Ryan Dungey wins Glen Helen National
Images by Hoppenworld
The official results will show that Ryan Dungey was the overall winner in the 450 Class at the FMF Glen Helen National. And with 1-2 moto finishes, it was certainly a solid day for the Red Bull KTM rider.
For Ken Roczen though, the outcome has to sting. For the second week in a row, Roczen was on his way to a dominant 1-1 sweep, but bike problems late in the first moto cost him the overall victory.
In that opening moto, Trey Canard took the holeshot but Dungey was close behind. As the field went up Mt. St. Helens on the opening lap, the riders split into two lines, with Canard leading the group on the left and Dungey on the right. Making their way up the steep hill, Dungey moved ahead of Canard to take over the lead.
On Lap 1, Roczen moved around Justin Barcia for third, then picked up another spot when Trey Canard went down on the next lap while running second.
Roczen was turning the fastest laps on the track and eventually closed the gap on Dungey. After riding just behind Dungey for several laps, Roczen made his move with about nine minutes left on the clock. Roczen scrubbed a jump, then went inside of Dungey to make the pass.
Roczen quickly began to check out with the lead, building up a 13-second gap at one point. But things unraveled in the final two laps when Roczen started experiencing bike issues. Unable to safely hit the jumps, he was forced to just roll over them, which caused him to lose lots of time. Dungey soon caught and passed Roczen for the lead.
On the final lap of the race, Roczen dropped two more spots. Jason Anderson moved up to second to match a career high, and Eli Tomac moved into third. Earlier in the race (with about two minutes left on the countdown clock), Anderson had passed Tomac for position as they went through a rhythm section.
After the moto, RCH Suzuki team manager Kyle Bentley said that the team took full responsibility for the error to led to Roczen’s bike malfunction.
“Obviously in the first moto there was nothing I could do,” Roczen told NBC Sports’ Georgia Lindsay at the end of the day. “I was riding good, should have been another perfect day. But it’s all right.”
With the necessary adjustments made for Moto 2, Roczen wasted no time asserting his way to the front of the field. He stole the holeshot from Justin Brayton and Dungey, then Roczen started checking out.
Roczen went on to win the moto by nearly 20 seconds over Dungey, but Dungey (2-1) earned the overall victory while Roczen (1-4) had to settle for second place.
Tomac (3-3) landed on the overall podium in third, but for the second week in a row, poor starts kept him from challenging Roczen or Dungey. After the first lap in Moto 2, Tomac sat 14th before passing a number of riders en route to a podium finish. Tomac took fourth from Jason Anderson on Lap 7, then got Trey Canard for third two laps later.
As a result, the title race is starting to slowly slip away from Tomac. Roczen is still the championship leader over Dungey by a two-point margin, then Tomac is 15 points back of Dungey and 17 behind Roczen.
Fortunately for Tomac, the next round of the series takes place at his home track – Thunder Valley in Lakewood, Colorado. Tomac lives and trains in Colorado, and he usually tends to do well at Thunder Valley. But the track was also the site of last year’s season-ending injury.
Jason Anderson (2-5) and Trey Canard (7-4) rounded out the overall top five.
450 Class rookie Marvin Musquin had a top ten outing, but looked to be on his way to a much better day early on at Glen Helen. In the first moto, he climbed as high as third place on Lap 2 but ultimately faded back to ninth. A poor start in the second moto held him to an 11th-place finish.
A week after breaking his collarbone at Hangtown, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett surprisingly attempted to ride Glen Helen. After finishing 14th in timed qualifying this morning, Baggett decided to line up for Moto 1 despite still feeling a ton of pain. (He had surgery just five days ago.) Following a 16th-place finish in the first moto, Baggett did not race Moto 2.
JGR Yamaha’s Weston Peick also did not race the second moto after crashing in Moto 1. He had been riding inside the top ten at the time.
The series will shift to Thunder Valley next Saturday, June 4 for the third round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season.
450 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
1. Ryan Dungey (1-2)
2. Ken Roczen (4-1)
3. Eli Tomac (3-3)
4. Jason Anderson (2-5)
5. Trey Canard (7-4)
6. Josh Grant (6-6)
7. Cole Seely (5-10)
8. Phil Nicoletti (10-9)
9. Marvin Musquin (9-11)
10. Broc Tickle (8-13)
11. Justin Brayton (11-12)
12. Fredrik Noren (12-14)
13. Christophe Pourcel (29-7)
14. Justin Barcia (37-8)
15. Andrew Short (14-15)
16. Benny Bloss (13-16)
17. Justin Bogle (15-36)
18. Toshiki Tomita (20-17)
19. Blake Baggett (16-39)
20. Jesse Wentland (17-30)
450 CLASS POINT STANDINGS
1. Ken Roczen, 93
2. Ryan Dungey, 91
3. Eli Tomac, 76
4. Jason Anderson, 73
5. Trey Canard, 62
6. Josh Grant, 56
7. Cole Seely, 54
8. Marvin Musquin, 48
9. Phil Nicoletti, 45
10. Justin Barcia, 39
Alex Martin takes 250 overall
With a pair of second-place moto finishes, Alex Martin captured the first overall win of his 250 Class career at Saturday’s FMF Glen Helen National, the second round of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
In the process, the Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha rider also took over the points lead and, for the first time in his career, will race with the red plate next weekend at Thunder Valley.
Alex Martin’s win comes on a day that was thoroughly dominated by the Star Yamaha team. Cooper Webb and Jeremy Martin each captured a moto win and ended the day on the overall podium.
