It took a week longer than most expected, Ken Roczen pushing the inevitable seven more days, but maybe it’s fitting that the sports biggest championship was settled just over the river from the country’s biggest city. This night, and again the Monster Energy Supercross Championship, belonged to Ryan Dungey, even if his streak was broken, a record 31 straight podiums now over—and an afterthought. It didn’t matter on this night, as a fourth was good enough for Dungey to clinch a second straight 450 supercross championship, and third overall.
"Obviously the goal was a championship, but that podium streak, I was definitely trying to get Cole Seely (who finished third)," said Dungey.
The champion has been rock solid and ice cold this year dealing with championship pressure, but it appeared the weight of it finally got to him a little this time, as Dungey safely brought it home. "But a lot of people have to remember, too, it's been a fight, and other riders, the pressure is kind of off of them and they can go out and ride the way they want to ride. Not that the pressure was building up on us, that's not why I got fourth, but the number one goal was to wrap up the championship."
Dungey continues to climb past legends in the record books. He now holds more titles than Chad Reed and James Stewart—two of the winningest riders in the sport—and is two away from Ricky Carmichael, and one away from Ryan Villopoto's career total. But bigger goals will have to come later. On this night you could sense a massive relief on Dungey's end, with the pressure of maintaining "the guy to beat" status gone for at least a few days—at least until Hangtown at the end of May. As he and his team manager Roger DeCoster shared smiles on the podium, they also talked of how difficult life is at the top, and the discipline and drive and dedication Ryan has to put in every single day to maintain this spot. Finally, DeCoster gave him the ultimate compliment, saying he ranks Ryan ranks number-one compared to any rider he's worked with when it comes to discipline. High praise to a worthy champion. Then the Red Bull KTM crew headed to the pits and put together a huge celebration, completely with burnouts, rev limiters, team speeches, hugs and a ton of big KTM brass from over in Europe.
The race belonged to Ken Roczen, another 20 flawless laps leading to a more than 15 second lead at the finish, and a fifth win on the season for the Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John's Suzuki rider. It was never a question of if Roczen would win, but by how much. It turned out 19.687 seconds was the magic number. Yet, for a third straight championship (2015 SX and MX; 2016 SX) Roczen was forced to watch his biggest rival celebrate.
"Not much to say about my race, I just kind of watched the clock out there," said Roczen, who clicked off laps that looked easy, yet, according to the watch, were blazing. As a statement toward the looming Roczen/Dungey battle in Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, Roczen mentioned he never even rode a supercross track this week, and spent the whole time working on motocross testing.
Roczen's not the only guy coming on strong now. Eli Tomac’s hard charge would spell the end of The Streak. Tomac got a bad start in his heat race and ended up going through the semi to make the main, giving him a poor gate choice. After rounding the first lap in seventh, Tomac quickly progressed through the field, catching Dungey and second place Cole Seely. As Dungey was trying to figure out how to get Seely, on lap 15, Tomac powered past Dungey in the whoops. On the very next lap, Tomac would pass Seely to move into second. Last week Kawasaki said that Tomac and the team had made big changes, and it appears they went in the right direction, as Tomac now has back-to-back podiums. Tomac told us after the race he's happy to have a base setting, and now he can cut and change lines and make the bike what he wants it to do much more effectively.
Seely was great in just his second race back. The Honda HRC rider ran second for most of the race and then held Dungey at bay over the last five laps to claim third, his best finish since a second at San Diego II. Seely was spent after the race, a hard effort to hold the relentless Dungey off while shrugging off various aches and pains.
"To be laid up on the couch for weeks ago, in excruciating pain, to get back into it this quick, I guess I had a better base than I thought. The last two laps I just really had to show a lot of heart," said Seely.
If he had another lap, Justin Brayton may have gotten Dungey as well. The BTOSports.com-KTM-WPS rider was within less than a second of the champion at the checkers. Brayton was around Dungey for a lot of the race, and admitted afterwards he didn't know exactly how to go about racing against a fellow KTM rider who was going for a title.
Jason Anderson would finish a close sixth, his second straight race off the podium after stringing a few together. Anderson, part of Dungey's training team at Aldon Baker's Factory, was hanging around for the championship celebration, as was Marvin Musquin. Marvin rode much better this week as he continues to bounce back from a bone bruise and stretched ligaments on his wrist, but he locked bars with someone coming off of the starting gate and got into turn one about last.
The wild 250SX East Region has settled, with Malcolm Stewart tightening his grip on the points lead. A week after faltering in the same position, Stewart was dominant tonight, riding a solid 15 laps en route to a second win on the season. With Aaron Plessinger having to fight back to fifth after a bad start, Stewart now holds a fourteen-point lead with just one round remaining.
"To be honest last week I thought about the points lead too much," Malcolm explained. Looking much more relaxed and pressure-free this time. he says he rode to win and have fun, and just see what would happen. He ended up ignoring the pressure and taking a win, and also carries a 14-point lead heading into next week's wild East/West Shootout, which will count for points in both divisions.
Last week’s winner Martin Davalos held the early lead, but had no fight for Stewart on this night as he fell back to second early and was never able to mount another charge. Davalos was happy with his riding but told us Stewart was better over the whoops and dragon's back, and that made the difference.
Jeremy Martin is still mathematically alive for the championship, nineteen points back of Stewart, but he’ll need a small miracle to capture it. Martin got into third early, but unlike last week was never able to mount a serious charge at Davalos or Stewart for that matter.
