VOL. 53 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 25, 2016 P29
team accompanied his team-
mate Cole Seely to Japan this
weekend, and Roczen was
booked to go ride with journal-
ists at the official launch of the
all-new 2017 Honda CRF450R in
Alabama during the week prior
to the event.
That being said, both Red
Bull-backed KTM teams—the
TLD/Red Bull KTM 250cc team
and the official Red Bull KTM
450cc factory team—were on
hand, and almost completely
dominant.
In the Lites event, the TLD
team (Mitchell Oldenberg, Jor-
don Smith and Shane McElrath)
qualified first to third, and Smith
had the unpopular job of taking
down legendary Ronnie Mac
in the first round before Smith
ended up losing to teammate
McElrath in the semifinals. Smith
went on to defeat Josh Hill (on
the electric Alta Motors machine)
in the third-place race.
Oldenberg raced his way by
Hill in the semifinals to face off
against McElrath in the final,
where third-place-qualifier McEl-
rath managed to take Oldenberg
down for the win.
"Last year I was second, and
I wasn't happy with it," McElrath
said. "This is much better. It's
such a cool event, and it's a lot
of fun. It's just like mad skills,
because all you have to worry
about is keeping speed, not
hanging up a wheel on a land-
ing, or anything like that, and if
you can do that for 40 seconds,
you win!"
In the 450cc class, the Red
Bull KTM team of Marvin Mus-
quin, Ryan Dungey and Trey
Canard qualified first, second
and fourth, respectively, with
immensely talented, part-time
racer Josh Hansen qualifying
third. In the semifinals, Hansen
shocked the Pomona Fair-
grounds by taking down Dungey
in their first of three runs.
"He was able to carry so
much speed during that last 100
yards," Dungey said. "After I lost,
I was like, 'Man, I'm in a predica-
ment now!'"
Dungey managed to barely
hold off Hansen in the next two
runs to move into the final, send-
ing Hansen to the third-place
race.
On the other side of the
bracket, fast-qualifier Musquin
made quick work of new team-
mate Canard in the Semis,
sending Canard to face Hansen
for third. Hansen completed his
inevitable upset by defeating
Canard for third place.
"It's been a while since I've
been riding," Hansen said. "I
mean, events like this are a lot of
fun, and it's nice to know I'm still
competitive. I haven't been do-
ing a lot of racing the last couple
of years, so this was a good test
to see how my speed is. I still go
pretty good, I guess."
And then Musquin and Dung-
ey squared off.
Although Dungey stayed
close, he was no match for Mus-
quin in the finals. Musquin is the
2016 Red Bull Straight Rhythm
champ.
"I'm just having so much fun
on the bike right now," Musquin
said. "I knew I was fast today,
but you can't underestimate Trey
or Ryan. I hope to do more of
this in January! There are going
to be a lot of guys who all want
to win, though."
Steve Cox
TLD/KTM teammates
went at it for the 250 Lites
Championship. Shane
McElrath edged out Mitchell
Oldenberg for the win.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
STEVE
COX
