James Stewart certainly helped his chances at the overall win by pulling a big lead right form the beginning of the moto. Stewart crossed the Motorcycle-Superstore.com holeshot line with two-to-three bike lengths over Minnesota native Ryan Dungey. Josh Grant moved by Dungey in the first few corners, but suffered a nasty get-off in the Millville whoops that would leave him sitting in last.
Stewart, Dungey, Alessi, Canard and Barcia rounded out the top five after the completion of the first lap. Trey Canard and Justin Barcia made their way around Mike Alessi and began to separate from the field with Stewart and Dungey. Dungey passed Stewart for the lead shortly after, and Villopoto moved up to fifth after getting by Alessi. Villopoto was still had some work to do to catch the top four, but a tip-over sent him further back to sixth place and increased his workload.
Meanwhile, Stewart regained the first place from Dungey and the two went at it, exchanging the lead for multiple laps. Dungey eventually came out on top and started to open up a gap. Stewart was still in position to take home the overall, but there was still a significant portion of the moto left. Barcia and Canard were creeping up on Stewart and threatened his chance at the overall win. Villopoto was also creeping up on the top four to make things interesting—he was a full second faster than the rest of the field at one point.
Barcia disappeared from the equation after crashing in one of the track’s blind spots. Canard then quickly moved up on Stewart and passed him with just three laps left. They repeated their battle from the first moto—this time for second—with the same intensity. On the last lap, Stewart tried to pass Canard on the outside of a left-hand corner, but Canard blocked his attempt. The line Canard used to block Stewart sent him off the track and around the following tabletop. He reentered the track with a few bike lengths over Stewart. Stewart was unable to get back into second place, but third was all he needed to win his first overall this season. Dungey won the second moto for third overall, while Canard’s 2-2 moto scores were good for second.
450 Moto 2 Results
1. Ryan Dungey
2. Trey Canard
3. James Stewart
4. Ryan Villopoto
5. Justin Barcia
6. Mike Alessi
7. Chad Reed
8. Andrew Short
9. Jake Weimer
10. Broc Tickle
11. Phil Nicoletti
12. Zack Freeberg
13. Tyla Rattray
14. Ben LaMay
15. Malcolm Stewart
16. Jake Canada
17. Broc Schmelyun
18. Justin Brayton
19. Evgeny Mikhaylov
20. Michael Byrne
Click HERE for full 450 moto 2 results.
