No surprise in Thunder Valley, ET3 wins AMA450!
After last week in Glen Helen it turned out that Ken Roczen is making giant leaps towards the level of Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin and others, some people already had hope. Could Ken Roczen close the entire gap to the best in the AMA 450 class in Thunder Valley, consigning his injury to a bad memory? Or did Blake Baggett stand up like last year to show everyone something?
It was certainly none of the aforementioned names who managed to take the holeshot in the first heat. In the first heat we saw Justin Barcia take the holeshot. The Yamaha pilot took the holeshot and then went straight into the duel with Eli Tomac, but a red flag, due to a crash with Kyle Chisholm, meant that everything had to be done again. In this restart it was Ken Roczen together with Blake Baggett who were the best away. Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia followed in fourth and fifth. Among them was also a certain Weston Peick.
Eli Tomac quickly managed to pass almost all his competitors and ended up in the wheel of Ken Roczen. So we had another duel like in Glen Helen. Now we also saw again that Ken Roczen is already ready for twenty minutes of battle. In the last ten minutes, however, the German had to admit his superiority in Eli Tomac, who managed to drive to his fifth after one subsequent series victory. Ken Roczen, in turn, had to work hard to secure second place against Blake Baggett, but he succeeded. In fourth place we found Marvin Musquin ahead of Justin Barcia.
At the start of the second moto we again saw Justin Barcia take the holeshot. The factory Yamaha pilot immediately had Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac in his wake. Eli Tomac quickly passed Ken Roczen and settled into second position, ready to attack Justin Barcia. But when it was surprised by a deep rut after about three laps of the race and crashed into the ground in Colorado, Eli Tomac had no choice but to slam on the brakes. This allowed the Monster Energy pilot to avoid a collision with Justin Barcia and his Yamaha, but also lost two places. Ken Roczen took the lead and Blake Baggett took second position, although not for long. Once back up to speed, the reigning AMA 450 Motocross Champion quickly passed Blake Baggett. Only Ken Roczen turned out to be a difficult to digest German Berlinerbol. The HRC Honda pilot managed to keep the Monster Energy Kawasaki pilot going for another twenty minutes with his clever line choices and strong racing instinct. After these twenty minutes the keg of German Krombacher was finished. Eli Tomac finished eleven seconds ahead of Ken Roczen. Third place went to Blake Baggett ahead of Thunder Valley's Marvin Musquin. Benny Bloss finished fifth, ahead of Justin Barcia who could have achieved better results with the speed he showed us.
1. So Tomac
2.Ken Roczen
3. Blake Baggett
4. Marvin Musquin
5. Justin Barcia
6. Benny Bloss
7. Weston Peick
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Dylan Merriam
10. Lorenzo Locurcio
11. Jake Masterpool
12. Alex Ray
13. Cade Autenrieth
14. Brandon Scharer
15. Ben LaMay
16. Brandan Leith
17.Cody Cooper
18. Derek Anderson
19.Henry Miller
20. Dare DeMartile
1. So Tomac
2.Ken Roczen
3. Blake Baggett
4. Marvin Musquin
5. Benny Bloss
6. Justin Barcia
7. Weston Peick
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Brandon Scharer
10. Dylan Merriam
11.Cody Cooper
12. Cade Autenrieth
13. Jake Masterpool
14. Lorenzo Locurcio
15. Toshiki Tomita
16.Henry Miller
17. Felix Lopez
18. Brandan Leith
19. Chase Marquier
20. Bradley Lionnet
1. Eli Tomac (1-1)
2. Ken Roczen (2-2)
3. Blake Baggett (3-3)
4. Marvin Musquin (4-4)
5. Benny Bloss (6-5)
6. Justin Barcia (5-6)
7. Weston Peick (7-7)
8. Phil Nicoletti (8-8)
9. Dylan Merriam (9-10)
10. Brandon Scharer (14-9)
1. Eli Tomac, 150
2. Marvin Musquin, 122
3. Justin Barcia, 104
4. Blake Baggett, 100
5.Ken Roczen, 97
6. Weston Peick, 88
7. Phil Nicoletti, 75
8. Jason Anderson, 73
9. Benny Bloss, 73
10. Dylan Merriam, 49
Text: Matthias Van Eeckhoven – Photo: Monster Energy Media Archive
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