Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey extended his points lead in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship after sweeping both motos on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Dungy dominated the difficult High Point track, keeping the ambitious Mike Alessi (MotoConcepts Suzuki) at bay. James Stewart (Yoshimura Suzuki), who injured his right wrist last weekend at Thunder Valley, took fifth in the first moto, but sat out the second to let his wrist recover.
Moto 1
Alessi asserted himself right out of the gates by taking the first holeshot award of the day. He set up an early lead over Andrew Short (L and MC Honda), Jake Weimer (Monster Energy Kawasaki), and Dungey, while Stewart got caught up in the pack. Alessi kept his lead for a number of laps, but all the while Dungey was honing in on him and a pass seemed inevitable – any mistake by Alessi and Dungey would take over.
This is exactly what happened toward the middle of the moto when Alessi got a little wobbly off a jump and the rest is history. Dungey charged on to put nearly 20 seconds between himself and Alessi.
Weimer carved out a little comfort zone for himself in third place, where he spent most of the race after getting ahead of Short who would finish in fourth.
Just down the line a little, Stewart worked his way though the field up to fifth. He was obviously riding with some hesitation and almost lost fifth to Broc Tickle (Monster Energy Kawaski) in the final moments of the moto. After the race, Stewart told NBC Sports that he was having trouble holding onto the bike and that a fall seemed certain if rode in the next moto.
Moto 2
This time around, Dungey picked up the holeshot award, but soon found himself getting passed by Alessi. Dungey is a very smart rider though and he patiently trailed Alessi, basically waiting for him to hand over the lead.
About ten minutes in, Alessi goes really wide and Dungey is able to thread the line past him. Ultimately, the battle between Alessi and Dungey came down to riding style, and it was Dungey’s fluid and calm riding that came out on top.
Once again, Weimer found himself in a third place no man’s land. Around the time Dungey regained the lead, Weimer was only seven seconds back, but Dungey would eventually extend that gap to nearly 30 seconds.
Brett Metcalfe (Yoshimura Suzuki) held down fourth place throughout most of the moto and seemed to have it nailed until the very end. Just as Dungey took the checkers, Metcalfe lost traction with his rear tire, handing over the position to Davi Millisaps (JGR Yamaha).
There was a lot of swapping between Short, Tickle, Ryan Sipes (Star Valli Yamaha), Michael Byrne (BTO Suzuki), Nico Izzi (Star Valli Yamaha), and Kyle Regal (JGR Yamaha), as they sorted out the top ten for the moto. In the end, Sipes would pull ahead of the pack for sixth, while Byrne picked up seventh.
After High Point
Dungey finds himself 42 points ahead of Alessi in second place. Weimer got knocked down to third, but just by a few points. Stewart, however, is now in fifth and trails 74 points behind Dungey.
250 Class
Justin Barcia (GEICO Honda) took home first place in Moto 1 for his second win of the season. He took over the lead early in the moto from Will Hahn (GEICO Honda), who eventually lost his hold on second to Eli Tomac (GEICO Honda) and Blake Baggett (Monster Energy Kawasaki).
Prior to moving up to third, Baggett battled for fourth with Ken Roczen (Red Bull KTM), but once he got around the KTM rider there was no looking back. Both Tomac and Baggett were hard on Barcia’s tail, all three finishing within five seconds of each other.
In the second moto, Roczen claimed the holeshot and maintained a solid lead until a small crash in the final laps slowed him down. This gave Tomac the opportunity to creep up on him and eventually steal the win. Barcia would take third in the moto, having lost his second place position to Tomac later in the race. Baggett put in a strong bid for second, but he eventually washed-out his front end and fell back to fifth.
WMX
Rockstar Energy Racing Suzuki’s Jessica Patterson picked up the overall win with a 2-1 record for the day. She started slow in the first moto, but put in a tremendous effort to finish just behind Tarah Geiger (Lucas Oil Honda), who claimed second over all (1-5).
The two fought hard in the second moto and ended up crashing after touching bikes. Patterson managed to get right back up and made a beeline for first just ahead of Sayaka Kaneshiro (Team Honda Muscle Milk).
2012 AMA Pro Motocross Round 5
The Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will continue with Round 5 next weekend at Budds Creek, Maryland.
High Point 450 Results:
- Ryan Dungey (KTM) 1-1
- Mike Alessi (Suzuki) 2-2
- Jake Weimer (Kawasaki) 3-3
- Andrew Short (Honda) 4-8
- Davi Millsaps (Yamaha) 9-4
- Brett Metcalfe (Suzuki) 7-5
- Broc Tickl (Kawasaki) 6-9
- Ryan Sipes (Yamaha) 12-6
- Nico Izzi (Yamaha) 8-10
- Michael Byrne (Suzuki) 13-7
- Justin Brayton (Honda) 11-13
- Kyle Chisholm (Kawasaki) 14-12
- Michael Byrne (Suzuki) 13-7
- James Stewart (Suzuki) 5-39
- Josh Grant (Kawasaki) 10-38
High Point 250 Results:
- Eli Tomac (Honda) 2-1
- Justin Barcia (Honda) 1-3
- Ken Roczen (KTM) 5-2
- Blake Baggett (Kawasaki) 3-5
- Marvin Musquin (KTM) 6-4
- Wil Hahn (Honda) 4-9
- Ivan Tedesco (Kawasaki) 7-10
- Jason Anderson (Suzuki) 13-6
- Kyle Cunningham (Yamaha) 14-7
- Jessy Nelson (Honda) 10-11
- Alex Martin (Honda) 8-13
- Gareth Swanepoel (Yamaha) 15-8
- Travis Baker (Honda) 11-12
- Kyle Peters (Yamaha) 12-15
- Jake Canada (Honda) 9-34
High Point WMX Results:
- Jessica Patterson (Suz) 2-1
- Tarah Geiger (Hon) 1-5
- Sayaka Kaneshiro (Hon) 5-2
- Mariana Balbi (Hon) 4-3
- Kasie Creson (Hon) 3-6
- Jacqueline Strong (KTM) 7-4
- Marissa Markelon (Yam) 6-7
- Sara Pettersonn (KTM) 9-8
- Amanda Brown (Hon) 8-11
- Sade Allender (Hon) 11-9
