Tonight’s 450SX Class was the one to watch at the Orlando Monster Energy upercross round this evening, with the weather keeping at bay to give the riders a well-prepared track to get their teeth into.
HRC Honda’s Ken Roczen got a confident holeshot out the gate in heat race one, with Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb hot on his tail until he tucked the front a few corners in. In the meantime Roczen started pulling away already with a 1.5 second lead and took the win.
Twisted Tea Suzuki rider Max Anstie sat down in ninth position, he had Rockstar Husqvarna’s Dean Wilson chasing him hard but managed to hold him off to make the main event grid. Meanwhile Martin Davalos showed some great speed keeping Justin Barcia at bay.
SSmart Top Moto Concept’s Honda Broc Tckle took the holeshot in heat two, while Monster energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac had an awful start and was dead last so had his work cut out to get back through the pack. Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin took the race lead early on, only for Jason Anderson to clean him out on the last corner to take the win. Monster Energy Star Yamaha’s Malcolm Stewart also did the same move on team-mate Dylan Ferrandis, which resulted in Ferrandis going down and Stewart finishing fifth.
Here’s Anderson’s take out:
Chaos continued into the 450SX main tonight with the Troy Lee Gas Gas’ Barcia grabbing the holeshot but Adam Cianciarulo took the lead after two corners. Further down the pack sat Roczen who wheelied off the start causing him to shoot backwards and work his way through the pack.
The German was on the charge at this point, gaining places passing Ferrandis and Stewart, with Tomac making silly mistakes and costing him a couple of places.
Meanwhile, Roczen made a textbook pass past on Stewart to move up to sixth place, then he, Barcia and Tomac all went back and forth between each other for a few laps before Webb made the pass on Ciancariulo to lead and starts to pull away.
Cianciarulo went over the bars in the whoops after getting pressure from Musquin. Roczen finally made the pass on Tomac and moved up in to fourth and made loads of ground up on Barcia, but can’t make the pass for the podium. Red Bull KTM goes one and two with Webb and Musquin with Barcia sitting third.
Check Adam Cianciarulo’s mistake on the whoops below:
