As the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series headed east to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas for the seventh round, the same top three riders from the previous race in San Diego put themselves on the podium, but in a different finishing order. The track had great dirt, which contained a little more sand than in years past, allowing the course to develop multiple deep ruts to separate the competition.GEICO Honda’s Eli TomacRed Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey grabbed the holesthot and led all 20 laps of the Main Event to take his second win of the season. He had no threats from the competition and cruised to what looked to be an easy victory.
“That holeshot was key, I knew that from the beginning” said Dungey. “You don’t want to stress on it, because you’ve got to let it happen. We got out like a rocket ship and I saw that the inside was open. I tucked in and controlled the first turn. From there, I just tried to lay the laps down as best as I could. We rose to the occasion, which was awesome. These wins are nice. It’s nice to celebrate and it keeps you hungry.”RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Ken Roczen came around the first turn in 4th place and had to make his way past Suzuki’s Blake Baggett on lap two and Kawasaki’s Davi Millsaps on lap six to move into 2nd place. In the remaining 14 laps, he was unable to challenge Dungey for the win, while maintaining a safe lead over Honda’s Trey Canard, and settled for 2nd place on the night.“It was tricky out there,” said Roczen. “I got off to a decent start and made a small mistake early, but I’m happy with a second place. It’s a long, hard season and the championship won’t come easy.”Team Honda’s Trey Canard followed up his win from last week with a 3rd in Arlington. He came around the first corner in 5th, and quickly made his way around Baggett. Canard inherited 3rd place when Davi Millsaps looped out on Lap 7; Canard narrowly missed Millsaps’ downed bike. He rode the rest of the race alone in 3rd to take the final step on the podium.Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett put in a 450SX career best 4th place finish at AT&T Stadium. After coming around the first lap in 3rd place, he was passed by Roczen, but got around Millsaps after his crash to hold onto 4th.Series veteran Andrew Short put in a strong 5th place ride on his BTO Sports KTM, after coming around the first turn in 6th place. Similar to the other front-runners, he squeaked past Millsaps and remained in the 5th spot until the finish.GEICO Honda’s Eli Tomac when down when his CRF450R hooked up hard, putting Tomac out of contention for the podium. Tomac finished a disappointing 7th. Team Honda’s Cole Seely came out of the LCQ to take 10th.Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson, , TwoTwo Motorsport’s Josh Grant, and RCH/Soaring Eagle/Jimmy Johns/Suzuki Factory Racing’s Broc Tickle rounded out the Top 10.TwoTwo Motorsport’s Chad Reed went down on Lap 2 while running 7th. He got some help from Tomac, as the rookie ran Reed a little high in the right-hand turn before the triple. Reed remounted his Kawasaki KX450F to finish just outside the top ten in 11th place.AutoTrader/Toyota/Yamaha’s Weston Peick made his comeback this weekend after sustaining an injury to his foot at the second round in Phoenix. He looked comfortable and confident on the Texas track, finishing 2nd in his heat race. However, he went down hard in the first turn in the Main Event and would not finish the race.Photograph by Simon Cudby2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Results – Round 7 – Arlington 1. Ryan Dungey – KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition 2. Ken Roczen – Suzuki RM-Z450 3. Trey Canard – Honda CRF450R 4. Blake Baggett – Suzuki RM-Z450 5. Andrew Short – KTM 450 SX-F Factory Edition 6. Jason Anderson – Husqvarna FC 450 7. Eli Tomac – Honda CRF450R 8. Josh Grant – Kawasaki KX450F 9. Broc Tickle – Suzuki RM-Z-450 10. Cole Seely – Honda CRF450R 11. Chad Reed – Kawasaki KX450F 12. Josh Hill – Yamaha YZ450F 13. Phil Nicoletti – Yamaha YZ450F 14. Jake Weimer – Kawasaki KX450F 15. Nick Wey – Kawasaki KX450F 16. Jimmy Albertson – Yamaha YZ450F 17. Kyle Partridge – Honda CRF450R 18. Mike Alessi – Suzuki RM-Z450 19. Tony Archer – Kawasaki KX450F 20. Davi Millsaps – Kawasaki KX450F 21. Nick Schmidt – Suzuki RM-Z450 22. Weston Peick – Yamaha YZ450F2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross 450SX Class Season Standings 1. Ryan Dungey, 152 points 2. Ken Roczen, 140 3. Trey Canard, 129 4. Eli Tomac, 114 5. Jason Anderson, 100 6. Cole Seely, 93 7. Blake Baggett, 86 8. Chad Reed, 85 9. Andrew Short, 82 10. Justin Barcia, 71
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This week, in the first segment Editor Don Williams talks to us about the new Kawasaki Versys 650 LT. It’s the middleweight ADV style machine that uses the same 650 parallel twin motor as the Ninja 650, so it’s an excellent performer in a user-friendly, good looking package.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my dearest industry friends—now retired Honda PR executive, Jon Seidel. Jon’s fascinating career spans some 30 years with Big Red, and gave him some great experiences with some incredible machines. I was fortunate enough to be invited on many of the press launches that he organized. His new project is documenting and saving many of the old archives from years gone by—and incidentally, if you have anything that may be of value to the project, please contact us by email at producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we’ll pass it all on to Jon.
So on that note, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
