MXstore’s Own Moto Insider #14

Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship Round 12 - Miller Motorsports Park - Tooele, Utah:

450 mx

The biggest weekend of the year for the AMA motocross with the 450 mx championship coming down to the wire between Red Bull KTM FOX team mates Kenny Roczen and Ryan Dungey.

After last week’s strong performance in the mud Kenny had a bit of breathing space but the unpredictable nature of motocross meant the rookie still needed to back it up with another world class performance to seal the deal.

On the day Canard was a man on a mission taking the win in both moto’s with Dungey doing his best but only managing second overall. Eli Tomac rounded out the podium with another solid ride ahead of Roczen, who rode smart and consistent to take 4th overall, collecting enough points to secure the number 1 plate and the 2014 motocross championship. Congratulations Kenny!

Huge congrats to Aussie Brett Metcalfe on the Monster Energy Thor Kawasaki taking 4th in the championship after being a last minute substitute for the injured Villopoto.

Fellow Aussie Chad Reed rode a gritty series battling a few injuries for 11^th place overall. Chad will look forward to some much needed R&R over Christmas and no doubt come back strong in the 2015 Supercross series.

Some big rumours have been flying around regarding who will be riding what bike in 2015 but the biggest rumour we have heard is James Stewart possibly retiring from the sport. We will keep you posted as we learn more but Bubba’s crazy style will surely be missed if this is the case!

 

Ken Roczen #1 in AMA outdoors 2014

 

450MX Series Standings:

• 1. Ken Roczen 532pts KTM
• 2. Ryan Dungey 518pts KTM
• 3. Trey Canard 468pts Hon
• 4. Brett Metcalfe 334pts Kaw
• 5. Eli Tomac 319pts Hon
• 6. Andrew Short 302pts KTM
• 7. Weston Peick 290pts Suz
• 8. Josh Grant 259pts Yam
• 9. James Stewart Jr. 226pts Suz
• 10. Fredrik Noren 207pts Hon
• 11. Chad Reed 198pts Kaw

 

250 MX

It was all about the 2014 MX 250 champion this weekend with Jeremy Martin blitzing the field in a clean sweep finish for the last round of the MX season cementing his name as the dominating rider for the lites class.

The remainder of the podium read the same as the championship top 3 with Baggett 2nd and Cooper Webb in 3rd.

Justin Bogle and Musquin were looking dangerous rounding out the top 5 and notably Pourcel was way down in 39th for the day.

The big news in the lites for next year is Kawasaki’s Dean Wilson stepping up to the 450 alongside Ryan Dungey on the Red Bull KTM team!

 

Martin is the man in the lites class!

 

250MX Series Standings:

• 1. Jeremy Martin 500pts Yam
• 2. Blake Baggett 421pts Kaw
• 3. Cooper Webb 419pts Yam
• 4. Marvin Musquin 408pts KTM
• 5. Justin Bogle 368pts Hon
• 6. Christophe Pourcel 355pts Yam
• 7. Jason Anderson 276pts KTM
• 8. Cole Seely 260pts Hon
• 9. Jessy Nelson 252pts Hon
• 10. Dean Wilson 230pts Kaw

 

Monster Energy MX Nationals (Australia) Round 9 - Gladstone, QLD:

An emotional day in Gladstone for the motocross nationals being held on the 10 year anniversary weekend for the late Jono Porter, a former motocross, supercross and freestyle MX champion who tragically passed away in a racing accident a decade ago.

Many of Jono’s fellow riders and close friends made the trip to Gladdy for the event and to pay their respects to their comrade who left us too soon.

MX1:

The racing over the weekend didn’t disappoint with a bit of a shake up in the results as Kirk Gibbs took the win over CDR Yamaha’s Billy Mackenze and Kawi’s Adam Monea in 3^rd.

It didn’t all go to plan for Matt Moss who took 5th ahead of his brother Jake in 7th. A few more usual standouts struggled on the weekend with Bopping in 11th, Kade Mosig in 14th and Jay Marmont in 20th.

 

Jake Moss took the holeshot on the 450 but faded back to 7th

 

MX1 Series Standings:

• 1. Matt Moss 713pts
• 2. Kirk Gibbs 676pts
• 3. Billy Macke 632pts
• 4. Adam Monea 615pts
• 5. Jake Moss 528pts
• 6. Jacob Wrigh 525pts
• 7. Kade Mosig 500pts
• 8. Hayden Mellross 472pts
• 9. Sam Martin 436pts
• 10. Brock Winston 415pts

Red Bull X-Fighters Round 5 - Pretoria, South Africa:

Plenty of spills in the final round of Red Bull X-fighters in South Africa over the weekend, the culprit being the wind and high altitude making things particularly difficult for the 250 2 stroke machines.

The crash rate was high and the level of riding definitely dropped down a notch for all of the riders. Not only were the bikes running low on power a poorly built course which was not prepped and watered adequately took the fun out of the event for the riders.

Championship leader from New Zealand Levi Sherwood came up short in qualifying on his KTM 300, bouncing down the landing after a double grab indy flip went wrong. A few rips in his Alpinestars gear and a serious limp didn’t stop Levi from heading out in the finals to throw some whips for the fans even though his championship quest was over.

Another rider to sadly put the bike down was Aussie Clinton Moore who under spun a 540 flair. We feel for Clinton as he has been riding like a champion recently and after qualifying 3^rd he was looking good for a podium finish… Next time Clint for sure!

Frenchman Tom Pages crashed out of the quarter finals also after slightly undercooking a flair superman. Tom would have usually ridden this one out but a very narrow landing for this particular obstacle saw Tom lose the front end of his bike off the side of the lander and become stuck upside down in a pile of dry dirt. Really unfortunate for Pages and very poor course design on all counts!

Fellow Aussie Rob Adelberg also took a dirt sample leading up to the event and could not compete being replaced by Frenchman David Rinaldo.

Lucky for Australia the soft spoken LKI rider from Donnybrook, WA was revved up on his 450 and battled the testing conditions all weekend throwing all of his usual show stoppers including the double backflip to take home the win. If winning his second Red Bull X-fighters round this year wasn’t enough, Sheeny also wrapped up the 2014 tour championship making him the first Aussie to do so!

With the insane level of riding these top guys are at, winning even a single round of this series is a massive feat. So taking the entire championship win is pretty special and a well deserved victor in Sheeny has headed home for media commitments before some much needed rest, congrats Sheeny!!

 

Sheeny the champ of FMX at the Red Bull X-fighters

 

X-Fighters Overall:

• 1. Josh Sheehan Aus
• 2. Dany Torres Esp
• 3. Adam Jones USA

 

X-Fighters Series Standings:

• 1. Josh Sheehan 360pts Aus
• 2. Levi Sherwood 270pts Nzl
• 3. Dany Torres 265pts Esp
• 4. Thomas Pages 235pts Fra
• 5. Taka Higashino 180pts Jpn
• 6. Remi Bizouard 165pts Fra
• 7. Adam Jones 140pts Usa
• 8. Rob Adelberg 120pts Aus
• 9. Clinton Moore 90pts Aus

10. Maikel Melero 85pts Esp