VOL. 55 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 28, 2018 P51
(Left) Justin Barcia finally
nabbed his first moto and overall
win at the final race of the year.
(Below) The 2018 MX
Championship ended with just
the second mud race of the year.
ing all year," Barcia said. "I just
wanted a moto win, and to go 1-1
is ridiculous to end the season.
This is what I wanted. I'm just so
proud of everyone that's been on
me, supporting me, and we've
come a long way this year."
Tomac (2-9) was fourth over-
all, wrapping up the title with
room to spare.
"I just felt like we earned it,"
Tomac said. "We were put to
the test the whole season, with
the ups and downs. We had
a heck of a lot more ups this
year, and we still had to bring
it to this last race in the mud
because you just don't know
what could happen. We kind
of had to mail it in that last one,
but we were 'big picture' all day
drag-out battle with future team-
mate Cooper Webb that spanned
the last 15 minutes of the moto.
Webb hung on for fourth in
front of Blake Baggett (Rocky
Mountain ATV/MC KTM), Tyler
Medaglia (Husqvarna Canada),
Nicoletti, and Reed, who held off
Tomac for eighth at the finish.
Barcia took his first overall
since 2015, going 1-1 in the Iron-
man mud, while Roczen (3-2)
finished second overall and Mus-
quin (4-3) finished third.
"This is what I've been want-
BARCIA VS. ROCZEN
Besides the race for the 450MX
Championship title, there was also
a notable one between Ken Roczen
and Justin Barcia for third place go-
ing into the season final at Crawfords-
ville. Roczen led Barcia, who started
the year as a fill-in for the Yamaha
team, by nine points but Barcia took
a big chunk out of that by wining
both motos. However, it wasn't quite
enough to catch Roczen, who fin-
ished just one point ahead of Barcia
for third in the class championship,
445-444.
WHERE'S WESTON?
Weston Peick sat out the final round
of the 450MX Championship to begin
treatment on his injured hand, which
has bothered him for most of the
series. Unfortunately for him, missing
the final round cost him two positions
in the 450MX-class final standings.
The Autotrader/Yoshimura/Suzuki
Team rider finished out the outdoor
nationals in eighth, getting passed by
both Phil Nicoletti (sixth) and Benny
Bloss (seventh) in the season finale.
FINAL-MOTO
SHOWDOWN
In the 250MX, fourth place in the
championship was still up for grabs
at Indiana. Shane McElrath held a
slim six-point lead over the surging
RJ Hampshire in the series final.
Hampshire (4-3) had another solid
ride at the Ironman National, while
McElrath (5-10) struggled a bit in the
mud. McElrath still held fourth place
going into the final moto but his 10
th
place versus Hampshire's third in the
moto cost him a place in the cham-
pionship. Hampshire finished out the
season in fourth with 337 points and
McElrath fifth with 332.
Briefly...
