You can just stop taking guesses and making predictions in the 450 class of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship, because each moto seems to lead the contenders down a different path. It happened again in front of a huge July 4th weekend crowd at Red Bud. Chad Reed logged a superb first moto to hold off Ryan Dungey for the win, while Davi Millsaps took third. Ryan Villopoto? Crashed hard early and came from 37th to 9th.
Second moto, Villopoto snuck around the outside of Dungey in the second turn to steal the lead, and from there logged hard laps and got away from the defending champ. Reed started third but made a mistake chasing Dungey on the first lap, allowing Mike Alessi to get into third. Reed couldn't find a way back around Alessi until the halfway mark, and by then the Ryans were gone. However, with Villopoto going 9-1, Reed's 1-3 edged Dungey's 2-2 (again) to take the overall. So that's a good race for Villopoto and a bad one, and the same for Reed, with Dungey just behind each. No chance of picking a clear favorite at this point.
It's a little more clear, perhaps, in the 250 class, as Blake Baggett is now into his first two-race win streak of the season after going 1-1 again. Forget Baggett's on one-week and off one-week deal, he now has four-straight moto wins, and, he's now proven he can do it when he starts up front. In the first moto, Justin Barcia grabbed the early lead but crashed, leaving Ryan Sipes out front. But Baggett was soon around Dean Wilson to get into second, then tracked down Sipes and got into the lead. He took off from there, with Wilson and Sipes second and third.
In the second moto, Baggett was into the lead early, but Wilson was in second and keeping his teammate in check. At the halfway mark, though, Baggett put the hammer down and took off, leaving Wilson to a 2-2 day to Baggett's 1-1. Their Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate Tyla Rattray took third overall with a 5-3.
Wilson maintains the points lead in the class.
In WMX, Ashley Fiolek returned fire on Jessica Patterson, going 1-1 to Patterson's 2-2, the exact opposite of their results one week ago in Colorado. Fiolek maintains the series' points lead, with Tarah Gieger third in the series and also third overall for the day.
Stay here for more coverage, including a full race report and photos, later tonight.
