As round seven of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship embarked on Millville, Minnesota, the home town golden boy Ryan Dungey was riding the wave of an eight race win streak. The proverbial favorite at his home track, Dungey was looking to extend his already insurmountable points lead over Mike Alessi as the gate dropped for the first moto.
A first turn pile-up swallowed a number of riders, but it didn’t seem to faze Jake Weimer, as the Idaho native grabbed the early lead. But it was short lived as Mike Alessi made an early charge and took over the top spot and began to put some distance between himself and the field. Meanwhile, points leader Ryan Dungey was working his way out of a hole after getting buried off the start.
But it didn’t take long for Dungey to push his way toward the front. After disposing of Weimer, Dungey set his sights on Alessi. But Alessi wasn’t going to make it easy on the championship leader. Using the entire track to hold off a charging Dungey, Alessi was doing everything possible to capture his first win of the season. But his efforts would prove futile as Dungey was just too much to handle.
The Dungey and Alessi battle for the lead allowed Weimer to close back in on the duo. Alessi, who used all of his energy trying to hold off Dungey, was unable to stop the bleeding and was quickly swallowed up by Weimer after relinquishing the lead to Dugney.
Dungey would run away with the moto win with Weimer and Alessi rounding out the podium. Justin Brayton used a late charge to hold off Andrew Short for fourth. Short would round out the top five.
Other Notes:
- Nick Wey suffered a huge crash in the sand whoops, which bizarrely ended with his bike landing in the creek that runs alongside the whoops. There is no word on the extent of his injuries at the moment
- Mike Brown and John Dowd, both of whom are in their 40’s, scored their first points of the season. Brown would finish 18th, with Dowd one spot behind in 19th.
- Muscle Milk Honda’s Tommy Hahn was impressive in his first race back from a broken finger, finishing in seventh.
- BTOSports.com Jimmy Albertson scored his first top ten of the season with a tenth in the first moto.
- Broc Tickle would also fall victim to the sand whoops. He crashed will running in fourth, but was able to rebound and finish just outside the top ten in 12th.
- Les Smith, who has had his share of bike troubles early in the season, scored his best finish of the season with his 11th in the first moto.
450 Moto 1 Overall
- Ryan Dungey
- Jake Weimer
- Mike Alessi
- Justin Brayton
- Andrew Short
- Tyla Rattray
- Tommy Hahn
- Josh Grant
- Michael Byrne
- Jimmy Albertson
- Les Smith
- Broc Tickle
- Ryan Sipes
- Christian Craig
- Cole Thompson
- Heath Harrison
- Vince Friese
- Mike Brown
- John Dowd
- Ben LaMay
- Ronnie Stewart
- Derek Anderson
- Kevin Rookstool
- Drew Yenerich
- Jake Loberg
- Austin Howell
- Dalton Carlson
- Michael Stryker
- Dakota Kessler
- John Greco
- M. Riehm
- Fredric Noren
- Kyle Chisholm
- R. Lind
- Kyle Regal
- Jason Thomas
- Matt Lemoine
- Dustin Pipes
- Alex Millican
- Nick Wey
