| August 20, 2016
The odds were heavily in favor of Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Ken Roczen leaving the penultimate round of the 2016 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championships, at Budds Creek, with the title clinched, but there was an outside chance of him doing it after the first moto. What it would’ve taken was a moto-one win by Roczen, and a finish of ninth place or worse for Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac.
And Tomac nearly made it happen for Roczen.
Ken Roczen Sews Up 450MX Championship
Roczen’s morning qualifying time was more than 1.5 seconds faster than second-place-qualifier Tomac’s time, so it looked like a tall order immediately for Tomac to take Roczen down heads-up.
But, in moto one, Tomac didn’t do himself any favors. BTOSports KTM’s Andrew Short got to the first turn first, but Roczen snuck up the inside to take over the lead right away and officially score the moto-one holeshot in front of Short, Autotrader.com/Monster/JGR Yamaha’s Justin Barcia, Red Bull KTM’s Dean Wilson, Barcia’s teammate Phil Nicoletti, privateer Dakota Tedder, Wilson’s teammate Marvin Musquin, and then Tomac. But on lap one, Tomac got together with privateer Suzuki pilot Ronnie Stewart, and after Tomac helped Stewart get out from under his RM-Z450, he returned to his own machine and went to work.
Tomac officially rounded lap one in 39th place, and by lap four Tomac had already found his way up to 20th. In the second half of the race, Tomac passed his way all the way up passed Factory Honda fill-in racer Freddy Noren for seventh place, then got Short for sixth, and that ensured that the title wouldn’t be decided for at least one more moto.
Roczen took an easy moto-one win over Musquin, who battled it out late with Barcia for the spot. Barcia ended up third in front of his teammate Nicoletti, then Wilson, Tomac, Short, Noren, Yoshimura Suzuki fill-in Matt Bisceglia, Traders Kawasaki’s Anthony Rodriguez, and Short’s teammate Benny Bloss, the last guy on the lead lap.
In moto two, all Roczen needed was 19th place or better to clinch the title. It was all going smoothly until his goggle strap broke on the starting line after the 30-second board had gone up, and then Roczen had to scramble for a new pair. It may have hurt his start, but not as much as you might think.
Bisceglia got the holehsot over Short, and Roczen slotted his way into third by the second corner despite a poor jump out of the gate. Short immediately passed Bisceglia for the lead, and Roczen followed him through before zapping Short in the off-camber corner at the top of the old finish-line hill to take the lead.
That was that.
Tomac started poorly again, finishing the opening lap just outside the top five, and he quickly worked his way by Bisceglia, Nicoletti, Barcia and Short to move into second place by lap four. At that point, incredibly, Roczen was already over 15 seconds ahead.
Roczen cruised to the win over Tomac by over 20 seconds to take the moto win, overall win, and clinch his second-ever 450cc National Championship—and the first for his RCH race team.
Barcia managed to hold off Musquin in the late going to snatch third in the moto, and second overall, in front of Musquin, whose 2-4 gave him third overall on the day. Behind them—23 second later—came Wilson, then Nicoletti, Noren, Peick, Short, Bloss, and Rodriguez, while Bisceglia in 12th crossed the line as the first rider one lap down to Roczen.
The final round of the championship will take place in a week’s time in Indiana.
BY STEVE COX
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