Ken Roczen rebounded from two straight weeks off the podium and easily secured his third win of the season in a dominating performance for Round 10 of the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross season on Saturday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.
Pile-ups highlighted the Mains in both classes that impacted some contenders. In the 450s, Justin Bogle, who looked like an unbuckled passenger on a rollercoaster ride, went down right after the first turn and took Jason Anderson and Tommy Hahn with him while causing a traffic jam for others but not before Roczen, Ryan Dungey, Eli Tomac and Marvin Musquin got out in front.
Dungey grabbed the holeshot then on Lap 1 got quickly pushed aside by Tomac looking for his second straight win. His lead however lasted just another lap as Roczen passed him and led the rest of the way as the fight for second and third went on behind him. It was Roczen's first win in Toronto, his third of the year and sixth podium of 2016. He shaved five points off Dungey's lead in the Championship standings and is now 34 points back with seven rounds remaining.
Once Ken Roczen got out front, no one challenged him for the lead
"I simply got a better start," said Roczen who finished sixth and fifth in the last two rounds, respectively, because of bad starts. "On these tough conditions you can see the really hard base and the whoops got cupped out. But we had been solid all day even in the qualifying practices. I wasn't the fastest but I had a good feeling and that's really all that matters. I knew I would lay it down in the race."
Dungey had two streaks on the line entering Toronto, losing one of them, after he went down on Lap 15 which allowed Marvin Musquin to make the pass for second ending 20 straight finishes in the Top 2 for the defending Champion. However, Dungey's third-place result gave him 26 consecutive podiums which surpassed Chad Reed's all-time record.
"It means a lot," he said of the much-talked about record. "We work hard to be in that position. Tonight was tough. Once I got into second I was really making a hard charge to get to Ken. I didn't really want him to get away like that in the beginning and I was pushing it and lost the front."
Ryan Dungey lost second-place after his front wheel washed out, but he held on for third to break Chad Reed's consecutive podium streak record at 26.
Dungey and Tomac had some entertaining battles early on in the Main as Dungey briefly got into second on Lap 5 after Tomac made a mistake but quickly got passed again by Tomac. On Lap 8, Dungey made the pass stick for good and on Lap 10 Musquin got past Tomac for third. Tomac looked dominating early but faded and ultimately settled for fifth after qualifying first.
Anderson, who is third in the standings, salvaged some points getting ninth after starting 18th and Trey Canard, who qualified second and got delayed in the pile-up starting 14th, managed a seventh-place finish. Cole Seely grabbed fourth-place after taking 10th place in the last two rounds. Though Tomac faded in the race he pulled to within five points of Anderson in the standings and Musquin's third straight podium helped move him into sixth-place ahead of Reed, who crashed at the start after making contact with another rider and didn't remount.
A pile-up on the first turn in the 250 class Main took down Jeremy Martin and Malcolm Stewart who were second and third in the standings, respectively, coming into the race which seemingly proved fortuitous to points leader Martin Davalos who did not race because of passport issues. Matthew Bisceglia took the holeshot and early lead but on Lap 3 Shane McElrath got into first. Justin Hill grabbed the lead on Lap 4 and three laps later his victory was sealed once McElrath entered the pits because of a flat tire. Hill won by 20 seconds and got his first win in 13 starts.
Justin Hill coasted to victory once he passed Shane McElrath who ended up in the pits with a flat tire
"We qualified quickest in practice, we were the quickest in the Heat race. The bike was working awesome, I had all the confidence in the world coming into the Main," he said. "It was just a run and hide thing there was really no one to battle except Shane and my buddies. It was a lot of fun racing with those guys."
Hill was also in position to take the red plate but Martin, who won last week in Daytona and made the comeback an art form last year in Motocross, torched the field and got into second-place on Lap 9 after starting 19th. It was Martin's second straight podium and he holds a two-point advantage over Hill in the standings.
Jeremy Martin started 19th after a crash at the start and worked his way into second-place
"Tonight I got off to a great jump and unfortunately someone bumped me and all their weight went (on me) and I went down in the first turn," Martin said. "Congrats to Justin, he was on it all day today. We were chasing him all day. I think if we were one and two (to start the race) we would have had one heck of a battle going into that Main."
Stewart salvaged some points as well after the crash which put him in 14th and he finished sixth. Bisceglia rounded out the podium, his first trip to the box this year. Stewart falls to third place in the standings, eight points behind Hill, and the idle Davalos is now in fourth-place, tied in points with Aaron Plessinger, who also went down at the start. He regrouped last and climbed 10 spots to finish 12th.
Supercross returns across the border for Round 11 on Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit, MI. Buy tickets online or at the box office.
2016 Monster Energy Supercross Toronto Results
Toronto Supercross 450SX Class Results
- Ken Roczen
- Marvin Musquin
- Ryan Dungey
- Cole Seely
- Eli Tomac
- Justin Brayton
- Trey Canard
- Weston Peick
- Jason Anderson
- Jake Weimer
Toronto Supercross 250SX East Class Results
- Justin Hill
- Jeremy Martin
- Matt Bisceglia
- Alex Frye
- Jesse Wentland
- Malcolm Stewart
- Benny Bloss
- Gannon Audette
- Paul Coates
- Arnaud Tonus
2016 Monster Energy Supercross Season Standings
450SX Class Season Standings
- Ryan Dungey (233)
- Ken Roczen (199)
- Jason Anderson (175)
- Eli Tomac (170)
- Cole Seely (163)
- Marvin Musquin (156)
- Chad Reed (142)
- Justin Brayton (125)
- Davi Millsaps (105)
- Jake Weimer (92)
250SX East Class Season Standings
- Jeremy Martin (65)
- Justin Hill (63)
- Malcolm Stewart (55)
- Martin Davalos (45)
- Aaron Plessinger (45)
- Tyler Bowers (35)
- Matt Bisceglia (32)
- Benny Bloss (32)
- Alex Frye, Huntingtown (31)
- Jesse Wentland (30)
