Marvin Musquin got it done in Arlington. Photo by: Simon Cudby
The 2017 Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship series, is now six rounds deep, and surprisingly, we still have no decisive standout leader in the 450SX class. Through the first six rounds, Red Bull / KTM’s Ryan Dungey has just one win and his consistency has given him a somewhat comfortable 18-point lead over the class at the moment, but Monster / Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac and Red Bull / KTM’s Marvin Musquin have won the last three main events.
Heading into round six in Arlington, Tomac was looking unbeatable on a two-race win streak, but crashes and mistakes inside AT&T stadium pushed him back to a 15th place finish and opened the door for Musquin to score his first career win. Marvin went wire-to-wire in Arlington for the win and moved back into second place in the Championship. Marvin was joined on the podium by HRC / Honda’s Cole Seely and Rockstar / Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson. Dungey finished fourth on the night, but somehow still increased his lead in the points.
In the battle for the fastest lap times of the night, that title also was taken home by the Frenchman. Musquin (48.054) was over a half second faster than anyone on Saturday night and he used that speed to run away from the field. Monster Energy / Yamaha’s Cooper Webb (48.613) had the second fastest lap and Tomac (48.914) had the third fastest lap, but a flat tire for Webb and a crash and bike problem for Tomac relegated them to 14th and 15th place points in the main event. The new soil in Arlington looked perfect, but that might have been deceptive, because it definitely claimed quite a few victims on Saturday night.
The fourth and fifth fastest laps of the night belonged to the other two podium finishers: Anderson (48.991) and Seely (49.180). Both had elite speed and were consistent with their marks the whole main event, but they let Musquin get too far away early on. Musquin had the fastest average lap time (50.018) at the front and while his fastest lap time was a full second faster than Seely and Anderson, the #14 (50.116) and #21’s (50.218) average lap times were nearly identical to the #25.
450SX Main Event Lap Time Graph. Click the riders name in the graph to add and remove them from the graph.
| Top 10 450SX Times | Top 10 250SX Times |
|---|---|
| 1. M. Musquin – 0:48.054 2. C. Webb – 0:48.613 3. E. Tomac – 0:48.914 4. J. Anderson – 0:48.991 5. C. Seely – 0:49.180 6. R. Dungey – 0:49.194 7. D. Wilson – 0:49.411 8. J. Bogle – 0:49.456 9. D. Millsaps – 0:49.665 10. B. Baggett – 0:49.709 |
1. S. Mcelrath – 0:48.970 2. A. Plessinger – 0:49.386 3. J. Hill – 0:49.448 4. A. Forkner – 0:49.681 5. J. Decotis – 0:49.824 6. M. Davalos – 0:50.029 7. J. Martin – 0:50.186 8. D. Reardon – 0:50.385 9. C. Martinez – 0:50.883 10. H. Mellross – 0:51.058 |
Full 2017 Arlington SX results here>>>
In the 250SX Western Regional Supercross Championship main event in Arlington, the former red plate holder, Troy Lee Designs / KTM’s Shane McElrath, got to the front early and checked out to a nice gap over the current red plate holder, Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Justin Hill. For the first 18 laps, McElrath controlled the lead like a poised future champion, but bad luck forced the #38 into the mechanics’ area and he surrendered the lead and most likely the 2017 250SX Western Regional Championship to Hill. Hill cruised it in for his fourth win in a row while McElrath limped his bike home in 22nd. Hill was joined on the podium by Monster Energy / Pro Circuit / Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner in second and Star Racing / Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger in third.
Hill took home the win in Arlington, but McElrath (48.970) reconfirmed his dominance inside AT&T Stadium with the fastest lap time. McElrath was one of only five riders under 49 seconds and the other four were all 450 riders. The KTM rider was four tenths of a second faster than Plessinger (49.386) and nearly a half second faster than the winner, Hill (49.448). The mechanical failure was a huge blow Shane and the Troy Lee Designs / KTM team heading into the long break.
The fourth and fifth fastest 250SX laps belonged to Austin Forkner (49.681) and GEICO Honda’s Jimmy Decotis. Austin was on his way to his second straight third place finish, but McElrath’s issues bumped Austin up to the second spot on the podium for the first time in his young career. Decotis was fast again in Arlington, but once again just one spot away from that career milestone he’s been after for seven seasons: that first podium.
250SX Main Event Lap Time Graph. Click the riders name in the graph to add and remove them from the graph.
You can check out the top ten average 250 and 450 times from the 2017 Arlington SX below. Scroll down to see how the main events broke down lap-for-lap with MotoXAddicts’ lap-time comparison charts. Also, see how the top 3 250SX riders matched up against the top 3 450SX finishers lap-for-lap.
Click the riders name in the graph to add and remove them from the graph.
Updated 2017 250SX West and 450SX Championship Points>>>
| Top 10 450SX Avg Lap-Times | Top 10 250SX Avg Lap-Times |
|---|---|
| 1. M. Musquin – 0:50.018 2. C. Seely – 0:50.116 3. J. Anderson – 0:50.218 4. R. Dungey – 0:50.370 5. D. Millsaps – 0:50.538 6. C. Webb – 0:50.684 7. D. Wilson – 0:50.713 8. B. Tickle – 0:51.101 9. J. Weimer – 0:51.371 10. C. Reed – 0:51.426 |
1. S. Mcelrath – 0:49.899 2. J. Hill – 0:50.459 3. A. Plessinger – 0:50.467 4. A. Forkner – 0:50.525 5. J. Decotis – 0:51.292 6. D. Reardon – 0:51.302 7. J. Martin – 0:51.399 8. M. Davalos – 0:51.669 9. C. Martinez – 0:52.801 10. H. Mellross – 0:53.161 |
250SX vs 450SX Main Event Lap Time Graph. Click the riders name in the graph to add and remove them from the graph.
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