Ryan Dungey’s third consecutive win (fourth if you’re counting Detroit, which officials are certainly not) in St. Louis marked a few milestones for the Red Bull KTM rider. With his win, Dungey joined an elite club, becoming just the sixth rider in Monster Energy Supercross history to reach the 30-win mark (Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath, Chad Reed, James Stewart and Ryan Villopoto). The win also extended his podium streak to a remarkable 30 straight. Dungey is now one podium away from tying Ricky Carmichael for third on the all-time list at 87. He will also equal Carmichael's all-time career starts this weekend at 115. *Deep breath. We have more* His eighth win of the season equals the career-best mark he set last season. Goodness, this man is on fire! Oh, and he can clinch a third 450SX title this weekend too. The simplest way is to win. If he doesn’t he just needs to pick up two points on Ken Roczen and not lose 18 to Jason Anderson.
Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki’s Ken Roczen certainly isn’t making it easy on the points leader. For the third consecutive week, Roczen pressured Dungey—even passing him briefly at one point—before going down on lap 13. Roczen has certainly been fantastic, but Dungey has withstood the constant pressure—and laps led tell the story. Over the last three rounds, Dungey has led 59 of a possible 60 laps. “I passed him and he got me back, made a little mistake and came into a corner too hot and washed the front end. So…[pause] damn, it’s the third time in a row we got second,” said Roczen in a RCH team statement. At this point, Roczen has to be asking: What more can I do?
Roczen did recover to clip Rockstar Energy Husqvaran’s Jason Anderson for second with one corner (!!!) to go. Anderson was not happy with Roczen’s teammate Broc Tickle, who he felt got in his way. Tickle told Racer X’s Steve Matthes after that race that after watching video, he didn’t feel he did anything wrong. “Oh yeah, he wasn’t very happy. I thought maybe I was in his way, but then we came back and watched the video and I wasn’t in his way at all.”
Anderson’s podium marked his third consecutive third place finish, but if you watched his podium interview after the race, you can tell he wants more. He reiterated the point in a team press release. “I want more. I need to get holeshots, not just good starts, and I want to win races, not just be on the podium.”
Anderson worked his way into third with a rather aggressive move on Justin Brayton. This isn’t the first time this season Anderson’s riding has sparked controversy. See Seely, Cole. See Barcia, Justin. After the race, Brayton, who rebounded to finish ninth, told our Steve Matthes he was unhappy with the pass. “He’s done it to me a few times and he’s done it to other people. I mean, I’ve had enough, I don’t know if I can speak for everyone else. It’s right before a triple. He clearly just ran me completely off the track. And what if I had tried to go for the jump? I don’t know, it’s so frustrating. I’m not the kind of guy who is going to sit there and hold someone up. I wouldn’t let him by, but if someone is clearly faster I’m not going to be stupid about it. We had such a big gap on everyone else; I could have just putted around and still finished fourth. It’s just frustrating.”
Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin made a surprise return over the weekend, as the wrist he injured before Indy was expected to keep him out a few weeks. He returned in St. Louis and looked nearly as fast as usual, running a solid fifth early in the main before casing a rhythm section and crashing. He got back up quickly before losing spots to Chad Reed and Trey Canard. He was running eighth when the holeshot device on his forks broke, forcing him out of the race on lap 17.
On Saturday, Chad Reed became just the third rider in history to make 200 starts [Mike LaRocco and Kevin Windham are the only others]. Reed spoke with Steve Matthes after the race about what the achievement meant. “Crazy to think. Two-hundred flew by pretty fast. It’s kind of sad how fast they went, I guess. I would truthfully say that I feel more appreciative and I’m enjoying it more now.” Reed went on to say that he wants to break Mike LaRocco’s all-time record of 227. “That’s what makes me excited to be negotiating a two-year extension. I’m excited for the next at least 27 so I can beat LaRocco [the all-time record for supercross starts].” Yep, don’t look for Reed to hang up the boots for at least another two years.
Reed had a good battle with former TwoTwo Motorsports teammate Josh Grant and Justin Bogle—and then Trey Canard. Reed was edged by all three, and said he had some bike issues late in the race [which our man Matthes correctly identified as clutch issues]. Later Grant was penalized two positions for jumping on the red-cross flag after the Jason Anderson/Justin Brayton incident. He was credited with eighth.
