Motocross Performance Magazine Canadian Motocross news leader
Words and Photos by Krystyn Slack (@freestylephotocross)
With the stunning Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains as the backdrop, and an elevation of 4,657 feet, the 45,000+ seat Rice-Eccles Stadium was the perfect stage for Round 15 of Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship. The altitude was extremely high, and so were the attendance numbers – with a near sellout crowd in attendance, for what would become one of the most historic races in the 44 season history of Supercross. A championship was on the line in the 250SX class and the 450SX class was adorned with not one but two red plates, and a tie for the points lead between Eli Tomac and defending champion, Ryan Dungey.
The 250SX class saw the return of Tyler Bowers who had been recovering from a broken femur he sustained early on in the season, as well as Austin Forkner, who missed Seattle due to some lingering shoulder pain. With the West Coast championship winding down, every point counts. It’s been quite the battle this season with a multitude of career first wins and career best finishes for the riders in this class, with Justin Hill, Shane McElrath, and Aaron Plessinger in contention for the crown. Following his season first win in Seattle, Aaron was hungry for another win in Salt Lake City. Plessinger would be off to a great start to the evening taking a commanding victory in his Heat Race. When the gate dropped on the Main Event, it would be the rookie, Austin Forkner, who claimed his third holeshot of the season. It wasn’t long, though, before the #23 of Aaron Plessinger found his stride and moved swiftly to the front of the pack. Aaron was racing hard against the other competitors and against the track and led the first 7 of the 20 lap Main Event before getting aggressively thrown over the bars while holding ‘er wide open through the whoops. The crash would end his evening and his quest for the 250SX Western Regional Championship. The remaining 13 laps would be led by the #38 of Shane McElrath who, at the beginning of the season, had yet to win a Monster Energy Supercross Main Event, but had grown into a title contender. Of course, in order for Shane to remain in title contention he would have to keep former teammate, Justin Hill, under the 180-point mark. Justin found himself 5th off the gate after scoring the first lap. As the time elapsed, it appeared as if we’d be headed to Vegas before crowning a Western Regional Champion. But in the last lap, Justin Hill found himself some Mario Kart star power and rocketed around Martin Davalos to snag a 3rd place finish. Sure enough, that 3rd place finish put Hill at exactly the magic number, crowning him the 250SX Western Regional Champion for 2017. One thing that has been indicative of the 250SX class this season is the camaraderie amongst the competitors. As Justin Hill was crowned champion, his fellow competitors and former teammates, Shane McElrath and Mitchell Oldenburg, immediately joined him in his celebration, all while Justin was congratulating Shane and Mitchell on their first and second place finishes respectively. It was also a big night for the #28 of Mitchell Oldenburg who followed up his first career podium of a 3rd place finish in Seattle with a career best finish in 2nd in Salt Lake City.
Camaraderie may be the name of the game in the 250SX class, but in the 450SX class, it’s rivalry that’s heating up between Eli Tomac and defending champion, Ryan Dungey. Coming into Round 15 in Salt Lake City, for the first time in Monster Energy Supercross history, two riders were tied for the points lead this late in the season. Both Dungey and Tomac’s bikes were adorned with the coveted red plates when the gate dropped in Salt Lake but it would only be one rider who would retain the red plates by the time the checkers flew. Contrary to previous years where Ryan has run away with the championship well before Vegas, this year has turned into his championship to lose thanks to the super human speeds of Eli Tomac. Of all the riders that have benefitted the most from the lengthened racing format this year, certainly Eli Tomac comes to mind. Once he claimed his first win in Glendale, it was evident that the missing piece of the Kawasaki puzzle had finally been solved for Tomac. The moment that clicked, everything in the season changed. Ryan Dungey went from being prematurely “handed” the championship after Ken Roczen’s season-ending crash in Round 3 in Anaheim – as fans assumed that there were no viable suitors to make a run at the number one plate – to being consistently challenged by a rider who, up until Arizona, was easily more of an underdog than a viable threat to his three-peat. Round 15 became make it or break it for both riders, as only one rider would leave with the points lead. The leveling of the playing field maybe took a little pressure off Dungey, but only momentarily at best. But the evening was off to a good start for Dungey who claimed victory in Heat Race 2, only barely taking the checkers ahead of second place finisher, Eli Tomac. Momentum would continue to build for Dungey in the Main Event where he would go on to lead the first two-thirds of the 20 minute + 1 lap Main Event, even building a sizeable gap on the #3 of Tomac, a safety net we have not seen Ryan run away with in many weeks. While Ryan and Eli were matching each other’s pace within less than half a second of each other throughout most of the track, astonishingly, Eli found himself more than 2 full seconds faster than Ryan in segment two, the whoops. The clock ticked down to zero and lap after lap, Eli was gaining on Ryan. Finally, in lap 19, Eli made the pass heard round the world as the nearly sold out Rice-Eccles Stadium erupted into a frenzy of shock and excitement. For Tomac fans, this is the moment they’ve been waiting for all season. But for Dungey fans, a moment of woe as the points lead slipped from his grasp. What was once a more than 20+ lead for Dungey turned into a 3-point deficit after the checkers in Salt Lake City. Eli would lead the final third of the race and claim his 9th victory of the season, with Ryan Dungey ultimately finishing more than 6 seconds behind Tomac, followed by Jason Anderson in third, who claimed his second podium in a row.
We return to the East Coast for Round 16 of racing after one of the most historic races in Monster Energy Supercross History. In a season where “anything can happen,” it has! Can Ryan Dungey answer with a win in MetLife Stadium? Will we see a tie going into the Finals for the first time in history? One champion crowned, two to go in a season where every lap matters. It’s almost time to #DropTheGate for the final time in the 2017 Monster Energy Supercross season.
