Cycle News Staff | April 16, 2016
Once again, it was a Ryan Dungey/Ken Roczen showdown in St. Louis, for round 14 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, April 16. And, once again, it was Dungey coming out on top for his third straight victory, eighth of the season and the 30th of his career. The St. Louis race featured a rare afternoon race schedule. Next week’s race in Foxborough, Massachusetts, will also feature an earlier-than-normal start time (4 p.m. Eastern).
Dungey put his Red Bull KTM into the early lead in St. Louis but right behind him was his number-one nemesis, Roczen, on the RCH Suzuki, setting the stage for another exciting race for the win. And it was exciting.
Just like the previous week in Indianapolis, Roczen stayed right with Dungey, turn for turn, whoop for whoop. And every time Roczen made an attempt to pass Dungey swatted him back and would then actually pull away slightly, only to be reeled in again. At one point, Roczen did manage to get by Dungey but only for a moment. It went on like this way for quite a while until, just like last week, Roczen made the first mistake, a minor front-end washout entering a turn on the 13th lap. Roczen also lost a position to Jason Anderson in the get-off but would eventually get it back via a last-lap pass on the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Team rider, Anderson.
Dungey, who enjoyed about a five-second lead over Anderson at one point, eventually took the checkered flag 2.024 seconds ahead of Roczen and another two seconds ahead of Anderson.
Dungey extended his lead over Roczen by another three points. His lead in the championship has now grown to 48 and is approaching the all-important 50-point mark, which would give him a two-race lead and an early championship at Foxborough.
The first three riders—Dungey, Roczen and Anderson—all finished within five seconds of each other but well clear of the next rider, fourth place Justin Bogle, on the GEICO Honda. Bogle took the checkers about 19 seconds behind Anderson, while HRC Honda’s Trey Canard took fifth, about four seconds behind Bogle. Canard started the Main event in 15th place.
It was another terrible night for Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart. Last week in Indianapolis, Stewart pulled out after practice with an ankle injury and this week in St. Louis, he pulled out with another injury, this time after getting torpedoed by Westin Peick in a turn. Stewart dove down into a turn while Peick was jumping into the turn from the inside and their lines meet with both riders going down. Peick got up and finished the race, as did Stewart who was in obvious pain. Stewart tried riding the heats but was in too much pain to continue.