By Chase Stallo and Jason Weigandt
It’s hard to continue to find superlatives for Ryan Dungey’s run toward the record book. Simply: It’s been amazing. With his win on Saturday, Dungey extended his podium streak to twenty-four straight, one shy of tying Chad Reed’s all-time record of twenty-five. Maybe more impressive, during his run Dungey has only finished third on two occasions (Rounds 2 and 6 in 2015). In nineteen straight races, Dungey has finished second or better. Let those stats soak in for a minute!
The man Dungey could pass on the all-time list, Chad Reed, found the podium for the third time this season, and first since Round 3 in Anaheim. The podium was the 130th of Reed’s illustrious career.
Reed, who has struggled since a second in Anaheim II, said he’s been disappointed in the last few weeks, and just hasn’t been riding well. “I felt like we’re a podium guy,” he told us after the race. “Just haven’t been riding [well]. Kind of talked to myself and looked in the mirror this week and made changes to myself a little bit. A little bit to the bike and here and there but honestly it’s just me.”
Momentum, if you so chose to believe in such a thing, was in Ken Roczen’s court entering Atlanta. The week prior, he held Ryan Dungey at bay for twenty laps and told us after the race he “me and Oscar [mechanic, Wirdeman], the entire day we said that we were going to turn things around and we start tonight. We put that in our head and we believed it in.“ A week later, Ken had a bad start (sixteenth after lap 1), could only work to sixth and now trails Dungey by thirty-three. In baseball, they say momentum is only as good as the next game’s starting pitcher. In supercross, momentum is only as good as your next start.
“We’re going to keep on working on the same things. I’ve been feeling really good,” he said in a Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s RCH Suzuki statement. “I’m going to put in good laps this week, eat clean and get a bunch of rest to be ready for Daytona. Obviously, we didn’t have the night we wanted in Atlanta but we’re going to bounce back. We’ll come to Daytona, try and be aggressive and hopefully leave there with the win so we can make up some points.”
Roczen’s teammate Jake Weimer finished a disappointing seventeenth. “It was a struggle,” explained Weimer in a team statement. “I don’t know why but I’ve been showing up on the weekends and just not riding that well. I’m going to have to think about coming into the weekend with a different approach and try to figure something out. In the heat races and the semi–the short races–even the beginning of the main, I’m just riding so tight that it’s a struggle. I think it was lap 15 in the main before I actually loosened up and was able to ride decent. I can’t be doing that. I need to come into Daytona next week and try something different.” Weimer made his debut with the team in Oakland and finished eighth, since then he’s gone 14-12-10-17.
450SX Class
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 2 | 45.783 | 7 | 46.987 | Marvin Musquin |
2 | 1 | 45.943 | 9 | 46.660 | Ryan Dungey |
3 | 3 | 46.042 | 10 | 47.096 | Chad Reed |
4 | 4 | 46.193 | 11 | 47.428 | Davi Millsaps |
5 | 10 | 46.500 | 5 | 47.789 | Cole Seely |
6 | 11 | 46.544 | 10 | 48.773 | Eli Tomac |
7 | 8 | 46.629 | 9 | 48.047 | Justin Bogle |
8 | 5 | 46.731 | 6 | 47.743 | Justin Brayton |
t-9 | 7 | 46.843 | 16 | 48.034 | Jason Anderson |
t-9 | 6 | 46.843 | 14 | 47.662 | Ken Roczen |
11 | 9 | 46.939 | 14 | 48.080 | Christophe Pourcel |
12 | 16 | 47.154 | 6 | 48.629 | Trey Canard |
13 | 13 | 47.589 | 10 | 49.280 | Mike Alessi |
14 | 12 | 47.703 | 8 | 48.872 | Weston Peick |
15 | 17 | 47.869 | 11 | 49.303 | Jake Weimer |
16 | 14 | 48.357 | 7 | 49.243 | James Stewart |
17 | 18 | 48.444 | 6 | 50.185 | Kyle Cunningham |
18 | 15 | 48.535 | 10 | 49.284 | Vince Friese |
19 | 19 | 49.007 | 15 | 50.197 | Tommy Hahn |
20 | 20 | 49.447 | 9 | 51.398 | Nick Schmidt |
21 | 21 | 49.812 | 5 | 51.718 | AJ Catanzaro |
22 | 22 | 51.789 | 3 | 53.780 | Heath Harrison |
Movin’ Marvin was indeed moving in Atlanta, he coulda shoulda won the race, and he also had the fastest lap time in the main. Don’t forget, Marvin was super fast last week in Dallas, coming from a first-turn crash to sixth, so he’s been on it.
Musquin and Dungey made this main event look like a training session at the Baker’s Factory as they pushed each other all the way around the track. Here are all 20 of their laps side by side.