Justin Bogle outlasted everyone to grab fourth, a career-high for the former 250SX Champion. In his first 450SX season, Bogle has improved remarkably over the last four rounds. During the span, he has three top tens, which included a sixth and a fourth. “[I] feel like I had a breakthrough night for me,” he said in a team statement. “Really starting to come around for me now—best finish of the season and we learned a lot from it.”
Different race, same story for Trey Canard. His starts held him back again, and he also had to avoid a downed rider off the start. He came from nearly dead last to garner fifth. “I felt strong all day, but again, my starts were not on par, which really cost me. I definitely think I could’ve been on the podium and battling with those guys up front, but you can’t do that from last place,” he said in a team statement. “I had an okay jump but got stopped when another rider in front of me went down and I had to go around him. Definitely not the way I wanted to start it, but I’m happy with how I rode. We have three more, so hopefully I can finish strong.”
450SX Class
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 2 | 53.484 | 5 | 54.764 | Ken Roczen |
| 2 | 1 | 53.585 | 7 | 54.706 | Ryan Dungey |
| 3 | 3 | 53.741 | 8 | 54.770 | Jason Anderson |
| 4 | 15 | 54.288 | 5 | 56.514 | Marvin Musquin |
| 5 | 9 | 54.289 | 5 | 56.225 | Justin Brayton |
| 6 | 5 | 54.321 | 13 | 55.672 | Trey Canard |
| 7 | 7 | 54.759 | 9 | 56.204 | Eli Tomac |
| 8 | 4 | 54.794 | 12 | 55.702 | Justin Bogle |
| 9 | 8 | 54.869 | 11 | 56.314 | Josh Grant |
| 10 | 6 | 54.921 | 6 | 56.322 | Chad Reed |
| 11 | 12 | 55.174 | 5 | 56.997 | Blake Baggett |
| 12 | 10 | 55.523 | 6 | 56.808 | Mike Alessi |
| 13 | 16 | 55.638 | 4 | 58.185 | Weston Peick |
| 14 | 17 | 55.849 | 6 | 58.372 | Vince Friese |
| 15 | 11 | 55.892 | 5 | 56.795 | Justin Barcia |
| 16 | 13 | 55.957 | 19 | 56.918 | Jake Weimer |
| 17 | 14 | 55.991 | 18 | 57.565 | Broc Tickle |
| 18 | 18 | 56.296 | 6 | 58.266 | Christophe Pourcel |
| 19 | 19 | 57.437 | 3 | 59.338 | Nick Wey |
| 20 | 20 | 59.230 | 5 | 1:03.017 | Nick Schmidt |
| 21 | 21 | 59.580 | 2 | 1:04.335 | Alex Ray |
| 22 | 22 | 1:01.658 | 4 | 1:06.492 | Jeff Alessi |
No surprises here with the lap times, they mirror the results pretty closely (sans Marvin, who had a bike problem). What could be more telling are the segment times. Officials divided the STL track into three segments, and it's interesting that Ryan Dungey, the race winner, didn't have the best time through any of them. Ken Roczen set the best time in segments one and three, Jason Anderson the fastest in segment two. Dungey only had the sixth fastest time in segment one, the second fastest time in segment two, and the third fastest time in segment three. Dungey has proven to be the master at stringing the consistent times together. For example, while he only had the sixth-fastest time through segment one, he had the second-fastest average time through that section, behind only Roczen.
