Race Report: Anaheim 3

At the drop of the gate, Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Villopoto went through the first corner of the 450SX main event side by side. Villopoto held onto first as Stewart was quickly shuffled to fourth. Villopoto had the lead, but wasn’t able to hold onto it for long.

The lead trio pushed hard, but then a second battle materialized behind them with another three-pack. Stewart was the first of the front-runners to bust out the big triple-quad jump through a rhythm lane, and fifth-place Ryan Dungey (Red Bull KTM) soon followed suit. It might have been a slight advantage, but it didn’t separate the riders by a lot. At the halfway point of the race, the top-six riders were all close: Reed, Roczen, Villopoto, Stewart, Dungey and Muscle Milk Honda's Justin Barcia. Then Dungey ran it in on Stewart in a 90-degree right-hander and took Stewart down and out of the mix.

Dungey then crashed all by himself exiting the large whoop section the next lap. The crash resulted in a broken clutch lever—and possibly more—and gave Dungey a fit as he tried starting the bike. With the clutch lever hanging off of his bars, his night was done.

Before the Dungey crash, a resurgent Barcia was pressuring the KTM rider, and when Dungey went down, Barcia was set for a season-best fourth.

Up to about lap 15, Roczen continued to press Reed, and Villopoto would still get close enough at times to apply the heat. Then Villopoto finally fell off of Reed and Roczen’s mark with three laps to go. Roczen closed in on Reed after every minor mistake, but Reed also capitalized on any flaws from Roczen. They seemed to have diferent sections on the track where each was faster, and things started getting ver close on the final lap.

Reed almost had an issue getting by lapper Jimmy Albertson (who obviously had no idea what was going on behind him) through the last few corners, but it didn’t affect the outcome of the race. Reed took his second win of the season with Roczen and Villopoto rounding out the podium.

Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs Honda’s Cole Seely kicked off the 250SX main event with the lead, but Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson—the fastest rider in the class all day—pulled in behind Seely for second.

Points leader Jason Anderson started in sixth and began working his way through the pack, but Malcolm Stewart attempted a pass that ultimately sent both riders to the ground.

Seely began pulling out from Wilson and looked comfortable at the halfway mark.

Jake Canada held onto third for some time before succumbing to pressure from Cooper Webb. Webb was too far back from Seely and Wilson to give any immediate challenge once he passed Canada. Wilson was slowly catching Seely, and the race looked like it could come down to the last lap, but Seely low-sided in the right-hander after the whoops and gave up the lead to Wilson.