THE AFTERMATH: ANAHEIM II

The last and final round in Anaheim. Till next year…

Musquin and his lite up Leatt neck brace in opening ceremonies.

 We didn’t see much of Jason Anderson in Anaheim because he got DQ’ed after his run in with Vince Friese (Friese is always considered guilty, even when he isn’t because of his past record for dirty riding). Check out what happened between the two by clicking HERE. 

Ryan Dungey pleasing the crowd during opening ceremonies.

 Aaron Plessinger means business. In the first heat he pinched off Shane Mcelrath in the first corner and went on to win.

 Shane rode with more caution in A2. He did what he needed to do and got his KTM/Troy Lee Designs 250SXF on the podium. 

Aaron Plessinger rode to a solid 2nd place in the main event.

 Austin Forkner rode great in his heat race capturing his first heat race win of the season. Martin Davalos chased Austin to the finish. 

Dan Reardon has been getting faster each week. If he can get some better starts, he may be able to run with the front of the pack.

Austin looks behind him on the last lap of his heat race to check if anyone is there. 

Malcolm Stewart was the first to run Vince Friese high in a corner. The next corner after this Friese knocked down Musquin and Anderson in their heat race.

The aftermath of Friese running it in on Anderson and Musquin.

Chad Reed really needs to work on his starts. In the past, when he gets up front he can run the pace. Reedy started 9th in the main and finished 7th.

Ken Roczen won his heat race with a commanding lead over Malcolm Stewart.

Blake Baggett looked good in his heat race finishing 2nd behind his teammate, Davi Millsaps. 

Davi looked like his old self in his heat race. He commanded the race to an easy win.
 Josh Grant and Justin Brayton battled hard in their heat.

The start of the 250 main event.
 Christophe Pourcel is still in recovery mode from being sick.

In Dungey’s heat race, something went wrong with his throttle and he had to pull off. In his semi, he started on the very outside gate. He got off to a bad start, but worked his way up to third behind Marvin Musquin and Broc Tickle.

 Josh Grant got off to a good start in 4th. A few guys got around him ending up in 6th. Not a bad night for Grant. 

Vince Friese is always causing trouble, but he brings it on himself. 

The race to the first corner.

 Jeremy Martin got tangled up in the first turn with Phil Nicoletti.  

Eyes ahead.

 Noah McConahy made it into the main event. He finished 13th.

 Aaron Plessinger rode consistent laps to 2nd place in the main. 

Shane Mcelrath cool and consistent. 

In 450 main event, Marvin kept an eye on his teammate Dungey. He closed up the gap later in the race. Marvin wants to win.

 Shane watching the 250 West  front runners.

 Justin Hill has found his stride. He was the fastest 250 rider all day.

 All smiles for Hill.

A set a graphics after 15 minutes on Plessinger’s YZ250F.
The 450 main event start. Dungey and Grant were the quickest off the gate. 

More bad luck for Pourcel. He got hit on the start of the main.

Marvin started 5th and charged through the pack — here getting by Cooper Webb (2).

 Tomac and Reed had a good battle in the main.

Musquin’s has style for days.

After a day of problems, Ryan overcame adversity and came home with the main event win. He led from start to finish. 

Jake Weimer needs to find a way to get better starts. 

Tommy Hahn finished 17th on the night.

 This was the first race that Ken Roczen got off to a bad start. He started in 7th and worked up to 3rd by lap five. His teammate Cole Seely wasn’t making it easy for Roczen. Roczen started switching up his lines. In a rhythm section, is looked as if Roczen hit a small kicker which bottomed out his rear shock. It pogoed up, sling-shotting him off the bike. Roczen is known for setting up his shock with minimal rebound. The same thing happened to him at Monster Cup. Kenny ended up with a dislocated wrist, dislocated elbow and compounded radius bone in his wrist. Click HERE to watch the crash. 

Yamaha was all smiles after Cooper made his way to a 4th place finish. Cooper has had a tough few races, but looks as if he has found his groove.

 Nick Schmidt pulls his goggles off in the main. 

Dungey gets his first win of the season. It might be a boring season now that Roczen is out.

Marvin and Ryan talk on the podium after the race. 

The 2016 champ, Ryan Dungey. Eyes ahead.