The GEICO Honda machines always seem to be fast and in Moto 1 it was the team’s promising rookie, Tristan Charboneau, grabbing the holeshot. Behind him were a trio of Star Yamaha riders: Jeremy Martin, Webb and Alex Martin.
While Jeremy Martin challenged Charboneau for the lead, Alex Martin made a daring move – cutting in between both of them and powering himself into the top spot.
Webb got around Jeremy Martin and Tristan Charboneau in the opening minutes of the race to move into second. For the majority of the moto, the elder Martin brother kept at least three seconds of distance between himself and Webb. In the waning minutes though, Webb caught fire and put forth an incredible charge. He started running two seconds per lap faster than the rest of the field and began closing in on Alex Martin. Soon after they crossed the finish line with two laps to go, Webb went to the inside of Alex Martin on a turn and took over the lead. Alex Martin furiously fought back and nearly had an opportunity to retake first, but Webb was just too fast.
Webb, who is dealing with a wrist injury and was once considered questionable to even race at all this summer, ended up winning the race by 2.5 seconds. Alex Martin finished second.
“I put my head down and tried to catch Alex,” Webb told NBC Sports’ Georgia Lindsay after the race. “I was making some good time on him and I knew it was gonna come down to one of those last laps. I went out there, did the best I could, got the first moto win of the year, and I’m stoked. That’ll heal the wrist injury.”
Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki rookie Austin Forkner passed Jeremy Martin on Lap 8 to take over third place and secure the first podium finish of his young, promising career. The top five was rounded out by a pair of Star Yamaha riders, Jeremy Martin and Aaron Plessinger.
In the second moto, Jeremy Martin grabbed the holeshot. Behind him, Jessy Nelson settled into second and Austin Forkner held down third.
On Lap 4, Forkner passed Nelson to take over second place, but Forker ended up making a rookie mistake with about ten minutes to go – he crashed and remounted back in sixth place. Forkner was able to bounce back and re-pass Aaron Plessinger to move into the top five by the end of the race.
A battle for second materialized between Nelson and Alex Martin. It was a crucial showdown because passing Nelson meant that Alex Martin would take both the overall win and the points lead. From the look of the way he was racing, Alex Martin seemed to be aware of that fact. With three minutes to go, Alex Martin went to the inside of Nelson on a turn and took him wide to make the pass.
No one would catch Jeremy Martin though. He finished 5.6 seconds ahead of his older brother. Nelson, Webb and Forkner made up the rest of the top five, and Plessinger was just behind in sixth.
After his 1-1 sweep at Hangtown, Savatgy entered today’s race with a 15-point lead in the 250MX standings. However he saw that lead dissipate thanks to disappointing starts in both motos. In Moto 1, Savatgy started 16th and finished ninth. Things were only slightly better in Moto 2, in which he started 15th and finished seventh.
Savatgy’s 9-7 moto finishes caused him to relinquish the points lead to Alex Martin, but this race is tight headed into Round 3. Alex Martin, Webb, Savatgy and Jeremy Martin are all separated by a mere four points.
Last year at Budds Creek, Alex Martin collected the first moto win of his career but had yet to win an overall until today.
“I’m so happy right now, this is just so surreal,” Alex Martin said to Georgia Lindsay. “I haven’t really had two motos that have been that solid. I made some big, big changes after we went on the west coast break in supercross, training wise, and I think it’s really paying off. I’m so stoked right now. I’ve never felt this good before.”
After last year’s solid outing, Alex Martin signed with the Star Yamaha team in the offseason, allowing him to join his younger brother on the same team. After the race, Jeremy Martin congratulated Alex on his successful day.
“I’m really proud of my brother. He’s watched me have a lot of success, so to see him have so much success this year is just awesome,” Jeremy Martin said during the broadcast. “I saw him coming and I was like, ‘Dang Big Al, slow down!'”
For the second week in a row, Star Yamaha had four riders finish in the top five overall. Jeremy Martin (4-1) took second overall, Webb (1-4) finished third and Plessinger (5-6) earned fifth.
The only rider breaking up the blue crew was Forkner (3-5), who nabbed fourth overall in just his second professional race.
Round 3 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will take place next Saturday, June 4 at Thunder Valley.
One rider who isn’t expected to be at Thunder Valley is Christian Craig. After a first moto crash in which he landed on teammate Jordon Smith, the GEICO Honda team is reportedly concerned that Craig has a broken tibia and fibula.
250 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
1. Alex Martin (2-2)
2. Jeremy Martin (4-1)
3. Cooper Webb (1-4)
4. Austin Forkner (3-5)
5. Aaron Plessinger (5-6)
6. Jessy Nelson (13-3)
7. Joey Savatgy (9-7)
8. Zach Osborne (8-8)
9. RJ Hampshire (6-11)
10. Martin Davalos (14-9)
11. Adam Cianciarulo (11-14)
12. Arnaud Tonus (10-15)
13. Mitchell Harrison (18-10)
14. Shane McElrath (12-16)
15. Tristan Charboneau (7-30)
16. Colt Nichols (19-13)
17. Alex Frye (15-17)
18. Mitchell Oldenburg (37-12)
19. Kyle Cunningham (16-19)
20. Justin Hill (17-36)
250 CLASS POINT STANDINGS
1. Alex Martin, 79
2. Cooper Webb, 77
3. Joey Savatgy, 76
4. Jeremy Martin, 75
5. Aaron Plessinger, 63
6. Austin Forkner, 58
7. Jessy Nelson, 57
8. Zach Osborne, 45
9. RJ Hampshire, 41
10. Tristan Charboneau, 36
