The second 450 moto marked the first time James Stewart secured the early lead since High Point. Both JGR Yamaha riders Josh Grant and Justin Brayton followed Stewart through the first turn in second and third. Though both of the JGR riders locked down solid starts, they had both Ryans right behind them applying the pressure. Dungey had a couple of riders between himself and Villopoto, but Villopoto started an early-race charge similar to the first moto. He passed Dungey and then Grant for second. Dungey upped his pace and started picking off riders just as quick as Villopoto had to move into third.
Stewart, Villopoto and Dungey dropped the rest of the field to form a three-man race between the heavy hitters, but would Stewart be able to handle the pressure applied by both of the Ryans? Villopoto closed the gap between himself and Stewart, but a deteriorating track decreased the line options, allowing Stewart to block Villopoto’s attempts at advancing. In fact, Villopoto tried to rail around the outside of a turn to pass Stewart, but the lines came together and Villopoto was forced off the track by Stewart. Stewart was left with a decent gap between himself and Villopoto, and Villopoto suddenly had Dungey trailing close behind.
Villopoto pulled away from Dungey and back up on Stewart, only this time he would make the pass stick. He lined himself up on the inside of the long, sandy whoop section for the inside pass on Stewart in the proceeding corner. Dungey apparently didn’t want to lose sight of Villopoto because he too made a pass on Stewart within half of a lap. He scrubbed the finish line jump right next to Stewart and won the drag race into the next corner.
It appeared that Stewart had started to drop off their pace the next lap, turning a lap time three seconds slower than the Ryans, but he fired back the next lap with a lap time a full second better than Villopoto’s. Stewart started to reel Dungey back in, but the Red Bull KTM rider threw it away in the same section he suffered a mechanical DNF in the first moto. Both rider and bike flipped while exiting the uphill right-hander, resulting in Dungey being trapped under his bike. He got out from under it, ditched the goggles he was previously having problems with and remounted in third place. If that wasn’t enough, he had Justin Barcia trying to make a charge past Dungey and into third. Dungey was able to hold Barcia off to finish behind first-place finisher Villopto and second-place Stewart. Josh Grant held down fifth to land in third overall.
450 Moto 2 Results
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. James Stewart
3. Ryan Dungey
4. Justin Barcia
5. Josh Grant
6. Trey Canard
7. Malcolm Stewart
8. Justin Brayton
9. Mike Alessi
10. Chad Reed
11. Broc Tickle
12. Andrew Short
13. Jake Weimer
14. Ryan Sipes
15. Les Smith
16. Nick Wey
17. Ben LaMay
18. Fredrik Noren
19. Evgeny Mikhaylov
20. AJ Catanzaro
Click HERE for full results.
