Main Event Lap Time Graph – 2016 Santa Clara SX

Santa Clara marks the first time in ’16 that Ken Roczen did not win when he had the fastest lap time. Photos by: Todd Gutierrez

The 2016 Santa Clara Supercross and round twelve of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, headed to California for the last time in 2016. In the 450SX main event, Red Bull / KTM’s Ryan Dungey once again led all twenty laps on his way to win number six of the season. Ryan was pressured for most of those twenty laps by RCH / Soaring Eagle / Suzuki’s Ken Roczen, but the German had to settle for a second place finish. Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson scored his second-straight podium with a third.

In the penultimate 250SX Western Regional main event of season, Star Racing / Yamaha’s Cooper Webb came from behind to score win number five of his 2016 campaign. Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne led eleven of the fifteen laps on the short rocky Santa Clara circuit, but was overtaken by the #1 late in the game. Zach held on to score his fourth podium of the year in second, while Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Joey Savatgy crossed the line with the fifth podium of his season in third.

In the battle for fastest 450SX lap time, it was Ken Rozen (43.144) that recorded the quickest time on lap six while trying to get around the #1. Dungey (43.287) recorded the second fastest lap on lap six as well and secured the win by recording an incredible 11-straight laps in the 43-second range. Ken was consistent as well, but his times fluctuated more and he was only able to notch nine-straight 43-second laps. In the end, both riders were able to keep their average lap times well within a second of their fastest with the two of them—Dungey (44.120), Roczen (44.147)—recording nearly identical average lap times.

The third, fourth and fifth fastest single lap times were logged by HRC / Honda’s Trey Canard (43.702), Anderson (44.055) and Monster Energy / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac (44.064). The Santa Clara circuit had nothing on it to separate the riders, so the start was more important than usual. While the three of them were separated by nothing in lap times, their starts left them all over the board on the results sheet. Anderson started fourth and finished third, Canard started tenth and finished fifth, and Tomac started sixteenth and finished seventh. If you want to finish up front in ’16, you better start there.

Full 2016 Santa Clara SX results here>>>

In the fight for the fastest 250SX lap time, it was Cooper Webb (44.535) on top all night long. The #1 came to Santa Clara to begin closing the door on the 2016 Western Regional 250SX Championship, and he did just that with the win. His number one competitor in the Championship, Savatgy (44.744), had the second fastest lap, but he started behind Webb and did not have enough speed and consistency to catch and pass the defending Champ. With Webb’s first and Savatgy’s third, the two are now separated by sixteen points heading into Vegas.

The third, fourth and fifth fastest 250SX laps were recorded by Star Racing / Yamaha’s Alex Martin (44.877), GEICO / Honda’s Christian Craig (44.994) and Cycle Trader / Yamaha’s Colt Nichols (45.128). Alex was running inside the top three, but a crash pushed him back to finish ninth. Craig and Nichols didn’t get the start, and their speed put them in fourth and sixth respectively. To put in perspective how important the start was, Zach Osborne only had the sixth fastest lap, but his holeshot allowed him to lead for eleven laps and finish second.

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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