With a third Lucas Oil Pro Motocross 450 Class championship squarely in his sights, Ryan Dungey did not let up at the Red Bull Unadilla National. The Red Bull KTM rider swept both motos to earn his third consecutive overall victory and his fifth of the 2015 season.
Dungey’s sweep gives him ten moto wins and five overall victories this summer. (Photo: Matt Rice)
In the first moto of the day, Justin Barcia’s streak of seven consecutive holeshots finally came to an end. The MotoSport.com Holeshot Award went to Justin Brayton, who put his BTO Sports KTM out front ahead of Ryan Dungey and Justin Bogle. Dungey quickly made his way around Brayton into the lead and from there went on to lead every lap of the race and win by 13 seconds.
Early in the race, Justin Barcia and Trey Canard made a charge through the field, moving into second and third, respectively, behind Dungey by the conclusion of the opening lap. Barcia, a New York native, ended up running his own race in second, but a tipover by Canard dropped him back behind Bogle. Bogle and Canard were grouped together in a battle for third place for much of the race, with newcomer Shaun Simpson close behind in fifth.
The Bogle/Canard/Simpson battle provided some of the best action from the first moto. (Photo: Chris Ortiz)
On Lap 12, Canard was able to capitalize on a mistake by Bogle to retake third. Bogle went down shortly after and also lost spots to Simpson and Fredrik Noren. Conditioning appeared to be a factor late, as Bogle struggled to run the same pace in the closing laps and dropped a few more spots. He finished tenth in his first-ever race in the 450 Class. Meanwhile Canard earned third, while Simpson – an MXGP regular – finished fourth in his U.S. debut and Fredrik Noren matched his season high with a fifth-place finish.
At the beginning of Moto 1, Ken Roczen and Christophe Pourcel got tangled up in a crash, causing Pourcel to lose his front number plate and dropping both riders to the back of the pack. After struggling to get his bike restarted, then spending some time in the pits, Roczen worked his way up to 16th to at least earn a couple points in the moto. Pourcel ended up 23rd.
In his 450 Class debut, Bogle had strong starts in both motos, even grabbing a holeshot in the second moto. (Photo: Chris Ortiz)
Bogle continued to impress in his first appearance on a 450, as he grabbed the MotoSport.com Holeshot Award in Moto 2. He was soon passed by Dungey for the lead and then dropped into a battle for second place with Barcia. Barcia was applying serious pressure, and as he raced Bogle for position uphill, Bogle lost control of the bike and crashed hard. Bogle’s first career 450 Class race ends with 10-36 motos results, but he looked much stronger than those numbers would suggest.
Up front, Roczen looked stronger than he has in several rounds. The defending champion passed Barcia for second, then closed the gap on Dungey down to less than two seconds. Roczen would not let Dungey’s KTM out of his sights for the rest of the moto and even made a hard charge on the final lap of the race in an attempt to overtake him. Dungey successfully held off his rival to take the checkered flag, while Roczen – who has been focused on tweaking his bike setup over the last few weeks – finished second, his best moto finish since winning at High Point nearly two months ago.
Dungey and Roczen congratulated each other after the latest hard-fought duel between the two former teammates. (Photo: Chris Ortiz)
Christophe Pourcel rounded out the top three in the moto, with a pair of JGR Yamaha riders – Justin Barcia and Weston Peick – behind him. Between motos, Barcia and Peick both made bike changes. Barcia noted after the race that his changes had an adverse effect, as he struggled throughout the moto en route to his fourth-place finish, his worst moto result since High Point. Peick, on the other hand, charged all the way up from 11th to fifth over the course of the race, leading Barcia to suggest that he may adapt Peick’s change for his own bike this week.
Dungey (1-1) and Barcia (2-4) finished 1-2 on the overall podium for the third straight round. Trey Canard (3-6) earned his first overall podium of the season in just his second race back since returning from injury.
Dungey, Barcia and Canard made up the overall podium in the 450 Class. (Photo: Matt Rice)
Barcia’s recent success has been driven in part by his strong starts, which included seven straight holeshots. Dungey had seen enough of Barcia’s dominance in that category and was determined to flip the script at Unadilla, which he successfully did.
“I really tried to work on my starts these last two weeks,” Dungey said. “This gate [at Unadilla] is tricky – behind the gate is really slippery and hard. It’s really a fine line of how much gas and clutch you can use. From our sake, it was good to get two good second-place starts and get myself into the lead.”
Simpson’s one-week stint in the U.S. resulted in a solid fourth-place finish. (Photo: Matt Rice)
In his first ever Lucas Oil Pro Motocross race, Simpson’s 4-8 moto scores earned him an impressive fourth overall. He rode for the Red Bull KTM team this weekend but will now return back to Europe to resume racing the MXGP series. (He currently sits sixth overall in the standings over there and won the most recent round in Belgium.) Roczen (16-2) rounded out the overall top five.
Red Bull KTM also had Dean Wilson under the rig this weekend. Deano made his season debut after recovering from a torn ACL and MCL and finished inside the top ten overall with 11-10 moto results.
Wilson, who hadn’t raced in over six month, was 10th overall in his return. (Photo: Matt Rice)
Barcia and Canard battled their way onto the podium at Unadilla. (Photo: George Crosland)
Roczen refused to let Dungey pull away in the second moto. (Photo: Chris Ortiz)
450 CLASS OVERALL RESULTS
1. Ryan Dungey (1-1)
2. Justin Barcia (2-4)
3. Trey Canard (3-6)
4. Shaun Simpson (4-8)
5. Ken Roczen (16-2)
6. Broc Tickle (6-9)
7. Weston Peick (12-5)
8. Blake Baggett (13-7)
9. Josh Grant (9-11)
10. Dean Wilson (11-10)
11. Jason Anderson (7-14)
12. Christophe Pourcel (23-3)
13. Andrew Short (8-15)
14. Fredrik Noren (5-18)
15. Kyle Chisholm (15-12)
16. Ben LaMay (17-13)
17. Kyle Cunningham (14-16)
18. Justin Bogle (10-36)
19. Killy Rusk (18-17)
20. Jesse Wentland (39-19)