Washougal Race by Race

US MX

maddix park mx

www.racerxonline.com  

By Jordan Roberts (450) and Aaron Hansel (250)

450 Moto 1:  All of the major players started up front in the first 450 moto, with Ryan Dungey leading the way. Points leader and hometown hero Ryan Villopoto started in fifth and would need to pass the likes of James Stewart, Andrew Short and 450 rookie Justin Barcia before he would be able to contend Dungey for the lead.

As of recent, Short has been able to pull good starts and carry the speed to stay up front, but Stewart and Villopoto were able to pass him early on. Though Short dropped from third to fifth rather quickly, he wasn’t shaken and was able to knock out consistently fast lap times to stay in the top five for the majority of the race.

Villopoto started tailing Stewart as the two riders worked at catching up to second place Barcia. They never had to worry about passing him, though, because the Honda Muscle Milk rider tipped over in a right-hand corner and allowed Stewart and Villopoto to advance.

Stewart and Villopoto had to deal with each other while Dungey rode a clear track out front. Villopoto routinely gained and lost time on Stewart over the course of several laps before being able to latch on to the back of the number seven bike. Villopoto made a charge and they drag raced up Horsepower Hill. Stewart had the lead as they crested the hill, but Villopoto had emerged before Stewart as they dropped back down into the infield.

Stewart gradually fell off Villopoto’s pace as Villopoto chipped away at Dungey’s lead. Dungey started running into a significant amount of lapped traffic as time dwindled. Dungey isn’t exactly notorious for being able to slice through lapped traffic with ease, so the lead he once enjoyed began to diminish. Villopoto closed the gap down to a couple seconds with only a few laps left. The pressure was on, but Dungey never lost his cool. Villopoto wasn’t more than two bike lengths away from Dungey in the last few corners, but it was enough to keep him from taking the first moto win. The two Ryans are now set to duke it out in the second moto for the overall win—something Villopoto has been unable to achieve at his home track.

450 Moto 1 Results
1. Ryan Dungey
2. Ryan Villopoto
3. James Stewart
4. Justin Barcia
5. Josh Grant
6. Andrew Short
7. Mike Alessi
8. Weston Peick
9. Chad Reed
10. Jake Weimer
11. Malcolm Stewart
12. Trey Canard
13. Broc Tickle
14. Ryan Sipes
15. Justin Brayton
16. Tyla Rattray
17. Ben LaMay
18. Phil Nicoletti
19. Austin Howell
20. Nick Wey

Click HERE for full 450 moto one results

450 Moto 2 :  As the second 450 moto blasted off the gate, Ryan Dungey emerged as the early leader after passing holeshot winner Josh Grant. Ryan Villopoto and James Stewart followed immediately behind and also quickly passed Grant. The fastest three riders in American motocross were all up front and may have molded a moto that—in time—will ultimately define an era in our sport. The two Ryans began to stretch their lead over 450 veteran Stewart, while Stewart simultaneously pulled away from the rest of the pack. Villopoto paced Dungey lap after lap. It looked as if the moto may evolve into a chess match, but that’s never a game Villopoto has been willing to play. He began showing Dungey his front wheel more and more as the race progressed and finally made his move through an inside rut of the turn following the finish line. Villopoto made the pass stick and started to inch away from the defending champion.

Jake Weimer and Broc Tickle also began to settle into their fourth and fifth positions just as the top three had done, but behind them was a multi-rider battle that had detonated for valuable top ten positions. Grant began to fade back as riders such as Chad Reed, Phil Nicoletti, Mike Alessi and Andrew Short eagerly charged forward. Alessi rode most impressively, passing all the aforementioned riders to secure sixth place.

The moto had neared its end as soon as the commotion had steadied out at the tail end of the top ten. Villopoto still grasped the lead to bring home his first overall win at Washougal—a surprising stat for a man who has won it all. Dungey followed him up in second place, and Stewart in third to round out the podium.

