Josh Grant nailed the holeshot and a spot on the podium in the first moto, but wasn’t able to line up for the second moto since he needed an IV following the first race. While Grant received attention from the Asterisk medical unit, his JGR Yamaha teammate, Justin Brayton, took the torch and got the holeshot in moto two. Unfortunately, Brayton’s run up front didn’t last as long as his teammate’s. His early lead was quickly eaten up by usual frontrunners Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey and Justin Barcia. The top three riders separated from the rest of the pack and their race remained stagnant for the majority of the moto. Ryan Villopoto closed his season with a clean sweep at Lake Elsinore and, as most of you know, will be missing the Motocross of Nations to go under the knife. However, the two 450 riders on Team USA—Dungey and Barcia—finished right behind Villopoto to round out the podium.
Though there wasn’t much action inside the top three, there was plenty to watch inside the top ten. Justin Brayton, Malcolm Stewart, Brett Metcalfe, Trey Canard, Andrew Short, Tyla Rattray and Jake Weimer rounded out the top-ten early in the race. The riders were in close proximity to one another, so it was only a matter of time before they started swapping positions. Canard and Stewart—who went over his bars in a brutal crash—had issues before they could really settle into a groove. Metcalfe initially dropped back behind Rattray and Short, but found his rhythm and passed Short back. That was enough to take Short’s momentum out from under him. The BTO Sports KTM rider ended up fading back to 12th.
There were a handful of riders that were able bear the heat to put in quite a charge for the season-ending moto. Jake Weimer started just inside the top ten and moved up to fourth, and even started to close in on Barcia towards the end. Both Mike Alessi and Weston Peick finished the first lap outside of the top ten, but were able to finish the last lap in fifth and seventh. Canard’s mishap sent him back to 27th momentarily, but the Honda Muscle Milk rider charged all the way up to tenth.
450 Moto 2 Results
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. Ryan Dungey
3. Justin Barcia
4. Jake Weimer
5. Mike Alessi
6. Tyla Rattray
7. Weston Peick
8. Brett Metcalfe
9. Justin Brayton
10. Trey Canard
11. Broc Tickle
12. Andrew Short
13. Ben LaMay
14. Ryan Sipes
15. Michael Byrne
16. Zack Freeberg
17. Nick Wey
18. Malcolm Stewart
19. Evgeny Mikhaylov
20. Derek Anderson
Click HERE for full 450 moto two results.
