Ryan Dungey came away with the 450-class win after going 1-2 at Muddy Creek. Photography by Mike Emery
Ryan Dungey, on the Red Bull KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition, padded his points lead by another couple of points after claiming the overall win for the second week in a row in the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship today at Muddy Creek Raceway in Blountville, Tennessee, June 6.
With GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac out of the championship picture—having earlier in the week announced his pulling out of the series with an injury—Dungey scratched out two more points in the 450 class over his nearest competitor, and his only real threat in the championship right now, Ken Roczen. Dungey now enjoys a 37-point lead over Roczen with eight rounds still on the schedule. He’s 40 points ahead of third-place Blake Baggett and 61 points ahead of fifth place Justin Barcia (Tomac is officially fourth at the moment).
Roczen, however, made a statement at Muddy Creek that he’s definitely still in title contention after winning the second moto, his first moto victory of the year. A first-moto third—after getting off to a sixth-place start—combined with his second-moto win gave him second overall.
Dungey dominated the first moto. He started off in third, got around Rockstar Energy Racing Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson for second and then Autotrader.com/Toyota/JGRMX Yamaha’s Phil Nicoletti on the third lap for the lead before running off with the win, finishing nearly 30 seconds ahead of Anderson and then Roczen. Nicoletti ended up fourth and Baggett rounded out the top five.
Roczen went wire-to-wire in the first moto after Dungey got bounced around a bit through the first couple of turns.
Dungey completed the first lap in fourth, got around Baggett and then Cole Seely for second, and that was that. Roczen took the win about nine seconds ahead of Dungey, who at one point went down when he tangled with a lapper.
Anderson had a strong day. After an impressive second in the first moto, Anderson backed that up with a fourth in the second moto, giving him third overall on the day.
Fourth overall went to Baggett with a 5-3, while Nicoletti ended up fifth overall with a 4-9.
HRC Honda’s Cole Seely, Soaring Eagle/RCH Suzuki’s Broc Tickle, Autotrader.com/Toyota Yamaha’s Justin Barcia and Westin Peick, and BTO Sports/KTM’s Justin Brayton rounded out the top 10 overall.
“I spun the tire off the start [in the second moto] and that was all it took to put us in that position,” said Dungey of the deciding second moto. “I played catch up and was gaining [on Ken Roczen] but then a lapper got in the way and I went down. But that’s racing and like I said, we put in a hard charge…and got second [in the moto], which was good enough for the overall win. We put in two hard motos today and that’s what counts. We’ve got to keep pushing, there’s a lot of racing left and we need to give each moto our all.”
So it appears that the 450 Championship has developed into a two-man race for the number-one plate between Dungey and Roczen. In the remaining 16 motos, both riders still need to hammer out wins, but most of the pressure is certainly on the defending champ, Roczen, who needs to put a string of wins together to get back into the hunt.
RESULTS
Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship
Round 4
Muddy Creek Raceway
Blountville, Tennessee
June 6, 2015
450 NATIONAL
1. Ryan Dungey (KTM) 1-2
2. Ken Roczen (Suz) 3-1
3. Jason Anderson (Hus) 2-4
4. Blake Baggett (Suz) 5-3
5. Phillip Nicoletti (Yam) 4-9
6. Cole Seely (Hon) 8-5
7. Broc Tickle (Suz) 7-7
8. Justin Barcia (Yam) 9-6
9. Weston Peick (Yam) 9-6
10. Justin Brayton (KTM) 11-8
