It’s pretty well understood that Supercross is a specialized kind of motocross racing. The Red Bull Straight Rhythm is a specialized kind of Supercross racing. It’s Supercross, but in a straight line, and taking out the corners changes more than you might think.
“It’s really different, because taking out the turns means you hit the obstacles way faster than you’re used to,” says Monster Energy AMA Supercross Champion Ryan Dungey. “It’s hard to say if you can apply things you learn here to supercross because it’s hard to imagine hitting the rhythms going as fast as we’re going here…”
Now in its third year, the Red Bull Straight Rhythm has always struggled to fill its 16-racer-fields with factory-level talent. This year’s event was even lighter than usual, as both of the Stewarts – last year’s 450 champ James Stewart and his brother, last year’s Lites champ, Malcolm – are without rides at the moment, and the entire GEICO Honda team, which Malcolm raced for in 2016, stayed away this year (likely due in major part to their rider RJ Hampshire’s huge crash at the event in 2015).
Besides James Stewart, there was one Red Bull athlete who sat out this year’s event as well: Ken Roczen. At last week’s Monster Energy Cup, Roczen revealed that he would’ve liked to do the Straight Rhythm, but most of his new factory Honda team accompanied his teammate Cole Seely to Japan this weekend, and Roczen was booked to go ride with journalists at the official launch of the all-new 2017 Honda CRF450R in Alabama during the week prior to the event.
That being said, both Red Bull-backed KTM teams–the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull KTM 250cc team as well as the official Red Bull KTM 450cc factory team–were on hand, and almost completely dominant.
In the Lites event, the TLD team (Mitchell Oldenberg, Jordon Smith and Shane McElrath) qualified first to third, and Smith had the unpopular job of taking down legendary Ronnie Mac in the first round before Smith ended up losing to teammate McElrath in the Semi-Finals. Smith went on to defeat Josh Hill (on the electric Alta Motors machine) in the third-place race.
Oldenberg raced his way by Hill in the Semi-finals to face off against McElrath in the Final, where third-place-qualifier McElrath managed to take Oldenberg down for the win.
“Last year I was second, and I wasn’t happy with it,” McElrath said. “This is much better. It’s such a cool event, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s just like Mad Skills, because all you have to worry about is keeping speed, not hanging up a wheel on a landing, or anything like that, and if you can do that for 40 seconds, you win!”
In the 450cc class, the Red Bull KTM team of Marvin Musquin, Ryan Dungey and Trey Canard qualified first, second and fourth, with immensely talented, part-time racer Josh Hansen qualifying third. In the Semi-finals, Hansen shocked the Pomona Fairgrounds by taking down Dungey in their first of three runs.
“He was able to carry so much speed during that last 100 yards,” Dungey said. “After I lost, I was like, ‘Man, I’m in a predicament now!’”
Dungey managed–barely–to hold off Hansen in the next two runs to move into the Final, sending Hansen to the third-place race.
On the other side of the bracket, fast-qualifier Musquin made quick work of new teammate Canard in the Semis, sending Canard to face Hansen for third. Hansen completed his inevitable upset by defeating Canard for third place before Musquin and Dungey squared off in the Final.
Although Dungey stayed close, he was no match for Musquin in the Final, and Musquin became the 2016 Red Bull Straight Rhythm champ.
“I’m just having so much fun on the bike right now,” Musquin said. “I knew I was fast today, but you can’t underestimate Trey or Ryan… I hope to do more of this in January! There are going to be a lot of guys who all want to win, though…”
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