Good racing on the technical track at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis made for one of the most interesting nights so far in the 2015 Monster Energy AMA Supercross season. Although KTM’s Ryan Dungey cruised to an easy win in the Main, the Heats and Semis were well worth watching – and there was still plenty to see as the riders battled the track in the Main.
2015 Indy Supercross Commentary, Upside
Ryan Dungey – Red Bull KTM: Dungey just missed the holeshot, but he got around Andrew Short within half a lap, and then went on to lead every lap of the race. With five wins in 11 rounds, and a 45-point lead over the field, what is left to say? Maybe a “thank you” to Ryan Villopoto for choosing to contest the MXGP championship this year?
While his lead looks insurmountable, Dungey doesn’t want to count his chickens before they hatch. “I’m taking every race one at a time,” stated Dungey. “It’s a long series and you can’t get too far ahead of yourself.”
Cole Seely – Team Honda HRC: Taking his second podium of the year after looking like he might challenge Dungey a couple of times during the race, Seely brought his CRF450R to the runner-up position. In doing so, Seely rocketed past Jason Anderson in the Rookie of the Year points battle.
Following his second place finish, Seely said, “When I was behind Dungey, I tried to be patient and wait for a mistake but that’s a bit rare with him. I knew if I stayed close, I could learn a lot, and I’m happy overall with how I rode.”
Davi Millsaps – Monster Energy Kawasaki: Having a great run in the past five races, Millsaps matched his season best result – earned back in Phoenix – with a top-five finish Saturday night. Millsaps has been moving forward consistently since Dallas (his worst finish), and hit the Top 10 for the first time last week in Daytona. Millsaps kissed the Speedway bricks earlier in the day, and was clearly happy with his race, tweeting: “Amazing night at the Indy speedway thank you guys for giving me this opportunity.”
Weston Peick – AutoTrader.com/Toyota/JGRMX Yamaha: Peick’s fitness is improving each week since returning from the Disabled List, and at Indy he stepped ever closer to the podium, bringing his YZ450F to a fourth-place finish. This matches the fourth he got in Phoenix, where he fractured his foot. Although Peick has missed four races due to the injury, he sits 12th in the standings, just 12 points behind Millsaps, who has scored points in every race this season.
Jake Weimer – Team Tedder Monster Energy Kawasaki: Weimer has been in every Main this season, but his 14th in the standings is the lowest series position of all other riders who have made all 11 rounds so far. However, Weimer cracked the Top 10 in Indy for the first time in 2015, after scoring just one point in each of the previous two races. Even more impressive, he did it after a 17th place start.
Two Guys: Making the Main for the first time this season, privateer Adam Enticknap and Dustin Pipes, finishing 21st and 22nd, respectively. They only get a point each, but qualifying for the Main had to feel good.
KTM: One year ago it was headline news when KTM celebrated its first 450SX win in Indianapolis, courtesy of Ryan Dungey’s ride. Saturday night it was almost ho-hum, business as usual as the KTM/Red Bull team swept the night with wins in both the 450SX and 250SX races.
2015 Indy Supercross Commentary, Downside:
Eli Tomac – GEICO Honda: It must be immensely frustrating to have the speed, but not be able to consistently put it all together where it counts – in the Main. With the fastest combined qualifying time in practice, Tomac looked like he was ready to challenge Dungey for a win in the night show after he won his Heat, besting a fourth-place Dungey by four seconds. Despite getting a good start in the Main, Tomac went down on Lap 1.
Battling back from last place, and unlapping himself just before the end of the race, Tomac said, “I owe it to my team, my sponsors, and myself to race to the end. I wasn’t trying to prove a point or anything like that. I was simply riding as hard as I could to the checkered flag to get the best result I could. Tonight, it was 11th.”
Blake Baggett – Yoshimura Suzuki: Baggett’s bad luck wasn’t just inexplicably losing the front end and going down on Lap 6, but in having his bike land on top of him. “I was stuck under the bike for a whole lap and just had to wait until someone came over and got it off me. The whole time the bike was still running and the chain was grinding away on me and I was pinned down.” Track workers pulled the RM-Z450 off and Baggett rejoined the race, having dropped from 7th to lapped, and finished the night in 15th, a season’s-worst result for the 450SX rookie.
Jason Anderson – Rockstar Energy/Husqvarna: Another rookie having his worst weekend of the season, Anderson had to play hard on the last lap of his Semi, shoving aside privateer Alex Ray to take the last qualifying position (sadly, Ray failed to transfer out of the LCQ). In the Main, Anderson got a terrible start and went down twice before finishing in 17th.
Though he remains seventh in the overall points, his uncharacteristically poor finish drops him 16 points behind Seely in the rookie battle. “It was kind of a weird day,” said Anderson. “I didn’t feel well at all, and I went into the main with the hopes to recover from everything that happened earlier in the day. I ended up having two pretty good crashes. I’m just going to try and forget about this weekend and come back next weekend.”
Commentating: Ralph Sheehan, Jeff Emig, and Ricky Carmichael need to up their game. We know it’s difficult to catch everything that’s going on, but really, should it take them seven laps to tell us that top riders Reed and Tomac had gone down on the opening lap, especially Tomac, who was running in fourth when he crashed?
