Sign of the (Lap) Times: Spring Creek

As for Roczen, since climbing back into championship contention (somewhat) with moto wins at Tennessee and High Point, he hasn’t been able to match Dungey, or Barcia, since Budds Creek. He finished just off the podium at Millville after Blake Baggett caught him for third late in the second moto. “We spent a lot of time working on the suspension and, unfortunately, I never really got as comfortable as I hoped I would,” he said in a post-race press release. “We still ended up third in the first moto and fourth in the second moto. I’m going to California this week so we can do some testing and get dialed in for next weekend.” Roczen is now 56 points back of Ryan Dungey in the championship. 

With just four rounds left and a 56-point lead in hand, we can begin to envision scenarios of when Ryan Dungey could clinch his third 450MX title—his first since 2012. A possible 200 points remain in the championship, and yes, anything can happen, but Dungey could clinch with a few rounds remaining. The earliest Dungey could clinch would be at round ten at Unadilla. For that to happen, Dungey would have to pick up 44 points over the next four motos. The more likely scenario would be Dungey clinching at round eleven in Utah. Dungey would need to pick up just 19 points over the next five motos to seal the deal in the first moto at Utah. To close on the title in the second moto, Dungey would just need to hold serve—as he already holds a more-than-50-point lead on Roczen. 

What a couple weeks for Honda HRC’s Fredrik Noren. Following the RedBud National, Noren married long-time girlfriend Amy Schaaf at a small ceremony in Ohio. The two took a short vacation—the honeymoon will have to wait until after the season—during the off-weekend, before Noren returned to training. Noren had a career day at Millville, picking up his first-ever top-five moto finish and matching a career-best seventh overall—set a round prior at RedBud. He also picked up 29 points on ninth-place Weston Peick, who had bike troubles in both motos and went 35-22, and now sits just 10 points back. “I’ve been working a lot on my starts this week, and that helped, for sure, because I got two good starts, putting myself in a good position in each race,” he said post-race in a team statement. “We made some minor adjustments to the bike between motos that made me even more comfortable, and I think it showed in my riding.”

Peick has had his share of bad luck lately. After a few off weekends struggling with energy in the first motos, he finally returned to strength and went 5-6 at RedBud. “Feeling much better now,” he told us on Saturday morning. But at Millville, his bike shut down in moto one, and he bent his brake pedal around his foot peg in moto two. He failed to score points in either moto.

Cole Seely’s return from a leg injury sustained prior to Budds Creek lasted just two practices, as he injured his shoulder in the second practice after crashing on the uphill triple and didn’t return. Seely is expected to undergo further tests early this week to determine his status for Washougal. “I’m so frustrated that I wasn’t able to race again today,” he said in a team statement. “It’s disappointing not only for myself, but for the entire Honda team that puts so much work into what they do. I’d been feeling good all week and was excited to get back out there and ride. This has been a tough season.”

After five top-fives over the last six motos, Christophe Pourcel took a step back at Millville. In his worst finish since a 38-14 performance at the Tennessee National in early June, Pourcel struggled with starts and couldn’t find his rhythm. “The first moto was a little muddy, but they did a good job on the track. I got a bad start and was in the back of the pack, but still ended up in the top ten, which isn’t too bad,” he said in a team statement. “In the second moto I was third at the start, but something happened in the corner and I ended up fifteenth. I couldn’t make passes right away. Once I got in the top ten, all the fast guys were way ahead of me. It was hard to find a good line. I can only get better from here.“

Broc Tickle scored his second top-five in the last four motos en route to sixth overall at Millville. Just 7 points back of Jason Anderson—the two earned the same number of points at Millville—for fifth, Tickle has been one of the most consistent riders in the 450 Class this year, finishing outside the top ten just twice (both at Glen Helen). “It’s solid on paper, but I’m not that pumped with it,” he said via a team press release. “I feel like I could have been a lot better in the second moto. I felt like I should have been stronger.” 

BTOSports.com KTM’s Justin Brayton had a ton of friends and family members on hand, since this is the closest national to his hometown of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Unfortunately, Pourcel ran into Brayton in the first moto, which stripped his front spokes and left him feeling dizzy. He elected not to line up for the second moto but hopes to be ready for Washougal.

Brayton’s teammate, Andrew Short, was back in action after dealing with a broken kneecap from the New Jersey Supercross in April. Shorty told us last week he wasn’t at 100 percent fitness yet but just wanted to try racing. He went 16-15. 

Josh Grant’s return was better, putting his Monster Energy Kawasaki in the top ten overall in the 450 Class. Grant had to stop racing when the Discount Tire/TwoTwo Motorsports Kawasaki team shut down. Grant’s filling in for the injured Wil Hahn, and will remain with the team through the end of the season. “The weekend was awesome. I accomplished what I set out to do, which was finish within the top ten,” Grant said in a team statement. “The whole team put in a great effort, which made things easy for me, to go out there and ride like I know how to. Overall, I'm very happy with my performance and how the weekend went.” 

