Red Bull KTM champions Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin cap a dream season for KTM with wins in Las Vegas.
KTM will forever be able to look back on the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series a banner season, as Red Bull KTM riders Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin capped the series finale at Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas with wins in their respective classes.
In his 100th career 450cc supercross start, Dungey collected his eighth win of the year in the final 450cc main event of the season at Boyd Stadium, while Musquin broke a tie of nine wins each between the two 250cc regions by becoming the 10th East Coast rider to win in the 19th edition of the Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Shootout for the 250cc riders.
450cc Main Event
Dungey was strong right off the start of the final 20-lap main event of the season, holding off BTO Sports KTM’s Justin Brayton for the holeshot while GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac slotted into third place. Tomac cut under Brayton at the end of the long front straightaway to move past Brayton into second place, potentially setting up a battle with Dungey for the final win of the season.
Toyota/Joe Gibbs Racing’s Weston Peick also passed Brayton to move into fourth place early, just ahead of TwoTwo Motorsports/Discount Tire Kawasaki teammates Chad Reed and Josh Grant. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett, Team Honda HRCs Cole Seely, Team Chiz/RickieFowler.com/Westfall Auto Sales Kawasaki’s Kyle Chisholm and privateer Husqvarna rider Ben Lamay filled-in the top 10 positions at the start of lap two.
Tomac immediately tried to overtake Dungey by tripling the end of one of the rhythm sections and diving underneath him in the next right-hand corner. Dungey was able to escape, but Tomac came right back on him with an inside attempt as they raced through the long left-hand corner outside of the stadium. Tomac briefly stole the lead away from Dungey but drifted just wide enough that Dungey was able to drive past him and retake the spot just as they re-entered the stadium. Peick was now third, and he appeared to gain momentarily on Tomac as Tomac battled with Dungey.
Dungey tried to open up a lead on Tomac, but the determined GEICO Honda rider was able to close back up through the long corner outside the stadium. Tomac appeared all set to give Dungey a challenge on lap five, but instead his chances for a quick overtaking move were dashed when he lost the front end and crashed in a left-hand corner just before one of the rhythm sections. Tomac was able to remount quickly, but Dungey suddenly had a 5-second advantage.
Meanwhile, Peick, Reed and Seely battled in close quarters for third place. The two-time former supercross champion and series veteran tried to force Peick into making a mistake, but the Yamaha rider was solid. Reed moved alongside Peick in one of the rhythm sections, but he wasn’t able to make a pass. Reed began to lose ground on Peick around lap 10.
Dungey was sailing up front, and he had built up an 9.5-second lead as the race entered its final five laps. With that big of an advantage, he was able to cruise to the finish to collect career 450cc supercross win number 22 with 4.6-second margin of victory.
“I think it [the 2015] was a good step for us,” Dungey said. “I learned a lot myself. I really wanted that win number eight. I forgot it was my 100th race. That [win] is an all-time high for me in a supercross season. That was the goal tonight. Eli [Tomac] was on it all day, and he got stronger as the year went on. He definitely did make it tough for us. We were pushing in that moto—I know we both were. The lap times were longer, and fitness played a role in it.”
Dungey said that he and the team had made some changes to his factory KTM SX450-F during the week, and the improvements were noticeable.
“We’re just trying to keep building and hope for a lot more good days,” Dungey said. “And I believe my best days are ahead of me. It was an awesome supercross season, and I am looking forward to more.”
Tomac finished second in what may be his final supercross race aboard a Honda, as he is being strongly rumored to have made a deal to be aboard the factory Kawasaki team in 2016.
“Man, that was definitely a blast,” Tomac said. “That seemed like the perfect setup for an awesome battle between me and Ryan [Dungey], but unfortunately I just washed my front end out, and I kind of had to settle in for second because he was throwing out an awesome pace. But, man, what a fun year.”
Peick’s third-place finish marked his second podium visit in his last three starts.
“It feels awesome,” he said. “We’ve been working our butts off this whole season, and we’ve had a lot of injuries and a lot of crashes, which have set me back. But I jumped back and got a good start…and I can’t be more pumped to be up here on the podium for the last and final round.
Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Shootout
The battle for the win in the Dave Coombs Sr. East-West Shootout went down one rider right away during practice, and that rider turned out to be newly crowned AMA 250cc West Supercross Champion Cooper Webb, who suffered a high ankle sprain and torn ligaments in a crash. The Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha rider was forced to drop out of the race, but he hopes to be fit enough to start the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
However, the added competition from the mix of East and West riders posed no problem for Musquin, who handily made the main event via a direct transfer from his heat and then pulled a whale of a holeshot at the start of the Shootout main event. GEICO Honda teammates Malcolm Stewart and RJ Hampshire quickly moved into second and third place respectively, ahead of Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Bell and Team 100/Motosport.com/Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Josh Hansen.
