Ken Roczen is riding away from the 450MX class in 2016. Photo by: Hoppenworld
The 2016 True Value Thunder Valley National and round three of the 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship solidified that RCH / Soaring Eagle / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen is here to take back what he believes is rightfully his: the 450MX AMA Motocross Championship. The #94 once again was a force at round three with his second 1-1 performance of the season. Kenny has now won five of the first six motos with his only loss being due to a mechanical. The German was joined again on the podium by Red Bull / KTM’s Ryan Dungey (2-4) and Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac (5-2), but a crash by the #1 in moto 2 reportedly ended Ryan’s bid to defend his Championship. KTM announced that Ryan fractured his c6 vertebrae and is out indefinitely to recover. That means Roczen carries a twenty-nine point lead over Tomac into High Point this weekend.
In the 250MX class, Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy redeemed himself after a lackluster performance at round two. The #37 came from behind to lead the opening moto, but a late race crash relegated him to second behind Star Racing / Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin in the opening moto. In moto two, it was all Savatgy. The Kawasaki rider got to the lead early and went wire-to-wire for his second overall win of 2016. The red plate holder, Star Racing / Yamaha’s Alex Martin brought the heat onto Savatgy’s rear wheel in moto two, but he could not make a pass stick. In the end, the Martin brothers did enough to land on the podium together for the second straight weekend with Jeremy (1-3) in second and Alex (8-2) finishing third. With Alex’s 8-2—the #26 crashed in moto one—he surrendered the red plate to Savatgy in Colorado.
In the battle for the fastest lap time at round three, that honor was also won by Ken Roczen (2:10.649). In the opening moto of the day, Kenny got his first holeshot of the year and laid down the fastest lap of the day trying to put daylight between himself and Ryan Dungey (2:11.521)—who had the third fastest overall lap time. In the opening moto, their closest rival was buried in the pack and could not do better than a 2:13.750, but in moto two, Eli recorded the fastest lap time (2:11.230—2nd fastest overall) of the moto. Eli was one of three riders—with Marvin Musquin and Justin Barcia—in the top ten times to record their fastest laps under the rougher moto two conditions.
One more thing we want to point out is Ken Roczen’s incredible consistency. Kenny recorded the fastest overall average lap time in moto one with a 2:12.630—faster than the sixth fastest single lap. Amazingly, the #94 backed that up in moto two with an average lap time just four hundreths of a second off that at 2:12.670. Hopefully Eli found that kind of consistency over the week off, or this could get boring fast.
| Top 10 450MX Times | Top 10 250MX Times |
|---|---|
| 1. K. Roczen – 2:10.649 2. E. Tomac – 2:11.230 3. R. Dungey – 2:11.521 4. T. Canard – 2:11.807 5. J. Grant – 2:12.526 6. C. Seely – 2:13.172 7. J. Anderson – 2:13.190 8. J. Barcia – 2:13.338 9. M. Musquin – 2:14.077 10. C. Pourcel – 2:14.339 |
1. J. Savatgy – 2:12.099 2. A. Martin – 2:12.542 3. J. Martin – 2:12.818 4. M. Davalos – 2:13.171 5. Z. Osborne – 2:13.625 6. A. Cianciarulo – 2:13.809 7. A. Plessinger – 2:13.848 8. Z. Osborne – 2:13.908 9. A. Forkner – 2:13.991 10. C. Webb – 2:14.141 |
The fourth and fifth fastest 450MX laps belonged to HRC / Honda’s Trey Canard (2:11.807) and Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Josh Grant (2:12.526). Both recorded their fastest lap times in the opening moto while battling for their first moto podium of 2016. In moto one, Canard accomplished that podium goal with a third, and Grant also had his best moto of the year in fourth. The two ended the day with Canard in fifth and Grant in sixth overall at Thunder Valley.
In the 250MX class, the fastest overall single lap was turned in by Joey Savatgy (2:12.099). Savatgy and A. Martin (2:12.542) had the top two times, and surprisingly, both recorded their fastest lap times of the day at the twenty-five minute mark of the final moto of the day. Under the gnarliest conditions of the day, both showed their fitness is on point for this Championship. Alex also recorded the fastest overall average lap time (2:13.488) in that final moto while coming from behind to catch Savatgy. It’s beginning to look like both A-Mart and Savatgy are going to challenge J-Mart down to the wire for this Championship.
The third, fourth, and fifth fastest single 250MX laps belonged to J-Mart (2:12.818) and the two 250MX Rockstar / Husqvarna rider’s Martin Davalos (2:13.171) and Zach Osborne (2:13.625). J-Mart recorded his fastest lap during his moto one win, but both Davalos and Osborne laid it down in moto two. Davalos and Osborne have had tough starts to 2016, but both picked up some much needed momentum at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Osborne finished fourth overall with Davalos leaving with one of his best outdoor finishes in quite some time—a sixth.
Full 2016 Thunder Valley National results here>>>
| Top 10 450MX Avg Lap-Times | Top 10 250MX Avg Lap-Times |
|---|---|
| 1. K. Roczen – 2:12.630 2. R. Dungey – 2:12.783 3. E. Tomac – 2:12.914 4. T. Canard – 2:14.996 5. J. Grant – 2:15.014 6. C. Seely – 2:15.201 7. M. Musquin – 2:15.351 8. J. Barcia – 2:16.091 9. J. Bogle – 2:16.369 10. B. Tickle – 2:16.898 |
1. A. Martin – 2:13.488 2. J. Savatgy – 2:13.754 3. A. Cianciarulo – 2:14.607 4. J. Martin – 2:15.146 5. A. Forkner – 2:15.373 6. Z. Osborne – 2:15.534 7. C. Webb – 2:15.644 8. M. Davalos – 2:15.819 9. J. Nelson – 2:15.917 10. A. Plessinger – 2:15.975 |
Scroll down to see how the four motos broke down lap-for-lap and how the 250’s matched up against the 450 riders in the high altitude of Lakewood, Co. with MotoXAddicts’ lap-time comparison charts.
Each graph charts the lap times of the top five finishers in each moto. You can run your cursor over the lines to see which rider the line signifies and that rider’s time for each lap. Click on a rider’s name on the right to remove them from the chart so you can run riders’ times against each other heads up. Also, scroll down to see how the top three 250MX class finishers matched up against the top three 450MX class finishers.
Click here for the current 2016 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship standings>>>
