VOL. 53 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 23, 2016 P55
corner despite a poor jump
out of the gate. Short immedi-
ately passed Bisceglia for the
lead, and Roczen followed him
through before zapping Short in
the off-camber corner at the top
of the old finish-line hill to take
the lead.
That was that.
Tomac started poorly again,
finishing the opening lap just
outside the top five, and he
quickly worked his way by
Bisceglia, Nicoletti, Barcia and
Short to move into second place
by lap four. At that point, incred-
ibly, Roczen was already over 15
seconds ahead.
Roczen cruised to the win
over Tomac by over 20 seconds
to take the moto win, overall
win, and clinch his second-ever
450cc National Championship—
and the first for the young RCH
race team.
His key to success?
"Just a solid program and
something that I'm happy with,"
Roczen said.
Sounds simple, doesn't it?
Barcia managed to hold
off Musquin in the late going
to snatch third in the moto,
and second overall, in front of
Musquin, whose 2-4 gave him
third overall on the day. Behind
them—23 seconds later—came
Wilson, then Nicoletti, Noren,
Peick, Short, Bloss, and Ro-
driguez, while Bisceglia in 12th
crossed the line as the first rider
one lap down to Roczen.
Tomac officially rounded lap
one in 39th place, and by lap
four he had already found his
way up to 20th. In the second
half of the race, Tomac passed
all the way up by Factory Honda
fill-in racer Freddy Noren for
seventh place, then got Short for
sixth, and that ensured that the
title wouldn't be decided for at
least one more moto.
Roczen took an easy moto-
one win over Musquin, who
battled it out late with Barcia for
the spot. Barcia ended up third
in front of his teammate Nicoletti,
then Wilson, Tomac, Short, No-
ren, Yoshimura Suzuki fill-in Matt
Bisceglia, Traders Kawasaki's
Anthony Rodriguez, and Short's
teammate Benny Bloss, the last
guy on the lead lap.
"I ripped the holeshot," Roc-
zen said. "I hammered the first
few laps and was able to get a
good gap right away. It's hot out
here, and the track's rough, and
it's for the title, so we definitely
want to ride smart. I'm just going
to rest up for the second moto
and hope for another good one."
In moto two, all Roczen
needed was 19th place or better
to clinch the title. It was all going
smooth until his goggle strap
broke on the starting line after
the 30-second board had gone
up, and then Roczen had to
scramble for a new pair. It may
have hurt his start, but not as
much as you might think.
Bisceglia got the holeshot
over Short, and Roczen slotted
his way into third by the second
Yamaha's Justin Barcia, Red Bull
KTM's Dean Wilson, Barcia's
teammate Phil Nicoletti, privateer
Dakota Tedder, Wilson's team-
mate Marvin Musquin, and then
Tomac. But on lap one, Tomac
got together with privateer Su-
zuki pilot Ronnie Stewart, and
after Tomac helped Stewart get
out from under his RM-Z450, he
returned to his own machine and
went to work.
