Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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SUPERCROSS ROUND 4 / JANUARY 30, 2016 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA / O.CO COLISEUM P54 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES My Own Race: 1 RYAN DUNGEY 1ST 450SX Red Bull KTM's Ryan Dungey now has a near-perfect 97 points out of a possible 100 so far in the 2016 supercross sea- son. "The track was tough, but I was able to get out front and just hit my lines and my marks and try to limit the mistakes. I had a couple swaps here and there, but everything felt good. I think getting the heat- race win and having the fastest heat race, which gave me the first gate pick, was really critical tonight. Being able to choose whatever gate you want was nice. I was able to shut off a little bit early going into the turn when everyone else swept wide, and that got me into the lead right away. From there, like I said, it was just about hitting my marks." 94 KEN ROCZEN 2ND 450SX RCH Suzuki's Ken Roczen considers his racing series, including the Oakland Super- cross, to be a work in progress. He started third in Oakland and worked his way around former teammate Marvin Musquin for second, but he lost contact with leader Ryan Dungey as soon as he started searching for lines to try and make up time on the defending champ. "We're making steps in the right direction. I've done a crap-ton of starts, and we've switched to a different clutch that seems to work a lot bet- ter for me on the starts. Obviously, I didn't get a holeshot, but I was somewhat up front, and it felt really good not to get blasted the whole time." 25 MARVIN MUSQUIN 3RD 450SX Red Bull KTM's Marvin Mus- quin had a breakthrough night in Oakland, starting just behind his teammate Ryan Dungey and only getting passed by Ken Roczen on his way to third place in the main event – his first ever 450cc podium finish. "I was looking back a little bit to see where the other guys were, and then I just stayed in my lines for the whole race. I didn't really try anything else. Maybe with more confidence and more experience, I would move around on the track a bit more and try some different things while I'm racing. I was a little bit scared to try things because I wanted to stay in my routine to hang on for third. It feels great, though. I race for myself, but I race for my team who puts in so much work, and for my brother and my family. They follow me and support me 100 percent, and it's great. 14 COLE SEELY 6TH 450SX Honda's Cole Seely started out fifth, then worked his way by James Stewart for fourth before coming under fire from Jason An- derson and Chad Reed late in the main event. "I was just fighting a lot of things tonight, with the track and some other things. I went as fast as I could as long as I could, but those guys were applying pressure, and I was trying not to let it get to me, but once Anderson threw a wheel in on me, I didn't have anything after that. I had to kind of lay down and take it. It sucked. But we're going to go back and study the foot- age and see what we can make of it." 12 JAKE WEIMER 8TH 450SX In his inaugural ride for the RCH Suzuki team, Jake Weimer found himself in a battle for the entire 20-lap main event on his way to eighth place. First, he was stuck behind Mike Alessi and lost a few spots while trying to find a way around, but soon after he started picking guys off. "It was a racetrack where I think in the fast line you left the door open in quite a few spots, so if there was someone on you, you had to ride a bit protective. So, the last seven laps or whatever was just tough. It was a fight for sure." During those last laps, Weimer was the meat in a BTOSports/ KTM sandwich between Justin Brayton and Davi Mill- saps. Weimer passed Brayton, but Millsaps followed him through and then passed Weimer a couple of times, only for Weimer to dive back under him and take the spot back. The battle carried until the white flag, when Millsaps landed on the Tuff Blocks before the finish line and went down. 37 JOEY SAVATGY 1ST 250SX Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Ka- wasaki's Joey Savatgy has been fast all year, but no one seemed able to stop Cooper Webb. How- ever, Savatgy pressured Webb despite a bent shifter and was able to take advantage when Webb's bike sputtered to a stop with only a few laps remaining in the Oakland 250cc main event, handing the lead and the win to Savatgy. "At the gate drop I put myself in a good position and after a few laps I was in second. I settled in and tried to make sure I could stay with the leader. I ended up making the pass for the lead with a few laps to go and had a bit of a moment where I landed on a Tuff Block, which bent my shifter all the way out to my foot peg. That made it very difficult to shift and forced me to concentrate for the rest of the race. I earned my first supercross win, and the points lead, so emotions are really high right now. Time to go back to the farm and keep working as hard as we have been."