The 2012 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship is heading east to Mount Morris, Pennsylvania for round four of the twelve round war of attrition. The picturesque High Point Raceway is a pure motocross track carved out of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s grassy countryside and is a track that, at first glance, oozes old school moto. Over the last couple of decades, a nice amount of man-made obstacles have been added to bring the venue into the twenty-first century of MX, but the essence of MX is still the dominating force at one of the oldest National tracks on the circuit. 1977 was the first year a MX National was held at High Point, and thirty-five years after local boy Tony DiStefano rode his RM 250 to victory, the rich tradition that is High Point is still alive and well.
Heading into the 2012 edition of the High Point National, Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey sits atop the points with a healthy thirty-five point lead in the 450 Class Championship after a very dominant 1-1 win last weekend at Thunder Valley. The win marked Dungey’s third-straight National win at the mile-high venue and Red Bull/KTM’s first-ever overall win in the 450 Class. Dungey will now be the first man to ever rock the red background on a KTM 450 this weekend at High Point. Dungey has one 450 win (2010) at High Point and finished second overall to Ryan Villopoto in 2011.
On Saturday, everyone in Mount Morris, Pennsylvania will be on the lookout for Yoshimura/Suzuki rider James Stewart. Heading into last weekend in Colorado, Stewart had a fourteen-point lead, but the crash demons that have haunted the former champion in recent years came back and bit him. While leading early on in moto one, the #7 went down hard and scored zero points on the day. At this point, there is no confirmation on Stewart’s status for round four, but he did tweet earlier this week that everything looked good. After giving up fifty points to Dungey, Stewart now sits third in the points with a thirty-six point mountain to climb.
So the question now is, if Stewart doesn’t show up, is there anyone else that can challenge Dungey for the win? At this point, we would have to say probably not, but this is motocross and anything that can happen, probably will. The top candidates to possibly step it up and keep Dungey honest are MotoConcepts’ Mike Alessi (fourth in points with two podiums), Monster/Kawasaki’s Jake Weimer (second in the points with one podium), Chaparral/Honda’s Andrew Short (fifth in points with one podium) and possibly even Star/Valli/Yamaha’s Nico Izzi—who went 5-5 for his career-best finish of fourth overall last weekend. All have shown that they have speed, but it is hard to tell if any of them have the fitness to run with the #5 for thirty minutes plus two laps.
The 250 Class has been a brawl between four riders thus far, and heading into round four, the series has yet to have a repeat overall winner. In the opener at Hangtown, it was Monster/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s Blake Baggett winning with a dominant 1-1 followed by the GEICO Powersports duo of Eli Tomac (1-1 score at Freestone) and Justin Barcia (1-2 score at Thunder Valley) winning rounds two and three respectively. The fourth rider in the fight does not have a win, but the German Red Bull/KTM rider Ken Roczen sits third in the points after three-straight third overalls.
Barcia’s overall win last weekend was a huge step in the right direction towards winning the Championship for the #20. The kid they call “Bam Bam” has always shined in supercross—winning back-to-back Eastern Regional SX Lites Championships—but has struggled over the years to transfer that success to the outdoors. In fact, Barcia had not won an outdoor national since his rookie year at Southwick in 2009, so his win at Thunder Valley had to be a huge monkey off his back. At round one, Barcia showed he had the speed to win—going 3-2 and battling with Baggett and Roczen for the win. At round two, he showed he had the heart and desire when he came from the back of the pack in both motos to score a fifth overall, and at round three, he showed the final ingredient needed to be a championship contender: he can win.
One rider in the fight that still needs to prove he can win is Ken Roczen. In most rookie years in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, three podium appearances in the first three rounds would feel awesome, but not for Ken. The teenager may be young and new to the U.S., but with a MX2 World Championship and two MX2 Motocross of Nations wins on his resume, we know he expects more. Kenny is right there with his speed, but seems to lack the killer instincts of the other three contenders at the moment. At round one, he was passed for the win by Baggett on the final lap and last week was caught by Barcia before going down on the final lap. If Roczen can get those little issues dialed in and get that first win, we have a feeling the flood gates will bust wide open.
Sitting fourth in the points but only twenty-two points behind the leader is Eli Tomac. After Eli’s smack down on the field in Freestone, we were kind of expecting more out the Colorado native at his home national in Lakewood a week later. Instead, Eli reverted back to his not-so-great starts and ended up fighting an uphill battle all day. He was not able to fight with the leaders at all, but still managed a solid 4-3 score for fourth overall on the day. What we would love to see is Eli up front with Baggett from the first turn at High Point. Right now, they look like the two packing the most speed, but we have yet to see them race each other heads up in 2012.
While Barcia, Tomac and Roczen are all contenders right now, we have to think of Blake Baggett as the man they need to beat to win the title. So far in 2012, Baggett has shown that he is the man with the edge on speed, fitness and consistency. The edge is slight but is an edge nonetheless. Baggett is the only one of the four that has not been straight up caught and passed by anyone, and he has shown that no matter where he is in the pack, he can get to the front. The man’s fitness is incredible and his speed looks absolutely untouchable. Blake brings the red plate, a sixteen-point lead and a truckload of confidence with him to Mount Morris this weekend.
450 Class Championship Points 1. Ryan Dungey, KTM, 136 2. Jake Weimer, Kawasaki, 101 3. James Stewart, Suzuki, 100 4. Mike Alessi, Suzuki, 100 5. Andrew Short, Honda, 97 6. Brett Metcalfe, Suzuki, 84 7. Josh Grant, Kawasaki, 73 8. Nico Izzi, Yamaha, 71 9. Broc Tickle, Kawasaki, 63 10. Kyle Chisholm, Kawasaki, 50
250 Class Championship Points 1. Blake Baggett, Kawasaki, 139 2. Justin Barcia, Honda, 123 3. Ken Roczen, KTM, 120 4. Eli Tomac, Honda, 117 5. Marvin Musquin, KTM, 84 6. Blake Wharton, Suzuki, 82 7. Wil Hahn, Honda, 71 8. Kyle Cunningham, Yamaha, 65 9. Jake Canada, Honda, 62 10. Ivan Tedesco, Kawasaki, 61
