Ryan Dungey came away with the overall win at Washougal. Photography by Hoppenworld.com
Wet weather and mud were the watchwords for the Washougal, Washington, round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship at Washougal, today, where Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey pulled off yet another big win to extend his already massive points lead in the 450 class.
In the sloppy conditions, Dungey went at it again with AutoTrader.com/Toyota/Yamaha’s Justin Barcia for the overall win. Barcia has, as of late, turned into Dungey’s biggest thorn on the track, and Washougal was no different.
Barcia was fastest out of the gate in both motos. He ran up front and clean for the entire first moto, opening up a big lead, while Dungey had to make due with a fourth-place start.
While Barcia was running away and playing in the mud, Dungey had his hands full with Rockstar Energy/Husqvarna’s Christophe Pourcel, who was running third behind Barcia’s teammate, Phil Nicoletti. By lap five, both Pourcel and Dungey had ridden around Nicoletti, but Dungey was still working away on the Husky rider, Pourcel. Dungey finally made the pass on Pourcel on the ninth lap. By that time, however, Barcia was long gone and Dungey had to settle for a distant second, 29.5 seconds behind Barcia.
Pourcel slipped way back by the end of the moto but still hung on to third, followed by Nicoletti and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett. Rockstar/Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson took sixth followed by defending champ Ken Roczen.
Roczen was hoping to gain points on Dungey with just a few more rounds left on the schedule, but an 11th-place start pretty much prevented that from happening.
Once again, Barcia put the JGRMX Yamaha to the front of the pack at the start of moto two, with two heavy hitters right behind him—Dungey and Roczen.
Despite the pressure, Barcia looked solid again. Roczen, however, started to lose touch with the Yamaha and KTM that were ahead of him, letting Barcia and Dungey to decide the win between themselves.
Barcia looked to be in command but five laps from the finish, Barcia bobbled in the mud and tipped over, which was all Dungey needed to slither by and take the moto win (by six seconds) and overall victory.
Roczen held on to third but trailed Dungey by 12 second at the finish line.
AutoTrader.com/Toyota Yamaha’s Weston Peick finished fourth, followed by Pourcel, Nicoletti, Honda’s Fredrik Noren, Josh Grant, Trey Canard and Vince Friese.
Canard, in his first race of the outdoor season, went 8-9 for eighth overall.
Mike Alessi also made his first appearance of the outdoor season and went 29-19.
With three rounds left, Dungey is poised to win this year’s championship now that he has extended his championship lead to 69 over his nearest rival/s Roczen and Barcia. Barcia has caught the former sole possessor of second (Roczen). Roczen and Barcia are tied in points with Baggett holding on to a distant fourth.
RESULTS
450 NATIONAL
1. Ryan Dungey (KTM) 2-1
2. Justin Barcia (Yam) 1-2
3. Christophe Pourcel (Hus) 3-5
4. Ken Roczen (Suz) 7-3
5. Phil Nicoletti (Yam) 4-6
6. Weston Peick (Yam)12-4
7. Fredrik Noren (Hon) 9-7
8. Trey Canard (Hon) 8-9
9. Blake Baggett (Suz) 5-12
10. Josh Grant (Kaw) 11-8