250SX East Region
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 1 | 54.946 | 3 | 57.072 | Jeremy Martin |
| 2 | 3 | 55.610 | 4 | 58.153 | Shane McElrath |
| 3 | 2 | 55.625 | 2 | 57.359 | Aaron Plessinger |
| 4 | 15 | 55.960 | 2 | 57.800 | Martin Davalos |
| 5 | 8 | 56.213 | 3 | 57.563 | Malcolm Stewart |
| 6 | 4 | 56.222 | 4 | 57.748 | RJ Hampshire |
| 7 | 9 | 56.927 | 3 | 59.527 | Tyler Bowers |
| 8 | 5 | 57.084 | 4 | 58.313 | Gannon Audette |
| 9 | 21 | 57.405 | 10 | 58.206 | Cedric Soubeyras |
| 10 | 13 | 57.478 | 2 | 1:00.697 | Justin Starling |
| 11 | 12 | 57.528 | 6 | 57.748 | Matt Bisceglia |
| 12 | 10 | 57.799 | 3 | 59.922 | Paul Coates |
| 13 | 7 | 58.082 | 5 | 59.431 | Alex Frye |
| 14 | 11 | 58.085 | 7 | 59.693 | Benny Bloss |
| 15 | 6 | 58.213 | 3 | 58.914 | Anthony Rodriguez |
| 16 | 14 | 58.902 | 5 | 59.726 | Dakota Alix |
| 17 | 17 | 59.013 | 6 | 1:00.745 | Henry Miller |
| 18 | 18 | 59.367 | 4 | 1:01.884 | Josh Cartwright |
| 19 | 19 | 59.779 | 5 | 1:03.452 | Jimmy Albertson |
| 20 | 16 | 58.907 | 6 | 1:00.718 | Darryn Durham |
| 21 | 22 | 1:00.096 | 2 | 1:01.992 | Grandie Featherstone |
| 22 | 20 | 1:00.165 | 3 | 1:03.262 | Daniel Herrlein |
More news and notes:
Although Jeremy Martin may think his title chances are over, telling Racer X’s Aaron Hansel after the race: ”The championship is pretty far gone, so we’ll just go out there, ride solid, and do what I did tonight,” it’s hard to think with the way this 250SX East Region has gone that Martin doesn’t at least have a chance. Yes, he’s 16 down with three to go so he’ll need help, but if he can rattle off two straight and close the gap to at least ten on Malcolm Stewart, the final in Las Vegas (combined West vs. East) could offer much more hope.
Someone who is definitely still in the title chase is Martin’s teammate Aaron Plessinger. Just one point down after St. Louis, Plessinger told our Aaron Hansel that, “It’s not really in my mind that much. I mean, it’s certainly back there, but next week is just another race. I’m not going to think about it.” That’s certainly easier said than done. It’s easy to say it won’t be on your mind, harder to accomplish.
As for Malcolm, he still held on to the points lead, which has to be a sigh of relief after three crashes in St. Louis. Malcolm, who has been a model of consistency this year after years of derailing his title chances with crashes, knows that every 250SX East Region rider has had an off-night this year, so a ninth isn’t the worst thing in the world. “Got a third place start in the main and thought it was my night. Then I had a couple falls, but you know what? That happens in racing,” he said in a team statement. “I was able to salvage an eighth and keep the red plate. Happy I'm safe and looking to redeem myself next weekend.”
Interesting stat regarding Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki fill-in Gannon Audette: since turning pro in 2011, Audette has just two career top-five finishes in 27 starts—BOTH of which have come in back-to-back weeks. After crashing early in the race, Audette held fourth until late in the race when RJ Hampshire got past. Still, Audette is more than pleased with the last two rounds. “To get on the podium last week was awesome, it exceeded my expectations. But to still come out with a fifth, there’s nothing to complain about,” he told Racer X after the race. “There are a lot of fast guys out there fighting for every position.”
Speaking of Hampshire, he came from way, way, way back to grab his season-best finish of fourth. He rounded the first lap seventeenth, but was even further back off the start. “Main event came and I got caught up in that first turn garbage," said Hampshire in a GEICO Honda statement. "[Tyler] Bowers and I starting around 20th again, nothing new. Made a lot of passes early then some lapper tried taking me out, almost went down in the sand from it and lost a couple spots. But I felt strong all moto and made a couple passes late in the race. Positivity all around this weekend, which was needed. I haven't been riding the best but this weekend we had the speed to be on the box. Now we just need to make it happen!”
Quick Notes
— Another strong finish from Traders Kawasaki’s Anthony Rodriguez. Since opening the season with 17-13-14-11 finishes (we’ve heard he was dealing with a pre-season injury) A-Rod has gone 7-6 over the last two rounds. Don’t forget, he finished fifth overall in the 250SX East Region last year.
— It could have been a banner night for the team, as Justin Starling rode a solid fourth for the opening five laps of the race. We hit up Starling on Twitter earlier today and he said he was feeling under the weather all last week and cramped up really bad. He finished thirteenth, his third straight top-fifteen finish.
— Another top-ten for Englishmen Paul Coates, who now has three on the season and three in the last four rounds. Read more about Coates here.
— If you didn’t read Unsung Hero this morning, do so now. Cedric Soubeyras has a great story—and an even better one from the weekend when Pro Circuit boss Mitch Payton saved his afternoon.
