Lap Time Graphs: 2015 Utah National

Ken Roczen set the fastest lap and looked much more comfortable on his RCH/SoaringEagle/Suzuki in Utah. Photo by: Hoppenworld

At the 2015 Utah National and the penultimate round of the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, we saw Red Bull/KTM’s Ryan Dungey go 1-1 in the 450MX class on his way to his third 450MX Championship, and in the 250MX class Star Racing/Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin showed his incredible desire with two come-from-behind rides for the win. The two Minnesota men took the Utah National overall wins, but neither dominated their respective classes. In the 450MX class, Ryan had to catch, pass and fend off a rejuvenated Ken Roczen in both motos, and Martin came from nearly dead last to third in his opening moto. At the end of the day, Dungey was crowned the 2015 AMA 450MX Champion while Jeremy tied Red Bull/KTM’s Marvin Musquin on the day in points and carries a narrow two-point lead into the finale in Indiana.

In the lap time battle, it was Ken Roczen setting the fastest lap of the day (1:52.181) in moto one while trying to gap the #5. Ken got the start in moto one and quickly motored away, but Dungey used his fitness and the fastest average lap-time (1:54.902) to reel the German in and pass him. Ryan’s second fastest overall lap of the day (1:52.336) was just a tick off the #1 bike in moto one, and the newly crowned 450MX champ was four-tenths faster than anyone in moto two. All the fastest overall laps came out of moto one, but Ryan’s fastest lap in moto two was 1:54.563 to Barcia’s 1:54.799 and Roczen’s 1:54.992.

The third fastest 450MX lap (1:52.704) was laid down by JGRMX/Yamaha’s Justin Barcia while he tried keeping the #5 and the #1 bikes in sight. Barcia showed the speed to keep the two Champions in check, but in the end they got away from Bam Bam in both motos. Over the last two weekends, Barcia has not been able to maintain the pace for thirty plus two, and we’re sure he will be looking to change that and end the season strong in Indiana.

The fourth (1:53.888) and fifth (1:54.499) fastest laps belonged to Yoshimura/Suzuki’s Blake Baggett and Honda Racing’s Trey Canard. While both the #4 and the #41 had blazing speed in Utah, both were never able to sniff the leaders. In both motos, Blake and Trey rounded turn one barely inside the top twenty, and they spent their day in Utah eating moon-dust roost coming through the pack. When the day was over, Blake had fought forward to a 4-4 for fourth overall, and Trey salvaged a 7-6 day for sixth overall.

Unlike the 450MX class, the fastest 250MX time came late in moto two. Jeremy Martin was the clear winner in the speed category on the Utah circuit, but it’s hard to show that speed while battling through traffic. In qualifying, Jeremy laid down a 1:55.994, which was over two seconds faster than anyone, and he spent the rest of the day trying to find open air to display that speed. In moto one, Jeremy was caught up in a first turn pile-up and never found that open air, but in moto two he finally fought his way to the front and dropped the fastest lap of the day (1:54.259) on the tenth lap. It was a frustrating day for Martin, and he will have to just imagine what he would have done if he started up front in both motos. For a minute consolation, Jeremy did clock the fastest average lap time of the day (1:57.410) fighting his way from last to third in moto one.

The second fastest 250MX lap of the day was clocked by Star Racing/Yamaha’s Cooper Webb while he chased down Musquin for the lead in moto one. Unfortunately for the #17, he found himself picking up his bike after a mistake and settled for a second in moto one. Marvin’s fastest lap in moto one (1:56.763) was quite a bit off the pace, but he kept her on two wheels and got the opening moto win. Musquin upped his pace in moto two and set the third fastest lap of the day (1:55.816) on the rougher Utah circuit while trying to stay with Webb and Martin. The Frenchman could not keep the Yamaha riders close, but overall leaving Utah with the same two-point deficit in the Championship was a win for the former two-time MX2 World Champ.

The fourth (1:56.757) and fifth fastest lap (1:57.385) 250MX laps of the day were clocked by two rookies of the class, Star Racing/Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger and GEICO/Honda’s RJ Hampshire. Aaron used that speed to score his second best overall finish of the year with a 4-4, while RJ used his speed to come within 100 feet from his first-ever moto podium. The #80 led four laps of the opening moto and was solidly in third until falling over in the last turn of the final lap. It was a heartbreaking crash for the #80 and a two-point gift to Jeremy Martin who finished third because of RJ’s early Christmas present.

You can check out the top ten 250MX and 450MX fastest single lap-times and top ten fastest average lap times from the 2015 Utah National below. Scroll down to see how the four motos broke down lap-for-lap and how the 250’s matched up against the 450 riders on the extremely rough circuit with MotoXAddicts’ lap-time comparison charts.

Full 2015 Utah National results here>>>

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 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship standings>>>