It's Seattled in Dungey's favour
By TMX Archives on 28th Apr 10
Suzuki's Ryan Dungey can officially be named as 2010 AMA Supercross Champion! At the packed-out Quest Field Stadium in Seattle, just over 51,000 fans witnessed Dungey take the title, and become only the second ever Rookie to do so - Jeremy McGrath being the first.
Following Ryan Villopoto's swift exit after an horrific crash in last week's round, it was virtually inevitable that the Suzuki star would claim the title with three rounds remaining, however in order to seal the deal on the night, Dungey required a sixth place or better finish.
Meanwhile, as the Western Lites Class resumed for the seventh and penultimate round of the series, Yamaha's Broc Tickle secured the win, his first Lites class victory. Big news for Britain though was that Max Anstie made a welcome comeback following a bad crash earlier on in the season to take a fine win in his heat race. The Yamaha rider then claimed a well earned ninth overall to sit eighth in the series standings.
Dungey was hoping for a fairytale end to claim the title but the Suzuki rider, like many others, struggled on the badly rutted Quest Field track. Stealing the show on the night was Honda's Kevin Windham. Windham was right at home in the ruts, showing his pace in qualifying to beat Dungey by a huge 15.7 seconds.
As the gates for the main event dropped, it was that man Windham who shot into the first turn to claim the Spike Holeshot Award. By the second lap the veteran Honda rider had already opened up a five second gap on Dungey, and that gap widened as Windham headed all the 20-laps en route to victory.
"That was the gnarliest Supercross race I've ever ridden,” exclaimed Windham. "The streak is over and it happened here in Seattle. It feels so good. I closed it out here in 2008 and I'm glad to do it again. I'll tell you, as I get older, things like this are much harder to come by. Tonight was just about survival.”
Behind Windham, Tommy Hann and Justin Brayton held on to take second and third respectively, a career best for both riders. Following a fall whilst running in second, Dungey rode the night out for a safe finish on the technical track, eventually crossing the line in fourth.
"The track was tough tonight,” said Dungey. "It was very demanding with a lot of ruts. It's been an awesome season. It's something else when you're watching on TV as a little kid and hoping to be up here. It was all hard work that went into this. I'm super pumped. I just tried to take it easy in the main and stay upright. The season was a battle all the way. From the start we did all we could and put everything we could out on the track.”
After an eight race break, the Western Lites class re-ignited for the penultimate round of the series. As the riders hit the first turn it was Honda's Trey Cannard who took the holeshot with teammate Blake Wharton and Wil Hahn chasing hard. As the race progressed, Wharton tried to make a pass on Canard, but in doing so took his front wheel out and the pair hit the dirt. Series leader Jake Weimar also hit the ground on the same lap, allowing Broc Tickle to hit the front and open up a sizeable gap and claim his first career win as Hahn claimed second and Weimar chased back for third.
"The track was really technical tonight,” said Tickle. "The ruts were gnarly. I knew it was going to come down to being smart and putting 15 laps together. I can't thank everyone enough. For the last week or so I've been getting back into Supercross and I'm excited to get my first win.”
Weimar's main title challenger, Trey Canard, struggled in the tough conditions and was only able so salvage an 11th place finish, dropping him to third overall. Weimar now holds a steady 19-point advantage heading into the Western finale at the Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 15 – Qwest Field, Seattle, Washington, USA
SUPERCROSS CLASS: 1 Kevin Windham (Hon), 2 Thomas Hahn (Suz), 3 Justin Brayton (Yam), 4 Ryan Dungey (Suz), 5 Davi Millsaps (Hon), 6 Nick Wey (Kaw), 7 Michael Byrne (AUS - Kaw), 8 Chad Reed (AUS - Kaw), 9 Andrew Short (Hon), 10 Kyle Chisholm (Yam), 11 Matt Boni (Hon), 12 Jason Lawrence (Yam), 13 Kyle Cunningham (Yam), 14 Justin Keeney (Kaw), 15 Chris Blose (Hon), 16 Troy Adams (Suz), 17 Jarred Browne (Kaw), 18 Ryan Clark (Hon), 19 Josh Hill (Yam), 20 Kyle Partridge US - Kaw).
SERIES STANDINGS after 15 (of 17) rounds: 1 Ryan Dungey 320 points (CHAMPION), 2 Villopoto 266, 3 Windham 248, 4 Millsaps 231, 5 Hill 227, 6 Brayton 211, 7 Tedesco 183, 8 Wey 174, 9 Hahn 161, 10 Chisholm 147, 11 Byrne 145, 12 Short 114, 13 Canard 103, 14 Blose 101, 15 Thomas 69, 16 Langston 67, 17 Boni 67, 18 Lawrence 62, 19 Stewart 51, 20 Reed 51,...
SUPERCROSS LITES (West): 1 Broc Tickle (Yam), 2 Wil Hahn (Hon), 3 Jake Weimer (Kaw), 4 Blake Wharton (Hon), 5 Ryan Morais (Suz), 6 Josh Hansen (Kaw), 7 Cole Seely (Hon), 8 Phillip Nicoletti (KTM), 9 Max ANSTIE (GB - Yam), 10 Hunter Hewitt (Suz), 11 Trey Canard (Hon), 12 Travis Baker (Yam), 13 Jeff Alessi (Yam), 14 Robert Kiniry (Suz), 15 Jake Canada (Kaw), 16 Sean Borkenhagen (KTM), 17 Christopher Gosselaar (Hon), 18 Chris Howell (Yam), 19 Joey Ruminer (Kaw), 20 Ryan Abrigo (Hon).
SERIES STANDINGS after 7 (of 8) rounds: 1 Weimer 155 points, 2 Hahn 136, 3 Canard 131, 4 Tickle 125, 5 Wharton 107, 6 Seely 90, 7 Hansen 75, 8 ANSTIE 75, 9 Nicoletti 69, 10 Alessi 64, 11 Baker 63, 12 Morais 58, 13 Kiniry 51, 14 Hewitt 46, 15 Borkenhagen 35, 16 Gosselaar 35, 17 Balbi 33, 18 Ryan Clark 32, 19 Paulin 30, 20 Larsen 29,... 21 SEARLE 27,...
NEXT ROUND: May 1 – Rice-Eccles Stadium, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.