Main Event Lap Time Graph – 2016 Toronto SX

Ken Roczen was the fastest rider in Toronto for the third time in ’16 and not coincidentally, he got his third win of the year. Photos by: Hoppenworld

The 2016 Toronto Supercross and round ten of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, headed across the border to Ontario, Canada’s Rogers Centre. In the 450SX main event, Monster / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac looked on his way to backing up his Daytona win, but that was not in the cards. Instead the #3 faded back to fifth, while RCH / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen went to the front and checked out for the seventh win of his 450SX career. Finishing in second behind the German was the Frenchman Red Bull / KTM’s Marvin Musquin while his teammate Ryan Dungey crossed the line in third—breaking the record for most consecutive podiums (26) in the history of the sport.

In the third 250SX East main event of 2016, Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Justin Hill finally got the start he needed and he did not waste the opportunity—checking out for a twenty-second victory. The other Championship contenders, Star Racing / Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin and Aaron Plessinger, along with GEICO / Honda’s Malcolm Stewart, all got involved in a first turn pileup and had to start from the back. For Jeremy, it was only a slight setback as the #6 was able to climb all the way back to second, with Stewart and Plessinger fighting back to sixth and twelfth respectively. Taking advantage of the craziness was Mad Racing / Suzuki’s Matt Bisceglia. Despite still recovering from a preseason injury, Matt scored his first podium of 2016 in third.

In the battle for fastest 450SX lap time (54.258), the victory also went to Ken Roczen—more than three tenths of a second quicker than the second fastest lap (54.604) clocked by Ryan Dungey. It’s no secret that starts are important, but for Roczen, they look to be everything. Any time the #94 gets to the front in 2016, he has recorded the fastest lap, but give him a tenth place start and he is lucky to record a top five lap time. Historically, riders have a tendency to get lulled into the pace of the riders around them, and Kenny has surprisingly fallen into that in ’16. In Toronto, though, it was Roczen setting the pace, and that pace notched him the fastest single lap and the fastest overall average lap time (55.630) on the night.

The third (54.703), fourth (54.973) and fifth (55.161) fastest lap times were logged in by Musquin, Tomac and HRC /Honda’s Cole Seely. All three recorded their fastest lap in the first half of the race, but for Tomac—who admittedly ran out of steam in Toronto—his fastest lap appears to be a last ditch effort before losing two spots in the next two laps to the two Red Bull/ KTM riders. Tomac’s fastest lap was on lap seven, with lap eight dropping off more than a second and both Dungey and Musquin going around him.

Full 2016 Toronto SX results here>>>

In what was definitely the most chaotic 250SX main event of the year, Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Shane McElrath came alive after a rough start to his season and threw down the fastest lap (56.279). Shane recorded the fastest lap on lap three while trying to get away from his teammate, Justin Hill—who recorded the second fastest single lap time (56.300) and the fastest overall average lap (57.620) of the night. Hill went on to win his first main event of the year, while McElrath—who was well on his way to his first podium of the year—got a rear flat tire and finished eighteenth. Toronto’s loose pebbly soil flattened both McElrath and GEICO / Honda rider RJ Hampshire‘s rear wheel in the main.

The third (56.480), fourth (56.710) and fifth (56.801) fastest 250SX laps were recorded by the three Championship contenders down in the first turn: Martin, Plessinger and Stewart. All three came into Toronto within ten points of points leader, Rockstar Energy / Husqvarna’s Martin Davalos—forced to stay home and give up the points lead due to visa paperwork issues—but their first turn crash forced them to show us how badly they wanted it.

If J-Mart’s charge from last to second was considered incredible, Mookie’s charge to sixth was even more mind blowing. While the #6 sustained no bike damage, the #50 was having ignition map issues and was forced to pull into the mechanics’ area twice. On the second trip into the mechanics’ area, they finally just cut the kill switch and he was off to the races. Even with two trips to the mechanics’ area, Malcolm recorded the third fastest average lap on the night (58.810). Martin left Toronto with the red plate and Stewart left only ten points down, but Plessinger could only salvage twelfth place points and, with that, has a twenty point mountain to climb.

Directions on how use graphs below: Each graph below charts the lap times of the top five finishers in each main event, as well as the top three 250SX riders matched up against the top three 450SX finishers. 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, riders are colored to match their bike brand.

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