We’re into the second half of the season and the Monster Energy AMA Supercross arrived at the unforgiving track of Daytona.
Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Ryan Villopoto was looking to carry on were had left off after his win at St. Louis last week.
Villopoto gained the holeshot and held the lead briefly until a mistake let Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen take over on his 350SX-F.
Roczen, like last year, was racing his only 450 class of the year and the 250 SX West points leader, for a few laps, held off Team Honda Muscle Milk’s Justin Barcia and Villopoto.
But it wasn’t long before the very rutted and sandy track took its toll and K-Roc began to slow. Villopoto wasn’t going to let a little mistake hold him back – quickly taking Barcia and then the young German rider for the lead.
Roczen continued to drop places and ended the race in seventh. Perhaps not the race Rozcen would have dreamt about the night before but more great experience for the KTM star and once again he showed he has the talent and pace to keep up with the big guns.
Rockstar Suzuki’s Davi Millsaps went down and fell outside the top ten and Yoshimura Suzuki’s James Stewart had a similar crash at the same part of the track.
Millsaps eventually finished 10th, his worst finish of the year.
Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey didn’t exactly have a smooth race. Early on he went down hard and was shaken after a hard landing in the rhythm section.
The track was gnarly and rider mistakes were frequently made – by the end of the race riders just couldn’t be as aggressive as they would have liked. But Dungey did keep working hard and was rewarded for his efforts with second place behind Villopoto.
250 SX class
Red Bull KTM Factory racing’s Marvin Musquin got his name in the Supercross record book as he recorded his first 250 class win.
A dominant start-to-finish race, the smooth Frenchman took advantage of the small mistakes of other riders and finished over eight seconds in front of Geico Honda’s Wil Hahn.
Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson was fast and had no trouble keeping pace but while challenging for the lead, he banged his head hard – never really recovering and finishing the night in fourth.