Lap | Ryan Dungey | Marvin Musquin |
2 | 46.285 | 46.178 |
3 | 46.156 | 46.305 |
4 | 46.186 | 46.27 |
5 | 45.979 | 46.396 |
6 | 46.263 | 46.302 |
7 | 46.274 | 45.783 |
8 | 46.374 | 46.188 |
9 | 45.943 | 46.594 |
10 | 46.108 | 46.427 |
11 | 46.554 | 46.591 |
12 | 47.145 | 47.527 |
13 | 47.269 | 46.921 |
14 | 47.199 | 47.796 |
15 | 46.538 | 46.528 |
16 | 46.949 | 46.705 |
17 | 46.817 | 46.972 |
18 | 46.81 | 46.781 |
19 | 47.313 | 47.358 |
20 | 48.396 | 53.143 |
The scoring officials divided the Atlanta track into four segments, and once again the segment data offers up fascinating info. The fastest times in each segment were logged by Dungey (segment 1, lap 2—Dungey was blazing early in the race, getting past Justin Brayton, Reed and Jason Anderson in a hurry), Davi Millsaps (segment 2, lap 11), Trey Canard (segment 3, lap 1) and Musquin (segment 4, lap 4).
Musquin had two interesting lines working for him. In segment 4, he was landing inside after the rhythm lane and using the inside of the wall jump before the whoops. Dungey was going outside. Marvin’s best time through that segment was 18.728, Dungey’s best was 19.135. Marvin also had a different attack on the triple-triple dragon’s back combo, going triple-double and then singling out and onto the dragon’s back. This was also the section where he cased the triple on the last lap and handed the race over. Even taking into account his 14.8 through there on the last lap, he averaged an 11.051 in the section. Dungey’s laps were all clean but his average through that section was 11.352.
Dungey did his damage in another part of the track—Segment 3, which started in the first turn, and featured a long rhythm lane. Dungey was doing it much better, and his average time through there was 8.435. Musquin’s was 8.964.
250SX East Region
Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
1 | 1 | 47.027 | 3 | 48.943 | Martin Davalos |
2 | 2 | 47.526 | 6 | 48.931 | Malcolm Stewart |
3 | 3 | 47.821 | 6 | 49.126 | Aaron Plessinger |
4 | 5 | 47.874 | 11 | 49.122 | Justin Hill |
5 | 4 | 48.270 | 9 | 49.559 | Jeremy Martin |
6 | 8 | 48.884 | 5 | 51.128 | Tyler Bowers |
7 | 6 | 49.029 | 7 | 50.444 | RJ Hampshire |
8 | 7 | 49.679 | 2 | 51.108 | Darryn Durham |
9 | 19 | 49.781 | 4 | 51.548 | Arnaud Tonus |
10 | 20 | 49.856 | 3 | 51.669 | Jesse Wentland |
11 | 21 | 49.867 | 5 | 50.939 | Luke Renzland |
12 | 22 | 50.154 | 2 | 51.166 | Shane McElrath |
13 | 9 | 50.447 | 9 | 51.469 | Alex Frye |
14 | 15 | 50.753 | 4 | 53.153 | Marshal Weltin |
15 | 10 | 50.757 | 5 | 52.035 | Jimmy Albertson |
16 | 11 | 50.890 | 7 | 52.291 | Matt Bisceglia |
17 | 14 | 51.150 | 9 | 52.272 | Gannon Audette |
18 | 12 | 51.152 | 9 | 52.239 | Dakota Alix |
19 | 16 | 51.187 | 8 | 52.911 | Justin Starling |
20 | 13 | 51.214 | 9 | 52.346 | Benny Bloss |
21 | 17 | 52.049 | 8 | 53.294 | Anthony Rodriguez |
22 | 18 | 52.294 | 2 | 53.696 | Paul Coates |
Malcolm Stewart had the fastest practice and heat race time, and he was also catching Martin Davalos at different parts of the main event. But don’t doubt Martin’s speed—his best lap in the main was a half-second quicker than anyone else.
More news and notes:
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac dropped from fifth to sixth in the point standings following a eleventh place finish on Saturday—his worst result of the season. Tomac, who now trails Dungey by sixty-two points, crashed early in the main event. “I was in a decent position at the start of the main event but came together with another rider in the opening laps,” he said in a statement. “I felt like I fought back pretty well for 10-laps, but reached a point where everyone was too far apart for me to make up enough ground. We’re still making improvements and we’ll continue to take it race by race.”
Say what you will about Christophe Pourcel’s prognostication that he’d be better by round seven, but indeed he’s been much, much better the last two weeks (Round 7 and 8 in case you’re not counting at home). In Atlanta, he set the fastest qualifying time (45.294 to Dungey’s 45.416) and finished ninth after a start outside the top ten. After the race, he said now is the time to push. “As long as I’m battling in the top 10 and improving every weekend I’m happy. I still want to work on my starts, but it feels good to battle with everyone and stay strong the whole moto. I feel good on the bike. I got the fastest qualifying time, which is good. It’s a long championship, and now it’s time to push.”
Honda HRC’s Trey Canard crashed for the second straight week and finished sixteenth. Since a fifth in his return in San Diego II, Canard has finished 9-16. “I’m frustrated and disappointed with tonight,” he said in a statement. “I got a bad start again, putting myself in a bad position because it’s just so chaotic back there. I was trying to make my way through the pack but made a big mistake, got out of control and went down, which bent my front brake rotor. Every time it would make a revolution the pads would separate and I’d have to pump it up, so that made the rest of the race really tough.”