Suzuki’s Ken Roczen continued his winning ways at the latest round of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship at Redbud going 1-1 and claiming the overall.
Justin Bogle had the holeshot, but Justin Barcia rode up with an unseen speed and came out around him. Ken Roczen, though would not wait long before he made his presence known and pushed forward to grab the lead while still inside the first lap.
Eli Tomac had solid first lap despite a 7th place position from the start. Tomas made quick work of four spots on the first lap and found himself quickly in third and fighting for Barcia’s second place spot.
The battle for second would be an ongoing effort. For multiple laps Tomac would be within a bike length of Barcia but unable to get an inside line around turns and stuck in his third place position. After a few laps of all eyes on Tomac trying to take second, the battle changed and he found himself fighting to hold off Broc Tickle from taking third.
Tickle seemingly came out of nowhere as he made a quick approach onto the heels of Tomac and, unlike Tomac trying to take Barcia, Tickle was finding all sort of different lines to keep Tomac on his toes.Then Barcia bounced out of rhythm.
Barcia lost a little ground but not immediately hand over his second place position. Tomac did however take advantage of the opportunity and found his way around Barcia and left him to deal with Tickle.
In the fifth place position would be Phil Nicoletti who had his work cut out for him to keep back not only the fastest qualifier Christophe Pourcel, Blake Baggett (back from an early season injury), Marvin Musquin and Bogle who had settled down near the middle of the pack following his holeshot. The next rider in line would be Matt Bisceglia to round out the top ten.
The group would be tight for many laps, but a few exchanges would occur. First was Musquin to move past Baggett, then it would be Pourcel to pass Nicoletti and the next move would come from Bisceglia on Baggett. Still the pack of riders from fifth thru tenth would continue to stay close in quarters.
As the action continue to unfold in the fifth thru tenth positions, the focus returned to Tomac as he stalled his bike following a little bit of airtime. Tomac came down a landing and into a turn but found he was stalled and was forced to kickstart his bike in a hurry. He did well, though, and managed to keep his position of second despite the odds.
Roczen, however, had not bobbled and had earned more than a ten second gap over the rest of the field. Roczen held on to his lead and took the win in moto 1, while Tomac and Barcia rounded out the podium behind him.
Moto 2 started out with what seemed like a mirrored Bogle repeated his holeshot on the day earning another while Tomac rode through the first few turns right on him. Then Tomac cam flying down hill to go wide and charge past Bogle with fire.
Next up for Bogle to battle was Roczen, but it wouldn’t be much of a battle as Roczen took an inside line and left him behind. Roczen then picked up his place and headed for Tomac.
Tomac managed to lead a lap, but with the choice not to triple at the infamous LaRocco’s Leap he watch as Roczen soared over it and him for the lead. Roczen has shown all season that he is not interested in being anything but the leader, and he quickly found his way to lead again for moto 2.
A little deeper in the pack was Barcia making a move on Bisceglia to earn the fifth place position. In front of Barcia was Bogle in fourth riding just behind Tickle in third. Barcia would keep his momentum following his pass on Bisceglia and within a lap move on to overtake Bogle.
Bogle continued to lose his momentum after that pass. Coming up from behind, Musquin, Baggett and Pourcel would all find their way past Bogle over the course of next lap. Bisceglia would soon experience a similar edge from Musquin coming from behind as well as Baggett and Pourcel shortly after. With the multiple moves by Musquin he found himself in fifth place with seven minutes and two laps to continue pushing up the leaderboard.
Going into the final lap, Roczen rode strong with a 28 second gap and carried it all the way to the finish. Roczen finished 1-1 on the day while his closest competitor in the standings, Tomac, finished 2-2 on the day, which leaves a fairly clear picture as to what is expected for the second half of the season.
450 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
Ken Roczen (1-1)
Eli Tomac (2-2)
Broc Tickle (4-3)
Justin Barcia (3-4)
Marvin Musquin (5-6)
Blake Baggett (7-5)
Christophe Pourcel (6-7)
Matt Bisceglia (8-8)
Justin Bogle (10-9)
Benny Bloss (11-10)
450 CLASS OVERALL POINT STANDINGS
Ken Roczen, 293
Eli Tomac, -53
Marvin Musquin, -126
Cole Seely, -142
Broc Tickle, -146
Justin Barcia, -147
Christophe Pourcel, -157
Ryan Dungey, -162
Justin Bogle, -175
Jason Anderson, -180