RCH Soaring Eagle Suzuki’s Ken Roczen keeps his title hopes on life support with a dominant performance at Gillette Stadium.
Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey hoped to claim his first career back-to-back AMA Supercross titles when round 15 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series came to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, but RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Ken Roczen made sure that Dungey will have to wait one more week for that.
Roczen caught and passed Dungey in the 450cc main event at Gillette Stadium to claim his fourth win of the season and stay his own execution in the series title race by one more week.
Dungey jumped out the early lead when the 20-lap 450cc main event got underway, but Roczen was away second, just ahead of Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Josh Grant while Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson ran fourth and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac ran fifth. Roczen then blitzed past Dungey in the whoop section on the opening lap and went on to win the main event by over 9 seconds.
“It’s awesome,” Roczen said. “The track was really tough out there. It was really slippery on some spots, so you’re almost just riding so you don’t make mistakes. There’s hard parts, there are rough parts…It was challenging tonight, but I felt awesome.”
Dungey gave Roczen a wide berth after losing the lead, and although he would also yield a position to Tomac, Dungey had very little to lose by not taking another win. Dungey still kept his consecutive podium streak alive–he has not finished worse than third all seaason–and he now holds a 43-point lead over Roczen heading into next weekend’s round at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. Basically, for Roczen to steal the Supercross title away from Dungey, he would have to win the last two rounds and hope that Dungey finishes near the back of the back in both, a highly unlikely scenario.
“We got off to a good start and tried to really put the hammer down, but Ken [Roczen] and Eli [Tomac] were going good tonight,” Dungey said. “They were hanging it out, and I had nothing for them. It’s just one of them races. There’s no excuses. I did best. I started tightening up there a little bit and just tried to kind of keep her steady. I was able to get back by Jason [Anderson] for third, so that’s good with points and everything. Tonight we knew there was a possibility, with the championship, that we could do it, if we got two points [more than Roczen], but we lost a little bit. It’s okay. We’ll keep going into next weekend and keep our heads up.”
Like Roczen, Tomac rode like he had nothing to lose during the Foxborough main event, and Dungey didn’t put up much of a fight when Tomac passed him at the end of the track’s long rhythm section. Tomac ran within 1.5 seconds of Roczen for the first dozen laps of the main event before losing ground in the later laps. Still, third place was a welcome result for Tomac, whom many insiders expected to perform much better than he has this season; Tomac has only one series win so far, the Daytona Supercross.
“This is a big improvement for us, for the way that things have been going,” Tomac said. “I was good early, had some struggles in the second practice [and] it came to together in the main. I made a good inside move on the start and battle early. I felt really good the first half of the race, connecting the rhythms and nailing the lines. I got a little bit shaky at the end there, and Ken [Roczen] pulled away. But it was a big improvement for the whole Monster Energy Kawasaki team, and I’m looking forward to next week.”
Dungey’s run to third place was far from lonely, as training partner Anderson came up and challenged him for third place just past the halfway point, passing Dungey in a right-hander on lap 12. Dungey very nearly lost the front end and crashed, but he somehow managed to keep himself upright. It looked as though Dungey’s podium streak would end, but he fought back with five laps to go, and he powered around the outside of Anderson in the whoops to retake third place with five laps to go.
Beyond that, about the only exciting moment came during lap three when Autotrader/Monster/Yamaha’s Weston Peick made a mistake in a rhythm section and slowed. RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Jake Weimer had already jumped into the section, and he tagged the back of Peick and went down, collecting Autotrader/Monster/Yamaha’s Justin Barcia and RCH Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Broc Tickle in the process. The Yamaha-Suzuki mating ritual lost its humor when Smartop/MotoConcepts Honda’s Mike Alessi also could not avoid the melee and ran over Weimer’s head. Weimer did not appear to sustain any serious injury, but he was through for the afternoon.
Anderson held on for fourth place, with Team Honda HRC teammates Trey Canard and Cole Seely fifth and sixth respectively ahead of GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle, the latter showing steady improvement over the last few rounds. Yamaha riders Peick and Chad Reed ran eight and ninth respectively, with Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin 10th.
2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series
Gillette Stadium
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Results: April 23, 2016 (Round 15 of 17)
450 Main Event
1. Ken Roczen-Suz
2. Eli Tomac-Kaw
3. Ryan Dungey-KTM
4. Jason Anderson-Hus
5. Trey Canard-Hon
6. Justin Bogle-Hon
7. Cole Seely-Hon
8. Weston Peick-Yam
9. Chad Reed-Yam
10. Marvin Musquin-KTM
11. Josh Grant-Kaw
12. Justin Brayton-KTM
13. Mike Alessi-Hon
14. Broc Tickle-Suz
15. Nick Wey-Kaw
16. Vince Friese-Hon
17. Cade Clason-Hon
18. AJ Catanzaro-Kaw
19. Justin Barcia-Yam
20. Alex Ray-Hon
21. Nicholas Schmidt-Suz
22. Jake Weimer-Suz
2016 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series Points Standings (after 15 of 17 rounds)
1. Ryan Dungey-348/8 wins
2. Ken Roczen-305/4 wins
3. Jason Anderson-278/2 wins
4. Eli Tomac-248/1 win
5. Chad Reed-220
6. Marvin Musquin-199
7. Cole Seely-187
8. Trey Canard-170
Justin Brayton-170
10. Jake Weimer-115
Weston Peick-115
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