Motocross: Hangtown Race Recap

The first round of the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship has already come and gone, occuring this past weekend amongst the sunny hills of Sacramento, CA at Hangtown. It was an exciting day of racing, with plenty of drama, and some surprising results.

250 Qualifying Practice

The day started off with 250 qualifying action. It quickly became apparent that Adam Cianciarulo’s time off hadn’t impacted his speed, as he rose to the top of the leaderboard with the fastest lap by over a second. In fact, the whole Pro Circuit team seemed refreshed, and had all 3 of their riders in the top 5 fastest, with Joey Savatgy in 2nd behind Cianciarulo, and Chris Alldredge in 5th. It was no surprise to see Jeremy Martin and Marvin Musquin also in the top 5 during practice, with 3rd and 4th fastest times respectively. However, it was a bit of a surprise to see the 2015 250SX West champion Cooper Webb all the way back in 8th, 3 seconds a lap slower than Cianciarulo. Another surprise was to see Jessy Nelson, an expected podium contender, all the way down in 22nd, more than 6 seconds a lap off of Cianciarulo’s pace. Other than that, 250 qualifying was fairly uneventful.

450 Qualifying Practice

The biggest story entering Hangtown was the rumour that reigning champ Ken Roczen was riding injured, so all eyes were on him as he hit the track for his first practice. It quickly became apparent that the rumours were true, as he was slowly making his way around the track, and ended qualifying back in 24th place, more than 10 seconds off the fastest time. The fastest time was actually set by Eli Tomac, and was almost a full 3 seconds a lap faster than 2nd place rider Ryan Dungey. Jason Anderson, Christophe Pourcel, and Justin Barcia rode good in practice, setting the 3rd, 4th, and 5th fastest lap times respectively. 

250 Moto 1

The first gate drop of the 2015 Motocross series got underway, with Justin Bogle quickly getting into the lead. He was followed right away by all of the fastest qualifiers, including Musquin, Cianciarulo, Webb, Savatgy, J. Martin, and Alldredge. It was shaping up to be a great race, with a bit of shuffling around within the top 5 for the first few laps. Cianciarulo found his way into the lead around Musquin and Bogle fairly quickly, and was followed by Webb, hence shuffling Bogle back to 3rd, and Musquin back to 4th. Musquin started to find his pace by lap 5, passing Bogle and setting his sights on the front runners. By that point, Cianciarulo had opened up a bit of a gap, and was looking solid for a moto win before a huge crash dropped him back to 9th. Musquin had happened to catch and pass Webb that same lap, hence took advantage of Cianciarulo’s crash to put him up into the lead. Meanwhile, the defending champ Jeremy Martin had also started to find his speed after dropping back early in the race, and was making his way back through the pack. After passing Bogle, he got caught up in a 3rd place battle with Savatgy for 5 laps before eventually making a pass stick. All this time, Musquin was slowly opening up a gap over Cooper Webb, and had earned himself a comfortable lead. The running order with 2 laps left was Musquin, Webb, J. Martin, Savatgy, and Alldredge. Bogle had dropped all the way back to 8th, just ahead of Cianciarulo, who had rebounded successfully from his earlier crash and was still riding in 9th. As the race was nearing it’s last lap, J. Martin caught his teammate Webb and passed him for 2nd. Webb had lost his goggles, and was struggling with roost getting into his eyes. Shortly after, the checkered flag waved for Marvin Musquin, followed by J. Martin, Webb, Savatgy, and Alldredge. It was a very impressive ride for the rookie Alldredge, who held off more experienced riders Alex Martin and Anthony Rodriguez for his career-first top 5.

450 Moto 1

The first gate drop of the year for the 450 class saw title favourites Eli Tomac and Ryan Dungey quickly out to the front of the pack. They were followed by Weston Peick, Blake Baggett, and Jason Anderson; Cole Seely crashed out of the race only a few corners in, apparently hurting his leg. Tomac quickly started putting down the fast lap times that he was doing in practice, and opened himself up a bit of a gap over Dungey with only a few minutes into the race. Anderson also found his groove right away, quickly passing his rival Baggett, and started pressuring Peick by the end of lap 4. Roczen had started in the top 10, and had even made a few passes to get up to 7th by the 2nd lap, before his back injury kicked in and quickly forced him to drop off the pace. By lap 8, Roczen had dropped all the way back to 17th. Meanwhile Dungey had stabilized the lead Tomac had opened up, and was holding Tomac in sight with about a 4 second difference between them. Behind the leaders, Peick slowly began fading, and had lost positions to Anderson, Baggett, and Pourcel. Back in 7th, a battle was raging with Brett Metcalfe, Justin Barcia, Broc Tickle, Chad Reed, Phillip Nicoletti, and Fredrik Noren. By lap 10, Barcia had crashed out, and the battle dispersed, allowing most riders to settle into their positions; Peick had also faded back to 8th. With about 10 minutes remaining, Dungey dropped off Tomac’s pace, eventually losing over 22 seconds to him. The remainder of the race was fairly uneventful; Tomac took the checkered flag with a very comfortable lead over Dungey, followed by Anderson, Baggett, and Pourcel. The only battle left on the last lap was between Anderson and Baggett, but Anderson managed to hold off the late charge from Baggett. 

