 250 now, he’s just going to be on the 450. But from what I’ve seen and what we have both gained out of it, as far as speed, and always have someone to push each other, Marvin is going to be a top contender guy. He’s always going to be there. And you know, we’re going to go out there and race, and do our thing, and race hard for our positioning. But I think if there’s one thing, there’s a lot of respect between us. Which at the end of the day, that’s what makes there not be any carnage or hate or whatever that is within the team. Or it might be on a 350. I don’t know. It’s his choice. [Looks at Musquin] What are you racing?”
“Well, that’s a good question,” Musquin said. “I always love to ride the 350. It has great power and it’s kind of like a 250 with a lot of power. I feel like the 450 is a little bit heavier. Anyway, I’m really excited to go out with the team and test the 450 and the 350. I haven’t ridden yet the new 350, so I can’t tell much right now. But I know the team is going to work really hard and I’m going to have the best bike for next year, that’s for sure.”
Marvin Musquin
GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac talked about how much more of a success he felt his second full season in the 450cc class went.
“To go out there and get my first 450 class win—didn’t do that last year,” Tomac said. “Last year was really rough just all around. So for me it was, I don’t know, it was almost satisfying. I mean not completely because everyone wants the Championship, but you’ve got to be realistic at the same time, especially when you’re racing against the best guys in the world. So, yeah. So far, so good.”
Eli Tomac
For Honda’s Cole Seely, his first full season landed him on the box quite a few times, got him his first 450cc win, and landed him third in points. Not bad for his rookie season, and he was obviously the top rookie of 2015, beating out Jason Anderson, Blake Baggett and Dean Wilson for that honor.
“I definitely had some good battles with Anderson last year, so knew that he was going to be tough to beat, and Baggett,” Seely said. “Unfortunately Dean got hurt. But I’m really excited to be on the top step as far as the rookies go. Had some fun times and learned a lot racing against with guys sitting next to me, so it was a really good year.”
And then finally, Vegas marks the 250cc East/West Shootout, where we get to determine which coast is best. Both Marvin Musquin and Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha’s Cooper Webb won six of the eight rounds in their respective series, but Musquin led nearly twice as many laps than Webb did.
Webb had the line of the entire press conference when a member of the press pointed out the disparity in laps led, then asked Webb how he planned to win the East/West Shootout tomorrow night.
He responded, matter-of-factly, “Lead the last one.”
Cooper Webb
The show starts at 6:30 p.m., PST, tomorrow night inside Sam Boyd Stadium, and if you can’t make it to the venue, the races start at 7 p.m. PST on Fox Sports 1.
