Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey won his first-ever AMA National at the 2008 Washougal National. However, coming into this year’s race, considering the characteristics of the track, Dungey was expected to have new competition in the ultra-smooth Christophe Pourcel of the Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki team.
Wharton held off Dungey for the first six laps of the moto, and then after Dungey made the pass, Wharton fell back into the clutches of Canidae/Motosport Kawasaki’s Kyle Cunningham.
From the back of the pack, Pourcel could only catch up as high as eighth, while his teammate Weimer got up to 10th. Dungey took the moto win followed by Cunningham, Wharton, his teammate Brett Metcalfe, Division 7/Star Racing Yamaha’s Darryn Durham, Muscle Milk KTM’s Tommy Searle, Broc Tickle, Pourcel, Max Anstie and Weimer.
Pourcel didn’t quite get the holeshot in the second 250 moto, but he was quickly into the lead, and he checked out. Meanwhile, Dungey started at the tail end of the top 10 and slowly worked his way to the tail end of the top five before crashing – twice. Even after two crashes, he charged his way back up to the rear wheel of Metcalfe and nearly passed him for fourth, but got fifth.
Pourcel won the moto over teammate Weimer with Wharton, Metcalfe and Dungey rounding out the top five, and Dungey took the overall win with a 1-5 over Wharton’s 3-3 and Pourcle’s 8-1.
| 250 O/A: 1. Ryan Dungey (1-5) 2. Blake Wharton (3-3) 3. Christophe Pourcel (8-1) 4. Brett Metcalfe (4-4) 5. Jake Weimer (10-2) 6. Tommy Searle (6-6) 7. Broc Tickle (7-8) 8. Darryn Durham (5-10) 9. Max Anstie (9-9) 10. Kyle Cunningham (2-34) |
250 Points Standings (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1. Ryan Dungey (337/4 wins) 2. Christophe Pourcel (337/2 wins) 3. Brett Metcalfe (251) 4. Tommy Searle (243) 5. Jake Weimer (215/2 wins) 6. Justin Barcia (210) 7. Broc Tickle (199) 8. Blake Wharton (198) 9. Tyla Rattray (175) 10. Trey Canard (139) |
450
Coming off a win at the Millville National, round seven of the series, with a 2-1 score, Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Chad Reed still had some doubting his abilities. JGR/Toyota Yamaha’s Josh Grant beat Reed heads up in the first moto at Millville only to fall off the start of moto two.
At Washougal, though, Reed left nothing to speculation.
Hahn moved into second early on, while Desalle moved into third, but neither could gain any ground on Reed. Reed led the whole moto and won it over Hahn, Desalle, Goerke and Grant.
Grant got the holeshot in moto two and began to check out right away. The only rider that could stick with him in the early stages was Jason Lawrence, who finished 10th in the first moto. By the time Reed got into third, the front two were checked out, but Reed began reeling them in quickly. It only took him six laps to reel in BOTH of the frontrunners AND pass them.
It was a plainly dominant performance from Reed with a 1-1 score. Second overall went to Grant with a 5-2 score, and third went to Lawrence, believe it or not, with a 10-3 score. Jagermeister KTM’s Justin Brayton was fourth overall with an astonishing 9-8 score, with Michael Byrne getting fifth with a 15-4.
At the end of the day, Reed extended his points lead to 65 points over new second-place guy Josh Grant, and in an amazing coincidence, Reed is sitting on 337 points – the same as the two riders tied for the lead of the 250cc championship.
| 450 O/A: 1. Chad Reed (1-1) 2. Josh Grant (5-2) 3. Jason Lawrence (10-3) 4. Justin Brayton (9-8) 5. Michael Byrne (15-4) 6. Jimmy Albertson (8-10) 7. Nick Wey (13-6) 8. Tommy Hahn (2-38) 9. Ivan Tedesco (11-11) 10. Clement Desalle (3-25) |
450 Points Standings (After 8 of 12 rounds): 1. Chad Reed (337/3 wins) 2. Josh Grant (272/1 win) 3. Andrew Short (258) 4. Ivan Tedesco (258/1 win) 5. Michael Byrne (207) 6. Tommy Hahn (171) 7. Cody Cooper (157) 8. Justin Brayton (152) 9. Nick Wey (149) 10. Mike Alessi (142/2 wins) |
