With rain on the way, and an already muddy track, 450 moto 1 got underway with Ryan Dungey getting the early lead. He was followed by Ken Roczen and Christophe Pourcel, who both appeared to be fast in the muddy conditions; Pourcel even got the fastest qualifying time in practice. However, Dungey proved to be the fastest of them all, and quickly began to pull away.

Roczen was able to keep Dungey somewhat close for the first half of the race, but as the race dragged on, Roczen’s pace began to decrease. By the 20-minute mark, Roczen had lost a great amount of time to Dungey in front of him, and began to get pressured by Pourcel behind him.

Pourcel had been riding a great race so far in third place, holding off a fast and eager Justin BarciaBlake Baggett was also close to this battle in fourth. With the race dwindling down, Pourcel was able to make a move around Roczen with four laps to go. It appeared that Roczen, who was struggling with some type of illness, was getting tired in the latter part of the race, for both Barcia and Baggett were also able to get around him; this put Roczen all the way back to fifth place.

The race came to an end with Dungey taking the checkered flag 10 seconds ahead of Pourcel, with Barcia not too far behind in third. Roczen held on to finish fifth place, with his teammate Broc Tickle behind him in sixth.

450 Moto 1 Top 10 Results
Position Rider
1. Ryan Dungey
2. Christophe Pourcel
3. Justin Barcia
4. Blake Baggett
5. Ken Roczen
6. Broc Tickle
7. Jason Anderson
8. Wil Hahn
9. Justin Brayton
10. Weston Peick

The last moto of the day, moto 2 for the 450s, was delayed for over an hour, and almost got cancelled due to thunderstorms and heavy rain. By the time the weather stopped, the track was extremely muddy.

This played favor for north eastern native Justin Barcia, who grew up racing in similar weather conditions. Hence, it was no surprise to see Barcia grab the holeshot and get off to the early lead.

In contrast, current points leader and moto 1 winner Ryan Dungey wasn’t so lucky, and had a huge crash heading into the second turn of Lap 1. This caused Dungey to get up in dead last, forcing him to come back all the way through the pack.

As Dungey was forcing his way up the field, Barcia was able to extend an early lead ahead of Christophe Pourcel and Blake Baggett. Despite losing ground to the leader, Pourcel and Baggett were riding great in their own battle for second, swapping positions a few times throughout the 30-minute moto before Baggett eventually solidified the spot.

Defending champion Ken Roczen started behind these two as well, but his mediocre riding from the end of moto 1 continued over, and Roczen gradually lost time to the leaders in front of him.

Barcia would eventually take the checkered flag with a very impressive ride in the muddy conditions, finishing a large 17-seconds ahead of Baggett in second, and 30-seconds ahead of Pourcel back in third. After his first lap crash, Dungey ran into some other problems, including pulling off track for new goggles and losing his front fender, but impressively came back for an 12th place finish.

450 Moto 2 Top 10 Results
Position Rider
1. Justin Barcia
2. Blake Baggett
3. Christophe Pourcel
4. Ken Roczen
5. Phillip Nicoletti
6. Thomas Hahn
7. Jason Anderson
8. Tony Archer
9. Broc Tickle
10. Kyle Cunningham

Here are the top-10 overall finishers in the 450 class at Budds Creek:

450 Overall Top 10 Results
Position Rider Moto 1 Moto 2 Points
1. Justin Barcia 3 1 45
2. Christophe Pourcel 2 3 42
3. Blake Baggett 4 2 40
4. Ken Roczen 5 4 34
5. Ryan Dungey 1 12 34
6. Jason Anderson 7 7 28
7. Broc Tickle 6 9 27
8. Phillip Nicoletti 11 5 26
9. Thomas Hahn 12 6 24
10. Wil Hahn 8 14 20

And here are the updated championship point standings after six rounds of racing, halfway through the series:

450 Championship Top 10 Point Standings
Position Rider Points
1. Ryan Dungey 256
2. Ken Roczen 219
3. Justin Barcia 193
4. Blake Baggett 185
5. Jason Anderson 178
6. Broc Tickle 158
7. Christophe Pourcel 157
8. Weston Peick 140
9. Phillip Nicoletti 132
10. Eli Tomac 125

The muddy conditions at Budds Creek resulted in some rare occurences, one of the most noticeable being the big crash from points leader Ryan Dungey. This provided a crucial moment for defending champion Ken Roczen to gain some points, but he was unable to capitalize; Dungey and Roczen ended up tying in points for the day, and thus Dungey was able to maintain his points lead.

The series now enters its second half, starting off this weekend on July 4th at Red Bud in Buchanan, Michigan. Be sure to follow @VAVELMotocross on Twitter for coverage.


Scott Yargeau is a writer for the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @ScottYargeau.

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About the author
Scott Yargeau
I am a current science undergraduate studying physics and physiology at McGill University in Montréal, Quebec. I grew up racing motocross, and to this day, despite no longer racing, I remain a huge fan of the sport. I started up Moto Now Blog in 2014 to talk about everything SX/MX related, and now I write about SX/MX for VAVEL USA. Feel free to contact me at [email protected].