MOTOCROSS
LUCAS OIL AMA PRO MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 5 / JUNE 25, 2016
BLOUNTVILLE, TENNESSEE / MUDDY CREEK RACEWAY
P66
450MX
CLOSING IN
The length of any championship
often has an effect on the racing
you see out on the track. It's
often the case that one racer is
dominant early in a champion-
ship while other racers make up
the ground as the champion-
ship goes on. Sometimes, this
occurs when the dominant racer
starts sort of "racing down" to
the level of his competition,
such as with Chad Reed's 2008
AMA Supercross Championship
season, when he won round 1
in front of expected rival James
Stewart and finished second at
round 2 behind Stewart. The two
were more or less untouchable
during the first couple of rounds,
and then Stewart dropped out
at round three. Over the course
of the rest of the series, Kevin
Windham ended up stepping
up to challenge Reed, winning
four races and ending up only 13
points behind Reed at the end of
the title chase.
But sometimes the dominance
wanes as a championship wears
on simply because the other rac-
ers start to figure some things
out. That's what seems to be
happening right now in the 2016
Lucas Oil AMA 450cc Pro Moto-
cross Championship.
The temperatures reached
into the 90s by the time the
gate dropped for 450MX moto
one, which some believe is in
Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli
Tomac's favor. Factory Honda's
Cole Seely snatched the hole-
shot. He was quickly passed
for the lead by Autotrader.com/
JGR/Monster Energy Yamaha's
Phil Nicoletti, who quickly re-
lented and handed the lead back
to Seely.
Roczen rounded the first
turn outside of the top 10, but
managed to complete the lap
in fifth place. Tomac actually
started just in front of Roczen,
but rounded lap one in seventh,
with Nicoletti's teammate Weston
Peick sandwiched between
them.
Roczen worked his way first
by Peick and Nicoletti's team-
mate Justin Barcia for fourth,
Ken Roczen
(94) won both
motos but Eli
Tomac (3) kept
it close.
