Orange juice!
By TMX Archives on 8th Feb 13
The Monster Energy AMA Supercross made a return to Anaheims Angel Stadium for the third time this weekend as round five kicked off in front of 41,294 fans. History was made for KTM as they took their first sweep of wins on the night, with Ryan Dungey scraping through from near disaster to come back strongly in the main event and claim the win, as teammate Ken Roczen produced a superb ride in the Western 250s to take back-to-back wins and hold on to the red plate.
Dungey looked strong in the afternoon qualifiers, posting some fast lap times, but a mechanical issue at the start of his head left him with a no finish, and in the Last Chance Qualifiers.
With the pressure mounting Dungey then got caught in a first turn pile up and found himself at the back of the pack.
With the laps counting down Dungey only managed to put himself into a qualifying position on the last lap in order to transfer to the main event!
As the gate dropped in the 450s Yamaha's Justin Brayton got the squeeze around the first turn to claim the holeshot with Mike Alessi and Dungey on his back wheel. Brayton then dropped it on the third corner, handing the lead to Alessi and second to Dungey.
Defending champion, Ryan Villopoto was unable to get the start he wanted, and placed 11th on the opening lap. As Villopoto battled his way through the pack, Dungey found a way to slip passed Alessi with Millsaps moving into third.
Villopoto soon weaved his way up to the leading group, but crashed after making contact with Alessi re-mounting in 19th.
James Stewart was having a much more steady race than previous weeks, and worked his way up to second on lap six, pushing Millsaps into third
With Dungey out in front, he began to pull away for the chequered flag leaving the battles for the remaining podium places. On lap 13 Millsaps saw his chance to re-take second, as Honda's Justin Barcia also saw his chance and made the move passed Stewart. Villopoto salvaged a few positions and climbed his way back up to eighth at the flag.
"We felt some emotion coming into tonight's race after barely making it into the Main Event,” said Dungey.
"The team was sweating it, but we pulled it off. It's a long season and this is a big step for the team.”
The win now moves Dungey up to second in the championship, as Davi Millsap's consistency ensures he keeps hold of the red plate.
In the 250s Ken Roczen laid down some impressive lap times in qualifying to place him second in his heat and give him a good gate pick for the main event.
As the gate dropped he then rounded the first turn in second behind rookie, Joey Savatgy. Roczen then wasted no time in finding a way through on the opening lap to take the lead.
After a heavy crash and a DNF last week, Honda's Eli Tomac was back in action and placed at the front half of the field round the first corner. Tomac then hit the gas and moved up to fourth on lap five.
Out in front, Roczen then held on to the lead for the full 15-laps to take back-to-back wins.
"It is so great to get up here and have my hard work finally pay off,” said Roczen. "My team and I have been working really hard this year to put our KTM's up front and in the championship hunt and I feel like we are in a good position. I can't wait for the next race.”
Kawasaki's Martin Davalso rode to a well earned second, as Eli Tomac made up one more place to finish on the podium in third.
The double KTM success marks the team's first-ever sweep of supercross classes. "Tonight has been a great night,” spoke Red Bull KTM Team Manager Roger DeCoster. "We are so proud of both our rider's and the entire work our team has put in to get to this point. Now we just need to work harder to stay here.”
The series now moves to the sixth round next week at the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
AMA & WORLD SUPERCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Rd 5 – Angel Stadium, Anaheim, California, USA
SX450cc CLASS: 1 Ryan Dungey (KTM), 2 Davi Millsaps (Suz), 3 Justin Barcia (Hon), 4 James Stewart (Suz), 5 Chad Reed (AUS - Hon), 6 Andrew Short (Hon), 7 Trey Canard (Hon), 8 Ryan Villopoto (Kaw), 9 Broc Tickle (Suz), 10 Justin Brayton (Yam), 11 Matthew Lemoine (Kaw), 12 Jimmy Albertson (Hon), 13 Matt Goerke (KTM), 14 Kyle Chisholm (Yam), 15 Vince Friese (Hon), 16 PJ Larsen (Hon), 17 Mike Alessi (Suz), 18 Josh Grant (Yam), 19 Chris Blose (Yam), 20 Jake Weimer (Kaw).
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 17) rounds: 1 Millsaps 107 points, 2 Canard 92, 3 Villopoto 90, 4 Reed 81, 5 Dungey 80, 6 Barcia 61, 7 Stewart 56, 8 Brayton 53, 9 Weimer 48, 10 Broc Tickle 47, 11 Goerke 47, 12 Short 44, 13 Grant 40, 14 Chisholm 37, 15 Friese 30, 16 Mike Alessi 29, 17 Short 27, 18 Lemoine 26, 19 Peick 22, 20 Windham 21,...
SX 250cc (West): 1 Ken Roczen (D - KTM), 2 Martin Davalos (EQ - Suz), 3 Eli Tomac (Hon), 4 Kyle Cunningham (Yam), 5 Jason Anderson (Suz), 6 Travis Baker (Yam), 7 Joey Savatgy (KTM), 8 Austin Politelli (Hon), 9 Max ANSTIE (GB - Suz), 10 Zach Osborne (Hon), 11 Jessy Nelson (Hon), 12 Cole Seely (Hon), 13 Christian Craig (Hon), 14 Josh Cachia (KTM), 15 Scott Champion (Hon), 16 Kade Mosig (Kaw), 17 Jean Ramos (BRA - Kaw), 18 Dakota Tedder (Kaw), 19 Tyler Bereman (Kaw), 20 Derek Anderson (Kaw).
SERIES STANDINGS after 5 (of 9) rounds: 1 Roczen 116 points, 2 Tomac 96, 3 Seely 89, 4 Davalos 70, 5 Osborne 69, 6 Jason Anderson 68, 7 Cunningham 67, 8 Craig 55, 9 Savatgy 52, 10 Nelson 48, 11 Stewart 45, 12 Rattray 45, 13 Politelli 39, 14 Baker 38, 15 ANSTIE 38, 16 Sipes 31, 17 Canada 21, 18 Cachia 19, 19 Leib 16, 20 Ramos 14,...
NEXT ROUND: February 9 – Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California, USA.
