Alessi

450 Start

450 Southwick Podium - Dungey, Alessi, Goerke

Dungey #1Round 10 of The Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship continued this past Saturday with the Rockstar Energy Southwick National presented by Traxxas from Moto-X 338 in Southwick, MA.

Southwick is one of the most challenging tracks on the circuit being it is an all sand race track.

Just riding in sand sections at some tracks is hard enough. It is extremely rough on the bike and rider.

With a full 2 races left in the outdoor series after this race, Rockstar Makita Suzuki rider Ryan Dungey was poised to win the 450 MX Championship in his rookie season on a 450 bike at this race a full 2 races early.

Here is how the day panned out.

MOTO ONE

Geico Powersports Honda rider Brett Metcalfe would power around the sandy first turn with the holeshot with TLD/Lucas Oil Honda rider Ben Townley right behind him and Dungey in the third spot.

Townley would go down early in the moto handing the second position to Dungey. Now the chase was on for Dungey to catch Metcalfe who already had built a pretty good lead.

As the race wore on Dungey with smooth style slowly reeled the Honda rider in getting to with in a few bike lengths of him with about 4 or 5 laps to go in the race but Metcalfe seemed to twist the throttle that much harder and pulled away again.

Metcalfe really wanted this 450 moto win badly because he has been trying so long to get the first one and has come so close a few times. But now on the last lap with him leading he could almost taste it.

Then disaster struck in a big way. With less than a quarter lap to go in the race Metcalfe slowed all of a sudden and came to a dead stop and Dungey rode on by.

Unbelievably he had run out of gas. All he could do now was lay his bike down, take off his helmet and take that long disappointing walk back to the pits.

He would not be the only one to run out of gas in that moto. So would Townley and Honda Red Bull Racings Andrew Short but it would be as nearly costly to them.

Dungey would take the win in moto one with Rockstar Energy Suzuki Rider Tommy Hahn getting second and Jagermeister/FMF KTM rider Mike Alessi rounding out the top three.

Fourth would go to Motoconcepts/Yamaha rider Kyle Chisholm and fifth to Merge Racing/Honda rider Kyle Regal.

Top five in moto one would be Dungey, Hahn, Alessi, Chisholm and Regal.

Moto Two

Ben Townley would take the holeshot in moto two just narrowly missing a big first turn pile up.

Dungey was in second but shortly into the moto he would make the pass on Townley and never look back riding easily to the moto win and overall for the day and also clinching the 450 MX Championship.

Metcalfe did not get a bad start but would go down after trying to make a pass on Honda Red Bull Racings Kevin Windham, he would fight his way back to a seventh in moto two for a ninth overall for the day.

Townley would go on to take second in the moto and Motoconcepts/Yamaha rider Matt Goerke would take the third spot and wind up third overall for the day.

Mike Alessi would finish fourth in moto two and get the second overall position for the day and Windham would finish fifth.

So the overalls for the day would be Dungey, Alessi, Goerke, Chisholm and Windham

Coming into the race Dungey needed have over 100 points at the end of the day to clinch the championship, he would end the day with a staggering 151 point lead.

Also this would be Dungeys ninth straight overall win tying motocross legend rider Ricky Carmichael for most wins ever by a rookie.

Dungey now also becomes the first rookie in the history of the sport to win both the premier AMA Supercross and AMA Motocross Championships in the same season.

All this and he is only 20 years old, incredible.

Round 11 of the 2010 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship continues next weekend with the FMF Steel City National from Steel City Raceway in Delmont, PA Saturday Sept 4^th.

Hope you can make it out and enjoy what I am sure will be another exciting day of motocross racing.

Round 10 of 12
450 Class (Moto Finish)
1. Ryan Dungey, Belle Plaine, Minn., Suzuki (1-1)
2. Mike Alessi, Victorville, Calif., KTM (3-4)
3. Matt Goerke, Lake Helen, Fla., Yamaha (6-3)
4. Kyle Chisholm, Valrico, Fla., Yamaha (4-6)
5. Kevin Windham, Centreville, Miss., Honda (7-5)
6. Nick Wey, DeWitt, Mich., Kawasaki (8-9)
7. Ben Townley, New Zealand, Honda (34-2)
8. Tommy Hahn, Decatur, Texas, Suzuki (2-32)
9. Brett Metcalfe, Australia, Honda (14-7)
10. Dan Reardon, Australia, Yamaha (13-11)

Goerke450 Class Championship Standings
1. Ryan Dungey, Belle Plaine, Minn., Suzuki, 468
2. Andrew Short, Smithville, Texas, Honda, 317
3. Brett Metcalfe, Australia, Honda, 314
4. Mike Alessi, Victorville, Calif., KTM, 273
5. Ben Townley, New Zealand, Honda, 271
6. Josh Grant, Riverside, Calif., Yamaha, 260
7. Kyle Chisholm, Valrico, Fla., Yamaha, 216
8. Chad Reed, Australia, Kawasaki, 204
9. Kyle Regal, Kemp, Texas, Honda, 201
10. Ryan Sipes, Vine Grove, Ky., Yamaha, 194