The lap times in Indianapolis were short. In the 450 Class, Eli Tomac's average lap time of 47.913 was the fastest average lap time of any race this year. Arlington turned in the next-fastest average time with a 49.397. These short lap times meant we got to see 27 laps on Saturday, the most laps ever turned for a 450 main event. Arlington and Minneapolis both saw 26 laps.
The 250 Class ran 20 laps, which matches Arlington for the most ever. Luckily for us, it was tight racing for the entire main event.
Let’s dive into the lap data to figure out how these races were won and lost with this week’s Sign of the Lap Times. First, our traditional lap time charts.
450SX Class Lap Times
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | On Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1st | 46.753 | 7 | 47.913 | Eli Tomac |
2 | 3rd | 46.873 | 10 | 48.330 | Ryan Dungey |
3 | 2nd | 47.032 | 20 | 48.094 | Marvin Musquin |
4 | 4th | 47.218 | 10 | 48.756 | Blake Baggett |
5 | 5th | 48.117 | 6 | 49.246 | Cole Seely |
6 | 6th | 48.399 | 4 | 49.380 | Davi Millsaps |
7 | 7th | 48.441 | 5 | 49.442 | Chad Reed |
8 | 9th | 48.624 | 9 | 50.092 | Jason Anderson |
9 | 8th | 48.695 | 14 | 49.368 | Broc Tickle |
10 | 13th | 48.723 | 12 | 49.942 | Josh Grant |
11 | 11th | 48.748 | 6 | 50.177 | Dean Wilson |
12 | 12th | 48.777 | 10 | 50.398 | Justin Brayton |
13 | 10th | 48.780 | 7 | 50.091 | Justin Barcia |
14 | 15th | 48.852 | 6 | 50.908 | Justin Bogle |
15 | 14th | 49.232 | 4 | 50.575 | Trey Canard |
16 | 16th | 49.500 | 10 | 50.779 | Jake Weimer |
17 | 18th | 49.563 | 12 | 51.442 | Malcolm Stewart |
18 | 17th | 49.602 | 7 | 51.273 | Vince Friese |
19 | 19th | 50.152 | 6 | 51.404 | Mike Alessi |
20 | 20th | 51.332 | 2 | 54.589 | Kyle Chisholm |
21 | 21st | 51.725 | 7 | 56.645 | Nick Schmidt |
22 | 22nd | 52.183 | 5 | 57.606 | Adam Enticknap |
250SX Class Lap Times
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | On Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider | |
1 | 2nd | 47.481 | 12 | 48.660 | Joey Savatgy | |
2 | 1st | 47.601 | 11 | 48.475 | Zach Osborne | |
3 | 3rd | 48.401 | 4 | 49.878 | Jordon Smith | |
4 | 4th | 48.502 | 6 | 49.625 | Alex Martin | |
5 | 7th | 49.063 | 5 | 51.171 | Dylan Ferrandis | |
6 | 5th | 49.089 | 6 | 50.212 | Adam Cianciarulo | |
7 | 6th | 49.384 | 9 | 50.280 | Christian Craig | |
8 | 8th | 49.762 | 4 | 51.236 | Mitchell Harrison | |
9 | 10th | 49.947 | 4 | 51.665 | Kyle Cunningham | |
10 | 14th | 50.309 | 6 | 51.828 | Luke Renzland | |
11 | 9th | 50.488 | 5 | 52.047 | Anthony Rodriguez | |
12 | 21st | 50.518 | 4 | 51.899 | Fredrik Noren | |
13 | 12th | 50.673 | 4 | 52.201 | Dakota Alix | |
14 | 20th | 50.725 | 5 | 52.547 | Jesse Wentland | |
15 | 19th | 51.162 | 7 | 52.216 | Cole Thompson | |
16 | 22nd | 51.355 | 2 | 51.893 | Jerry Robin | |
17 | 11th | 51.621 | 6 | 53.368 | Henry Miller | |
18 | 15th | 52.065 | 3 | 55.367 | Dylan Merriam | |
19 | 13th | 52.695 | 2 | 55.170 | John Short | |
20 | 17th | 52.814 | 5 | 56.206 | Josh Cartwright | |
21 | 18th | 52.982 | 2 | 55.611 | Gradie Featherstone | |
22 | 16th | 53.835 | 3 | 57.582 | Eric Grondahl |
The Top Three
Going into Indianapolis, many thought the track would be one of the roughest of the year and I was expecting this chart to look similar Oakland. Considering how soft Indy has been in the past and how many laps the riders were doing, the track actually held up really well and I think it shows in these times. They're pretty consistent, actually.
Also take note of how Marvin Musquin was able to drop his times just a little bit from lap 13-18. These laps turned out to be huge for the Frenchman as he worked his way up to Ryan Dungey's rear wheel, passed him, and motored away.
The Fade
Now let's look at how the gap between Tomac and Dungey developed throughout the race. It might not have been apparent if you were watching on TV, but Dungey was actually able to latch onto Tomac's pace for a little bit and even closed the gap down to 1.6 seconds after being down by three seconds on lap nine. But at the halfway point things started to go sideways for the two-time defending champion.
Indianapolis
As Musquin started catching Dungey I thought to myself, "This is Minneapolis all over again," and I was right. Again, Dungey loses a little ground early, gets caught behind a lapped rider and loses a few seconds, but then he makes a little bit of time back up on Tomac. In Minneapolis his fade started on lap 15 and it climbed quickly. Also notice that Musquin passed him on the exact same lap.
Minneapolis
Osborne vs. Savatgy
Switching gears to the 250 Class, take a look at how close Zach Osborne and Joey Savatgy's times were to each other. The only real outlier is Savatgy's 49.625 lap time on lap 10. This was the lap after Osborne made the pass on Savatgy and it allowed Osborne to stretch his lead out to 1.5 seconds, which proved to be just enough room to withstand Savatgy's charge on laps 12-15.
If you go back to the fastest lap time chart at the top, you'll see Savatgy had the fastest lap of the race, and he did it on lap 12. That's probably because Osborne logged his best time on lap 11. As you can see, Joey put the hammer down to try to catch back up. That's good racing!