Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 25 JUNE 25, 2013 P51 ES the TLD/Lucas Oil Honda team – was actually gaining on him when James' RM-Z450 got stuck in the mud in the dreaded "roller" section and tossed him onto the ground, hard. Malcolm assumed third and in the final couple of laps he came under attack by Team Honda Muscle Milk's Trey Canard, but Malcolm picked it up in those final laps and held off the former 250 SX and MX champ for his first-ever podium moto finish. Canard ended up grabbing third overall with a 6-4 score thanks to Alessi's moto-two DNF, Justin Barcia's 4-8 score, and Malcolm's ninth in moto one. But in the points chase, with the two Ryans trading wins and second-places, nothing changed. Villopoto came in 16 points ahead of Dungey and left with the same points lead. "You've gotta have those two moto wins on the day when you have a guy like Ryan [Dungey] that is always going to be there," Villopoto said. "If you make one little mistake, he's going to be there to capitalize on it and you'll more than likely swap out on points. So it makes it tough to really make gains in points like that, when we're so consistent." 250 NATIONAL In the first four rounds of the 2013 AMA Pro 250cc National MX Championship, Red Bull KTM's wunderkind Ken Roczen had won every single first moto, as well as both motos at the Hang- town season opener. If you want to win a championship, it seems obvious to say, but although consistency is key, it's much better if you can consistently win races. However, Roczen's best second motos throughout the first four rounds both came at races where the women's WMX class was on the bill. When the WMX is there, there's nearly twice the rest time between moto one and moto two. When there's no WMX, racers have basically one hour between moto one's checkered flag and moto two's gate drop. Considering time needed for staging, this basically means racers have just enough time to rinse off, change their clothes, get something to drink, and head back to the track. When the WMX is there, Roczen has gone 1-1 (Hangtown) and 1-2 (High Point). When the WMX isn't there, Roczen has gone 1-3 (Colorado) and 1-4 (Tennessee). Now, this doesn't seem like a huge slide in performance on paper, but then consider that his closest title rival, GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac, has won the second moto both times the WMX wasn't on the race schedule, going 2-1 (Colorado) and 4-1 (Tennessee). With his family name, it's safe to assume that Tomac is in amazing physical shape. But Tomac has yet to win a single first moto, with a score of 2, 2, 4, 3 in the opening bouts at the first four rounds. Ultimately, this is why Roczen came into Budds Creek with a 15-point lead on Tomac. Briefly... ing 450cc champ Ryan Dungey stiffened up his shock a little bit to accommodate how much faster he's going right now than he was at the beginning of the year. However, that shock adjustment, paired with the many downhill braking zones on the Budds Creek track, forced him to stiffen up the fork before moto two, and that seemed to make all the difference in the world. He was fast in both motos, but he was much faster the second time out. It's the first time this outdoor season that anyone has beaten Villopoto so handily. "We got a little bit [of testing] at Press Day here [the Thursday before the National], but the track was really flat [meaning there weren't any bumps]," Dungey said. "So it was just more riding a flat track, even though it was still good to get a little time. But we stiffened the rear going into the first moto, and that really pushed in the front end coming down the hills, so it was really diving a lot and [I was] using a lot of energy. It's nice when you can kind of rest on something and then let the front do its job, as you're going down the big hills and it's not diving. It kind of saves a little bit of energy and lets the bike work a little bit more than I have to." But there were no WMX races on the schedule at Budds Creek. The overall winner of the previous two 250cc rounds, Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin, snatched the early lead away from GEICO Honda's Wil Hahn, in his first race back since injuring his wrist at the Las Vegas Supercross finale. Musquin looked like the king

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