Ryan Dungey capitalized on a late mistake from Justin Barcia to steal the 450 Class overall victory at the Peterson CAT Washougal National, the ninth round of the 2015 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. The win was Dungey’s fourth of the season and made him the all-time winngest rider at Washougal.
The first moto was a muddy affair, and not surprisingly, Justin Barcia excelled. The AutoTrader/Toyota/Yamaha rider grabbed his sixth consecutive MotoSport.com Holeshot Award, beating out teammate Phil Nicoletti by mere inches, which gave Barcia a clear track to work with. He pulled away on his way to a dominating win, as he recorded a 29-second margin of victory.
Christophe Pourcel and Ryan Dungey both got around Nicoletti to move into the top three, setting up a battle for second place between those two. On Lap 9, Dungey was able to cut underneath the Frenchman to take away the position. Dungey went on to finish second, with Pourcel in third. Nicoletti held on for fourth, and Blake Baggett rounded out the top five.
For the third consecutive week, the battle for the overall win in the 450 Class came down to Ryan Dungey vs. Justin Barcia in the second moto. The moto started off in a familiar way, with Barcia extending his holeshot streak to seven straight motos. Ryan Dungey and Vince Friese positioned themselves just behind Barcia’s Yamaha.
Within a few minutes, Barcia, Dungey and Ken Roczen had separated themselves from the rest of the pack and found themselves in a three-way battle. Dungey pressured Barcia for the lead but also had to be careful of Roczen closing in just behind him. The trio found themselves in close proximity for several laps until some separation finally began to emerge.
Barcia had about a two-second gap on Dungey late in the race when he made a huge mistake, going down as he rounded a turn. Dungey cruised around him and assumed the lead, but a determined Barcia went on the attack, going all-out in an attempt to track down the Red Bull KTM rider. Pushing the bike as hard as he could, Barcia nearly washed out again, causing him to dial it back. Dungey captured the moto victory, with Barcia second and Roczen third. Weston Peick and Pourcel made up the rest of the top five in Moto 2.
“We got off to a good start, and Barcia’s riding good, so it makes it tough,” Dungey said of the win. “He’s not gonna be easy to pass or anything like that, he’s gonna be there til the end. I lost a little time with those lappers, but was able to start inching back up and trying to keep the pressure on him. He did make a mistake, so we capitalized on that and tried to sprint away at the end.”
Dungey (2-1) edged out Barcia (1-2) for his second straight overall victory. Both riders have finished together in the top two in six consecutive motos now, which of course coincides with Barcia’s holeshot streak.
Pourcel (3-5) finished third overall, with Roczen (7-3) fourth and Nicoletti (4-6) fifth.
Today marked the return to racing for Team Honda HRC’s Trey Canard, who was sidelined for four months by a broken arm. Although he started the day off by qualifying second in practice, Canard couldn’t quite carry that same success over into the motos. He crashed while running inside the top five in Moto 1, then went down again in Moto 2. He recorded 8-9 moto finishes on the day but should continue to improve over the course of the final rounds of the season, especially with a week off on the horizon before Unadilla.
While Canard was out with injury, Fredrik Noren did an admirable job filling in for him at factory Honda. Back with the MotoSport.com/GPI/Honda team this week, Noren (9-7) finished seventh overall for the second week in a row, continuing a string of strong results.
With his victory at Washougal, Dungey extended his 450 Class championship lead to 69 points over Roczen and Barcia, who have now entered a tie for second place. While it would take a lot of misfortune for Dungey to falter with such a large lead, the battle for second should heat up over the final three rounds.
Lucas Oil Pro Motocross resumes on Saturday, August 8th with the Red Bull Unadilla National.
AMA Motocross 2015 – Washougal – Results 450cc
1. Ryan Dungey (2-1)
2. Justin Barcia (1-2)
3. Christophe Pourcel (3-5)
4. Ken Roczen (7-3)
5. Phil Nicoletti (4-6)
6. Weston Peick (12-4)
7. Fredrik Noren (9-7)
8. Trey Canard (8-9)
9. Blake Baggett (5-12)
10. Josh Grant (11-8)
11. Vince Friese (10-10)
12. Kyle Chisholm (13-11)
13. Jason Anderson (6-37)
14. Tommy Hahn (15-14)
15. Justin Brayton (14-15)
16. Andrew Short (19-13)
17. Killy Rusk (18-16)
18. Broc Tickle (16-20)
19. Ben LaMay (23-17)
20. Jesse Wentland (17-38)
AMA Motocross 2015 – Washougal – Championship Standings – 450cc
- Ryan Dungey 400
- Justin Barcia 331
- Ken Roczen 331
- Blake Baggett 275
- Christophe Pourcel 247
- Jason Anderson 242
- Broc Tickle 26
- Phil Nicoletti 209
- Weston Peick 198
- Fredrik Noren 187
- Justin Brayton 145
- Eli Tomac 125
- Kyle Chisholm 121
- Cole Seely 104
- Wil Hahn 99
- Tommy Hahn 85
- Kyle Cunningham 70
- Josh Grant 63
- Jesse Wentland 62
- Chad Reed 60