250 Moto 2

250 Moto 2 started with a holeshot from moto 1 runner up Jeremy Martin. Martin quickly found the pace he had at the end of the first moto, and opened up an early lead over Jessy Nelson and Matthew Bisceglia. Moto 1 winner Marvin Musquin suffered a bad start, but found his way into 8th by the end of lap 1. Cooper Webb, one of the title favourites, suffered a serious looking ankle injury in the first lap, and pulled off into the mechanic’s section grimacing in pain. On the otherhand, Jordon Smith was off to a good start, passing his teammate Bisceglia for 3rd place before suffering a huge crash in the uphill roller section. Alldredge and A. Martin were again up front quickly, and found themselves past Bisceglia and into 3rd and 4th respectively by the end of lap 3. Meanwhile, Musquin had started making his way through the pack, passing Cianciarulo and setting his sets on A. Martin and Alldredge ahead of him. About 10 minutes into the race, Nelson, who was riding strong up front, tipped over in a corned and dropped back to 6th. This moved Alldredge up into 2nd, but it was short lived, for Musquin had passed A. Martin and quickly found his way around Alldredge as well. By that point though, J. Martin had already opened up a 15 second lead with just under half the race left, and Musquin was essentially forced to settle for 2nd. Back in 6th, Bogle had started pressuring Nelson. As they were racing up the roller section, Nelson got out of control and shot over in front of Bogle, taking them both out hard. Nelson was able to get up quickly, but Bogle landed hard on his left arm/shoulder and appeared to injure it. Shortly after this, a battle formed between Cianciarulo in 5th, and Rodrigeuz and Osborne behind him. With about 10 minutes left, both Rodriguez and Osborne managed to get around Cianciarulo. The fast pace set earlier in the day by Cianciarulo was gone, and he started fading back, getting passed by Hill and Plessinger later as well. A small tip over with a few laps left eventually caused Cianciarulo to drop all the way outside the top 10 to 11th. Towards the end of the race, Osborne picked up the pace allowing him to pass Rodriguez for 5th. He eventually charged up to A. Martin, who had remained right behind Alldredge all race. With 2 laps left, all three of these riders were battling for the last podium spot. The checkered flag eventually fell to J. Martin, who maintained the large lead he had over Musquin. Alldredge managed to hold off both A. Martin and Osborne to grab the last podium spot. Rodriguez followed them in 6th, with Hill finishing shortly behind him. 

450 Moto 2

The 450 moto 2 holeshot went to Eli Tomac, who crossed the holeshot line just barely ahead of Chad Reed. Reed quickly lost positions to Dungey, Barcia, Roczen, and Anderson. Tomac quickly began pulling away, despite best efforts from Dungey in 2nd. In fact, Tomac was averaging 7 seconds a lap faster than Dungey, and quickly gained more than a 30 second lead over him. Tomac was definitely another level ahead of the entire field, but Dungey was also another level above the rest of the riders, and quickly had a comfortable lead over Barcia back in 3rd; a huge gap existed between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Back in 4th place, Roczen was surprisingly riding very strong compared to his lackluster results in 450 moto 1, and was keeping Barcia somewhat constant. Anderson was still in 5th, but was getting heavy pressure from Peick who had made his way through the field after a bad start. Behind them, a large battle was forming between Reed, Metcalfe, Pourcel, Baggett, Noren, and Tickle. Baggett slowly made his way past most of them up into 8th behind Metcalfe, who had a strong ride going and had passed Reed to get into 7th. Just before the halfway point, Peick finally found a way past Anderson, while up front, Tomac had now opened up a 45 second lead over Dungey. A couple laps later, a hard charging Peick, who had faded in the last half of the first moto, seemed to be getting revitalized with every lap and had now caught up to Roczen; Roczen was still holding strong despite his back injury. However, Peick managed to pass Roczen, and set his sights on catching his teammate Barcia for a podium. Shortly after that, Baggett, who had already passed Metcalfe a few laps previously, continued his charge through the field and made his way around Anderson for 6th place. With 2 laps left, Tomac had developed an amazingly large 1:20 lead over Dungey and had just lapped Reed, who had dropped back to 15th place. Peick had also caught up to Barcia, and quickly managed to pass him to grab the last podium spot. Tomac ended up taking the checkered flag with a huge 1:31 lead over Dungey in 2nd. They were followed by Peick, Barcia, and Roczen, who had held off a last minute charge by Baggett. Pourcel, who had another good ride going in the top 10, faded badly in the last few minutes to drop back to 12th.

Overall, a very good day of racing. Jeremy Martin and Marvin Musquin showed that they are the main riders to beat in the 250 class, while Eli Tomac’s pure annihilation prooved that he is going to be very hard to beat this summer. Make sure to check in later this week for more articles about the Hangtown race, and for a preview of Round 2 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, which is this weekend at Glen Helen.