450 Moto 2 Results
1. Ryan Villopoto
2. Ryan Dungey
3. James Stewart
4. Jake Weimer
5. Broc Tickle
6. Mike Alessi
7. Chad Reed
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Andrew Short
10. Josh Grant
11. Trey Canard
12. Malcolm Stewart
13. Justin Brayton
14. Weston Peick
15. Ben LaMay
16. Michael Byrne
17. Justin Barcia
18. Mike Brown
19. Tucker Hibbert
20. Ricky Dietrich

Click HERE for full moto two results.

Villopoto remains the overall points leader as he and Dungey both add 47 to their overall season totals. Despite a frustrating day, Barcia remains third followed by Stewart in fourth and Alessi in fifth.

250 Moto 1:  It’s been said that a boring race is good for one guy, and if that’s true, then Eli Tomac must have been overjoyed in the first moto here at the Peterson CAT Washougal National. His GEICO Honda teammate Justin Bogle nabbed the holeshot and led the first lap, but Tomac quickly took over the lead after that and dropped the field like a sack of moldy bread. When it was over, he had nearly twenty seconds on second place.

Behind him Blake Baggett had moved past Bogle into second, but late in the race he suffered a mechanical failure that appeared to be a blown motor. Bummer for Baggett, who had second place wrapped up.

Roczen started around twelfth but quickly started making moves. He inherited second place when Baggett pulled out, but nearly lost it to Marvin Musquin, who caught a late-moto surge.

Local boy Justin Hill had the best race of his pro career and finished fifth, while teammate Adam Cianciarulo also had a great race and took sixth.

250 Moto 1 Results
1. Eli Tomac
2. Ken Roczen
3. Marvin Musquin
4. Justin Bogle
5. Justin Hill
6. Adam Cianciarulo
7. Martin Davalos
8. Kyle Cunningham
9. Cole Seely
10. Wil Hahn
11. Jason Anderson
12. Cooper Webb
13. Darryn Durham
14. Zach Osborne
15. Tommy Weeck
16. Kyle Peters
17. Jacob Baumert
18. Preston Mull
19. Brady Kiesel
20. Jason Brooks

Click HERE for full 250 moto one results.

250 Moto 2:  Wil Hahn kicked off the second moto with a holeshot, then immediately encountered trouble, got squirelly and was forced to check up. Justin Bogle took over the lead, only to have Eli Tomac move into first halfway through the first lap. When Ken Roczen moved into second place soon after, with only two seconds separating him from Tomac, it appeared as though the long awaited duel between the two 250 superheroes would finally play out. Tomac, however, had no interest in putting on a show and he dropped the hammer, putting major distance between himself and Roczen. Tomac won the moto by a mile over Roczen, despite a scary moment on the second-to-last lap where he got kicked hard and almost crashed hard going up Horsepower Hill. With a sweep at Washougal, the Red Rider moves to within one point of the championship lead and the red number plate.

Behind Roczen, there simply wasn’t much going on until late in the moto when Bogle, Zach Osborne, and Marvin Musquin started bunching up in a battle for third. Jason Anderson was closing on the group, but he simply had too much ground to make up and was just short of joining the fray. Osborne would win this battle, while Bogle fell all the way back to sixth on one lap.

Justin Hill had another great moto. He finished in seventh place and had to run down and pass his teammate Blake Baggett to do it. Another local rider worthy of note is Tommy Weeck, who took eighteenth.

250 Moto 2 Results

1. Eli Tomac
2. Ken Roczen
3. Zach Osborne
4. Marvin Musquin
5. Jason Anderson
6. Justin Bogle
7. Justin Hill
8. Blake Baggett
9. Martin Davalos
10. Cole Seely
11. Cooper Webb
12. Jeremy Martin
13. Wil Hahn
14. Darryn Durham
15. Kyle Cunningham
16. Adam Cianciarulo
17. Kyle Peters
18. Tommy Weeck
19. Jacob Baumert
20. Ryan Zimmer

Click HERE for full moto two results.

Roczen retains the series points lead, but only by a single point over Tomac. Musquin remains third overall followed by Baggett in fourth. 

Image Simon Cudby.

 
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