It looked as though Stewart might challenge Musquin early in the main event, but Musquin soon began to smoothly pull away, building a lead of 5 seconds by lap five. By then, the running order in the top five changed ever so slightly as Bisceglia took over fifth place on lap four after Hansen crashed. Farther back, Yamalube Star Racing Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger got past Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne to run seventh, behind CycleTrader.com Rock River Yamaha’s Alex Martin. Bell would crash out of the top five in the whoops on lap five, and he would drop to 10th place.
Out front, Musquin was cutting the fastest laps of the race and pulling out a lead of over 10 seconds on Stewart with 10 laps to go. Hampshire continued to circulate in third place another 10.3 seconds behind Stewart, but Matt Bisceglia ran down GEICO Honda teammate Hampshire, and he took over third place. Plessinger also came up to battle with Hampshire for fourth place, and he was able to jump past Hampshire to take the position away.
Musquin was simply unstoppable as he dominated the Shootout main event, winning by 11.8 seconds over Stewart. Bisceglia finished third just under 5 seconds behind Stewart. Plessinger and Martin completed the top five. With the win, Musquin became the first East rider to win the race since Justin Barcia in 2012, and he became the ninth rider to back up an AMA regional supercross title with a win in the Shootout. It was just one more highlight in a season filled with many.
“Winning seven out of eight races, it has been great,” Musquin said. I have never felt so confident going to the race, but that comes with training. That was my last season in the 250s, so it has been great. I was so ready for the Shootout. It’s a bummer that Cooper Webb had to sit down for that race, having an injury, and many other riders didn’t want to race the Shootout, which is bad. I know outdoors is two weeks away, but we are racing [supercross]. It has been like a dream. It was a perfect day.”
Stewart reflected on his season afterward as well, pointing to his Oakland win as the obvious highlight.
“Getting in the books with my brother, that was awesome,” he said. “I had fun here in Vegas, got that heat race win. In the main event, I ain’t gonna lie, I got tired on the fifth lap. Marvin [Musquin] rode great. He did everything he could possibly do to keep me behind him. For me, coming into the season with no ride and was going to do this out of my own pocket, definitely God was doing this for me.”
Bisceglia, who finished third in the shootout, said he was proudest of being able to battle through injuries to compete.
“I missed a couple rounds and didn’t finish out so hot in the points, but I just fought and never gave up, and that’s what I had to do in that main,” he said. “I was leading my heat race and washed out the front end. Then I got second in the LCQ and had to come from the outside. I came out [of the start] good and then got shuffled way back in the second corner and almost went down. I looked over in the next section and said, ‘I have a lot of work to do if I want to land on the box.’ I just started clicking off riders left and right. I had the rhythms down and I had the whoops down. Those were the key parts of the track tonight, and I was able to make a bunch of passes.”
Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series
Boyd Stadium
Las Vegas Nevada
Results: May 2, 2015 (Round 17 of 17)
450cc Main Event
1. Ryan Dungey-KTM
2. Eli Tomac-Hon
3. Weston Peick-Yam
4. Cole Seely-Hon
5. Josh Grant-Kaw
6. Blake Baggett-Suz
7. Chad Reed-Kaw
8. Justin Barcia-Yam
9. Justin Brayton-KTM
10. Broc Tickle-Suz
11. Kyle Chisholm-Kaw
12. Nick Wey-Kaw
13. Ben Lamay-Hus
14. Nick Schmidt-Suz
15. Thomas Ramette-Kaw
16. Killian Rusk-Yam
17. Tony Archer-Kaw
18. Kyle Partridge-Hon
19. Michael Akaydin-Hon
20. Deven Raper-Kaw
21. Dustin Pipes-Suz
22. Travis Bannister-Hon
Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series Point Standings (After 17 of 17 rounds)
1. Ryan Dungey-390/8 wins*
2. Eli Tomac-305/3 wins
3. Cole Seely-277/1 win
4. Chad Reed-236/1 win
5. Blake Baggett-223
6. Trey Canard-204/2 wins
7. Jason Anderson-200
8. Broc Tickle-194
9. Andrew Short-180
10. Weston Peick-160
11. Josh Grant-159
12. Ken Roczen-156
13. Davi Millsaps-147
14. Kyle Chisholm-115
15. Justin Barcia-102
16. Nick Wey-94
17. Jake Weimer-74
18. Justin Brayton-66
Phil Nicoletti-66
20. Ben Lamay-53
*Clinched 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship
Dave Coombs Sr. East/West Shootout
1. Marvin Musquin-KTM
2. Malcolm Stewart-Hon
3. Matt Bisceglia-Hon
4. Aaron Plessinger-Yam
5. Alex Martin-Yam
6. Zach Osborne-Hus
7. RJ Hampshire-Hon
8. Cole Martinez-Yam
9. Shane Mcelrath-KTM
10. Kyle Peters-Hon
11. Mitchell Oldenburg-Yam
12. Zach Bell-Hus
13. Gannon Audette-Kaw
14. Luke Renzland-Yam
15. AJ Catanzaro-Suz
16. Scott Champion-Yam
17. Justin Starling-Hon
18. Josh Hansen-Kaw
19. Anthony Rodriguez-Yam
20. Preston Mull-Yam
21. Nick Desiderio-Yam
22. Justin Hill-KTM
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