450 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:15.821	7	2:18.502	Ryan Dungey
2	2	2:16.229	5	2:18.729	Justin Barcia
3	3	2:17.167	6	2:19.262	Ken Roczen
4	4	2:17.319	10	2:20.485	Blake Baggett
5	35	2:18.612	2	2:23.883	Weston Peick
6	5	2:19.094	5	2:22.021	Broc Tickle
7	6	2:19.661	5,6	2:22.343	Jason Anderson
8	7	2:19.679	2	2:23.484	Phil Nicoletti
9	8	2:20.592	3	2:23.258	Fredrik Noren
10	9	2:21.402	6	2:23.279	Christophe Pourcel

There's really just one thing you need to see here: Jason Anderson, miraculously, amazingly, incredibly, logged the EXACT SAME LAP TIME on back-to-back laps in the first moto. We've never seen that before, ever. Oh, also, Weston Peick has terrible luck and his bike died in the moto.

450 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:13.746	5	2:18.006	Ryan Dungey
2	2	2:14.290	6	2:18.420	Justin Barcia
3	4	2:15.219	3	2:20.022	Ken Roczen
4	6	2:16.525	2	2:21.532	Jason Anderson
5	5	2:16.672	3	2:20.323	Fredrik Noren
6	3	2:16.702	3	2:19.335	Blake Baggett
7	7	2:17.662	2	2:22.037	Broc Tickle
8	10	2:18.753	2	2:24.531	Phil Nicoletti
9	9	2:19.022	2	2:23.697	Josh Grant
10	8	2:20.099	3	2:22.490	Christophe Pourcel

Blake Baggett's sixth-best lap but third-place finish was powered by a late surge. On lap fourteen (of sixten total) Baggett ran a 2:18.7, while the next fastest rider on that lap was Justin Barcia, who went 2:21.9 while trying to keep pressure on Ryan Dungey. Baggett made up time down the stretch to steal third from Ken Roczen.

250 Class Moto 1

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	8	2:18.450	2	2:25.397	Marvin Musquin
2	1	2:18.950	2	2:21.421	Cooper Webb
3	3	2:19.540	8	2:21.657	Jeremy Martin
4	2	2:19.716	15	2:21.706	Joey Savatgy
5	4	2:19.976	11	2:22.672	Alex Martin
6	5	2:21.737	4	2:25.104	RJ Hampshire
7	9	2:21.853	4	2:25.870	Kyle Peters
8	14	2:21.886	4	2:27.567	Mitchell Oldenburg
9	7	2:22.206	3	2:24.868	Zach Osborne
10	6	2:22.241	9	2:24.547	Aaron Plessinger

You can see here that Marvin Musquin had the stuff to win this moto, but he crashed and stuffed his bike in a huge mud pile while leading. You can also see Joey Savatgy digging to hold off Jeremy Martin on the last lap.

250 Class Moto 2

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	2:16.333	2	2:19.362	Jeremy Martin
2	3	2:18.473	5	2:21.130	Marvin Musquin
3	2	2:18.553	2	2:21.015	Cooper Webb
4	5	2:18.979	3	2:21.483	Jordon Smith
5	4	2:19.116	4	2:21.533	Joey Savatgy
6	6	2:19.712	4	2:21.520	Shane McElrath
7	9	2:19.799	3	2:24.061	Aaron Plessinger
8	8	2:19.870	3	2:23.749	Chris Alldredge
9	7	2:20.718	7	2:23.079	Zach Osborne
10	11	2:20.910	2	2:25.479	Matt Bisceglia

Jeremy Martin had fire in his eyes and killed everyone in this race. No. Further. Message.

More News and Notes

GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig left both motos early Saturday after sustaining a shoulder injury in a crash with teammate Jordon Smith in the first moto. "I felt my shoulder pop, and from there on it bothered me the rest of the day," Craig said in a team statement. "I tried to go back out for the second moto and made my way through the pack, but around lap five or six, my shoulder started feeling weak, and I couldn't hang on anymore. I didn't want to put myself in danger and make it worse." 

Craig said on Twitter the injury was just a bruise and he would be back for the Washougal National this weekend.

As for rookie teammates Jordon Smith and RJ Hampshire, it’s been the “tale of one good and one bad moto” all year, and Millville was the best example yet, as Hampshire went 5-12 and Smith went 12-5. The fifths tie the career high for each. Smith finished seventh overall on the day. "I had a pretty good start and was running right up there with the front guys," Smith said of the second moto in a team statement. "I was right behind [Joey] Savatgy and [Marvin] Musquin. They pulled away a little bit, and then I caught them some at the end. It was a good day overall. Definitely moving in the right direction."

Hampshire led for the second time in three rounds and held on for a solid fifth in the first moto, but couldn’t replicate the result and finished twelfth in moto two for ninth overall. "I just can't seem to put two motos together," Hampshire said in a team statement. "It seems like it's been like that the whole season. The first moto, I pulled a holeshot and rode pretty well and ended up fifth. The second moto, I didn't get that good of a start and then kind of lost my rear brakes and made a couple mistakes. I went down a couple times and ended up 5-12. Another top-ten, but I still want more." 

Zach Osborne, coming off four podiums over the last five motos, struggled to fifth overall via 7-7 finishes on Saturday. It was his worst finish since a 13-33 day at round two at Glen Helen. “I had decent speed in practice,” Osborne said in a team statement. “But today was kind of disappointing. I didn’t have any pop in the first moto and got a bad start in the second moto. I ended up fifth overall, so if this is my worst day for the season, I guess it’s okay. I’m looking forward to Washougal.”