450SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	54.995	2	57.018	Ryan Villopoto
2	3	56.136	14	57.162	Ryan Dungey
3	2	56.223	4	57.421	Davi Millsaps
4	4	56.478	5	57.485	Trey Canard
5	12	56.720	2	58.467	Chad Reed
6	8	57.255	4	58.521	Broc Tickle
7	10	57.261	6	58.709	Justin Brayton
8	5	57.404	5	58.499	Mike Alessi
9	6	57.508	5	58.436	Andrew Short
10	7	57.677	5	58.523	Matt Goerke
11	9	57.690	6	58.994	Vince Friese
12	16	57.889	4	59.406	Josh Grant
13	11	57.970	5	59.167	Jimmy Albertson
14	18	58.084	6	1:01.261	Matt Lemoine
15	13	58.336	7	59.749	Kyle Chisholm
16	14	58.446	5	1:00.029	Les Smith
17	15	58.525	7	1:00.017	Robby Kiniry
18	17	58.630	6	1:01.691	Cedric Soubeyras
19	19	DNF	DNF	DNF	James Stewart
20	20	DNF	DNF	DNF	Justin Barcia

450SX

- Ryan Villopoto set the fastest time of the night with 54.995 on lap 2. Villopoto was the only rider to set a lap under 55-seconds, and was the only 450SX rider to have laps under 55 and 56-seconds—54.995, 55.460 and 55.740 on laps 2, 3 and 4, respectively.

- Ryan Dungey set the latest fastest lap in 450SX with a 56.136 on lap 14. His 56.136 would also mark the second fastest lap in 450SX. Yup, a 56 was the second-best lap, but Villopoto had a 54!

- Dungey set 19 of his 20 laps under the 58-second mark—the most of any rider. And remember, he was in traffic most of the race. This kind of consistency is much more consistent with the Ryan Dungey we’re used to seeing.

- The track was obviously tough, and pretty long. Four riders (Robert Kiniry, Matt Lemoine, Les Smith and Cedric Soubeyras) had average lap times exceed the one-minute mark—the most in 450SX all season.

- The numbers confirm what we’re seeing: Davi Millsaps is super-solid this year. In Oakland, he had five consecutive laps (3-7) under 57-seconds, which was the most of any rider in 450SX. After reeling off five consecutive laps under 57-seconds, he backed it up with ten consecutive laps under 58-seconds.

- Ryan Villopoto had the most consecutive laps under 58-seconds with seventeen straight to begin the race.

- After the second turn melee that claimed a number of riders, Chad Reed set five of his next seven laps under 58-seconds.

250SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	55.453	6	56.640	Ken Roczen
2	2	55.988	8	57.073	Cole Seely
3	20	56.022	4	56.483	Eli Tomac
4	5	56.349	15	58.380	Malcolm Stewart
5	3	56.441	4	57.897	Jason Anderson
6	4	56.611	4	58.025	Martin Davalos
7	7	56.833	11	58.441	Kyle Cunningham
8	10	56.862	8	58.935	Zach Osborne
9	8	57.265	5	58.555	Austin Politelli
10	13	57.661	5	59.541	Jessy Nelson
11	19	57.679	5	58.792	Jake Canada
12	11	57.694	6	58.965	Tyla Rattray
13	6	57.716	8	58.715	Joey Savatgy
14	9	57.845	5	58.913	Christian Craig
15	12	57.958	4	59.251	Travis Baker
16	15	58.895	5	1:00.842	Jean Carlos Ramos
17	14	59.168	6	1:00.575	Chris Plouffe
18	16	59.220	8	1:00.272	Josh Cachia
19	17	1:00.135	5	1:03.319	Kade Mosig
20	18	1:01.604	4	1:02.771	Killy Rusk

250SX

- For the first time all season, someone not named Eli Tomac would set the fastest lap in 250SX. Ken Roczen would claim the top spot with a 55.453 on lap 5.

- Roczen and Cole Seely joined Ryan Villopoto as the only riders in the field to have laps times under 56-seconds.

- Malcolm Stewart set the latest fastest lap of the night with a 56.349 on the final lap! His 56.349 would also mark the fourth fastest in 250SX.

- Roczen reeled off eleven straight laps (4-14) under 57-seconds, the most of any rider in 250SX.

- Seely began the race with nine consecutive laps under 57-seconds.

- Another from the track is tough department: Five riders (Killy Rusk, Chris Plouffe, Josh Cachia, Kade Mosig and Jean Carlos Ramos) had average laps times over the one-minute mark—the most all season.

- And another: For the first time all season, two riders (Rusk and Mosig) would set every lap over the one-minute mark.

- Before going out of the race after a crash in the whoops, Eli Tomac laid down three straight laps under 58-seconds and two straight (2-3) under 57-seconds.

Comparison:

Ken Roczen vs. Cole Seely – Laps 8-11

Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Cole Seely set the pace early in Oakland, leading the first eleven laps before Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen made a late charge en route to his first victory in 2013. Let’s dig a little deeper and look at laps 8-11 to see where Roczen made up the most ground.

Lap	Ken Roczen	Cole Seely
8	55.739	55.988
9	55.689	56.525
10	56.182	56.4
11	56.824	57.571
Avg.	56.108	56.621

Roczen began to cut into Seely's lead on lap 8 and bested the TLD rider in lap times on three of the next four laps before taking the lead for good on lap 12 (the first full lap Roczen was registered as the leader). Roczen was knocking off tenths of seconds before lap 11 when he picked up nearly a full second--setting a 56.824 to Seely's 57.571.

Ken Roczen became the first rider other than Eli Tomac to set the fastest lap in 250SX.
Simon Cudby photo

Seely (A2) vs. Seely (Oakland)

At first glance, Cole Seely’s performances at Anaheim 2 and Oakland match up quite similarly. He led a ton of lap at both (10 at A2 and 11 at Oakland), but was passed for the lead late in the race and seemed to have lost stream down the stretch. Let’s look at his laps from the last two races closely to see what happened.

Anaheim 2 / Lap	Time		Oakland / Lap	Time
2	55.299		2	56.623
3	54.567		3	56.587
4	54.238		4	56.354
5	55.042		5	56.192
6	54.937		6	56.224
7	54.97		7	56.163
8	55.028		8	55.988
9	54.854		9	56.525
10	55.194		10	56.4
Avg. 2-10	54.903		Avg. 2-10	56.339
11	56.16		11	57.571
12	56.921		12	58.324
13	57.205		13	57.538
14	55.844		14	58.665
15	58.656		15	59.87
Avg. 11-15	56.557		Avg 11-15	58.396

 

At Anaheim 2, Seely ran lap times in the 54-55 second range through lap 10. On lap 11, he started to lose that pace, going from a 55.1 on lap 10 to a 56.1 on lap 11. He got back into 55s once—on lap 14—but also hit the 57 mark on laps 13 and 15.

Similarly, in Oakland his lap times were in the 56-second range for the first 10 laps—and he even hit a 55 on lap eight. But again on lap 11, he lost steam, jumping into the 57s on the 11th lap, and then compounding that with times ranging in the 57-59 range through the finish.

After the race, Seely told Racer X’s Aaron Hansel that he has been “trying to ride smart races,” and would “rather take a second than go down and end up in last.” So maybe Seely was making the smart decision to back it down a touch, or maybe he just lost stream down the stretch—he is only four races back from a long injury. Maybe he just lost momentum once he lost the lead. Either way, at both races, Seely’s first ten laps were great, but his last five weren’t as strong.