VOL. 51 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 19, 2014 P51
the first time a national motocross
race was held on Hoosier soil
in over 40 years. Unfortunately
heavy morning rain made that soil
a sloppy mess. That would make
the always-important holeshot
even more vital. It was Roczen on
the gas, skating his KTM across
the slick mud sideways, but stay-
ing on the throttle and beating the
rest of the 40-rider field into the
first turn.
"I almost wadded in the first
turn," Roczen later admitted.
"The thing went completely side-
ways on me and luckily I was
able to keep it on two wheels."
Trey Canard ran second in the
early laps followed by Mitchell
Oldenburg, Brett Metcalfe and
Ryan Sipes. Dungey recovered
from an off-track excursion on
the start and rallied to pass Ca-
nard and into second three laps
in, but he was unable to make
any inroads on Roczen's lead.
At the end of the moto Roczen
earned a 47.657 margin of vic-
tory. He lapped all the way up to
10th place.
The attrition rate, as you might
expect in these conditions, was
high. Justin Brayton was the first
of the notable riders to pull out.
While Brayton was able to ride
the bike into the pits he never
made the gate for the second
moto. Jake Weimer was another
of the big names to exit early. He
pulled off the track and his bike
toppled over with steam rising up
from the engine. Numerous rid-
ers were stuck in the mud; many
pitted for fresh goggles and
gloves and or had mechanical is-
sues with their bikes. The track
was brutal on both man and ma-
chine.
Eli Tomac, who was amazing
in timed qualifying, was another
Briefly...
snow jumps and go ride on the ice.
I'm not as gnarly as those guys back
in the day."
RCH Racing's Weston Peick admit-
ted to making an error in judgment
when he didn't go out for the first
450 class timed practice session.
The track got even worse in the
second session and he didn't get
a time good enough to put him in
the national. Fortunately Peick, the
seventh-ranked rider in the cham-
pionship, had a provisional start to
use and was able to use that to make
the national. "I made a risky move,"
Peick admitted. "The weather was
showing it was going to clear up so
I figure maybe the second practice
was going to be faster. I skipped it
because I rode press day on Thurs-
day. And then it just started bombing
down rain even harder. I went out in
the second session just to get used
to it, but I already knew I had a pro-
visional for being top 10 in points. I
figured with only one race left I might
as well use it now." Peick had the last
gate pick, but was able to score an
11-7 for 11th overall.
Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton
was on hand for the inaugural Thor
Indiana National. Barton presented
the Shaver family with the keys to
the city. "We recognize all their hard
work and commitment that made this
event possible," Barton said of the
Shaver family who owns the prop-
erty where the new track is built.
"We know this event is going to be
a boost to our local economy. We've
not measured it yet, but we're al-
ready hearing very positive things in
the community." The Mayor went on
to say that even though he'd attend-
ed the GNCC race in Crawfordsville,
Marvin Musquin (25) just got
better and better as the day
went on. He ended up winning
the 250 overall for the second
time this year.
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