Main Event Lap Time Graph – 2016 Detroit SX

Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin have put both KTMs on the podium in the last four main events in a row. Photos by: Hoppenworld

The 2016 Detroit Supercross and round eleven of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, headed to the Motor City and the Detroit SX will now forever be remembered as the first time in Supercross history that the person who got the checkered flag first was not the winner. In the 450SX main event, Red Bull / KTM’s Ryan Dungey basically went wire-to-wire for what appeared to be his twenty-eighth career win, but after everyone left the stadium, the #1 was docked two positions for jumping on a red cross flag. After the penalty, Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson was penciled in as the 2016 Detroit SX main event winner with Red Bull / KTM’s Marvin Musquin and Dungey finishing second and third.

In the fourth 250SX East main event of season, GEICO / Honda’s Malcolm Stewart finally put it all together in 2016 and scored his first win of the year. Malcolm came into round four ten points behind Star Racing / Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin, but with Jeremy crashing twice and finishing 13th, Malcolm left round four with the red plate and a seven-point cushion in the Championship. Finishing on the podium with Mookie was Star Racing / Yamaha’s other rider out east, Aaron Plessinger, in second and Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Shane McElrath in third. Last week’s winner, Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Justin Hill, crashed in qualifying and knocked himself out (literally) of the Detroit SX.

In the battle for fastest 450SX lap time, Ryan Dungey (46.808) wins the trophy, but unlike the main event trophy, he can keep this one. It had to feel like he was home at Baker’s Factory with Ryan being chased from start to finish by his training partners Musquin (46.942) and Anderson (46.992). The three of them were first, second and third in the fastest single lap category and backed up their raw speed with fitness—recording the first (47.710), second (47.903) and third (48.140) fastest average lap times. If ever there was a live commercial for a specific Supercross training program, the 450SX main event in Detroit was it.

The fourth and fifth fastest single lap times were logged in by Monster Energy / Yamaha’s Chad Reed (47.092) and Yoshimura / Suzuki’s Blake Baggett (47.403). Reedy had solid speed and fitness in Detroit, but the Baker’s Factory boys rode away from him, and in the end, he was nineteen-seconds off of Dungey. For Baggett, his top five speed had him racing for his first top five of 2016. Blake was running sixth late in the race before getting what’s becoming far too normal in Supercross this year: a flat tire. With the pit stop, Blake was only able to salvage a 19th.

Full 2016 Detroit SX results here>>>

After a chaotic night of 250SX action, it was Stewart (48.190) who ended the night with the fastest 250SX main event time. Not only was Mookie fast, his fitness looked better than ever with the #50 only dipping over the 49-second line one time—not counting the final lap victory lap—in the main event. With that, Malcolm’s (49.297) average lap time was a half second faster than Plessinger’s (49.785) in second—who also had the second fastest (48.529) single lap time. When you’re a half second a lap faster than everyone for fifteen laps, you are a distant memory to the rest of the field; you are gone.

The third, fourth and fifth fastest 250SX laps were recorded by McElrath (48.680), Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Arnaud Tonus (48.694) and Martin (48.926). These three were not separated by much in speed, but they were all over the place on the results sheet. McElrath started the main event fifth and worked his way up to third, scoring his first podium of 2016 and third-career podium. Tonus looked on his way to his first podium, but after leading the first three laps, he crashed hard and injured his shoulder. We are now told that Tonus could be out for the remainder of the Supercross season.

J-Mart had the red plate heading into Detroit, but his consistency issues in Supercross resurfaced after a three-race stay to start 2016. For Jeremy, it was one of those main events that he would give anything to see a red flag and a re-rack. I only saw two of his crashes, but the lap times suggest he had a crash or at least a major moment on laps one, three and four—each time losing all his progress. He rounded lap one in 21st, lap three in 16th, lap four in 18th, lap five in 19th. From there, it was all forward, but his 13th place finish was not enough to hang on to the red plate.

Updated 2016 250SX West and 450SX Championship Points>>>

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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