AMA Supercross: Rd8 Atlanta

Dungey wins round eight to edge closer to Villopoto

Red Bull/KTM Factory rider Ryan Dungey secured his second win of the season at the eighth round of the AMA Supercross Series in front of the sold out crowd of 70,000 fans at the Georgia Dome. It was KTM’s second win in this highly competitive class.

Earlier Dungey’s SX Lites teammate Kenny Roczen made the best if the worst to charge from the back of the pack to finish sixth and secure more championship points in his second outing of the season after pre- West Coast Lites season injury.

Dungey now moves to second place in the points, 10 behind leader and rival Ryan Villopoto with the top three in the championship standings again taking control of the podium.

Dungey looked confident all day. He qualified third fastest in the afternoon practice and recovered well from a third lap incident in his heat to finish second. He again had a good start in the main event and was second at the first corner behind Cole Seely. He made his move in the eighth lap then when he hit the front settled down to ride a smooth race to work towards his second win. With two laps to go, Dungey did encounter traffic problems with a back marker and this set up a great two-way battle with rival Villopoto for the top podium spot. Then on the final lap Dungey proved he is definitely in the championship hunt when he put another half second on Villopoto took his second victory of the season.

“This was such a great way to end the week,” confirmed a delighted Dungey. “After seven weeks I finally got to return to the east coast and train at home. I came into this race feeling confident and refreshed and it all paid off today. My team did an amazing job on my KTM and we had no issues today, just a really great race.”

“I just made a little mistake, and early on in the race I fell over and that cost me, huge,” said Villopoto. “The track was tough tonight, you could really see that and I just slipped up and washed the front end out. Overall, we had a good night. It just wasn’t the best of weeks coming into this race, so to come out with a second is good.”

Track View: The Atlanta Supercross Stadium is impressive looking

Lites

In the Supercross Lites Class Main Event, Barcia was the first rider out of the gate; Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammates Blake Baggett and Darryn Durham followed him out of the first corner. After posting the fastest practice lap of the day, Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen crossed the line at the end of the opening lap in 14th place, following a tough start.

Barcia set a torrid pace to start the 15-lap main event, pulling away to a multiple-second advantage over the field. Behind him, a heated battled for the podium took place between Baggett, Rockstar Energy Racing Suzuki’s Blake Wharton and GEICO Honda’s Justin Bogle.

Baggett asserted himself in second and after battling for several laps, Bogle worked his way past Wharton on Lap 9. Barcia completed his perfect effort by taking the checkered flag 2.253 seconds ahead of Baggett. Bogle held on for his first career podium finish in third, to go along with his first career heat race victory earlier in the evening.

The night out in Atlanta was less satisfying for Red Bull KTM’s young German rider Kenny Roczen.  It was in the main event of the Lites where he would have the most work to do when he suffered a clutch problem after the gate was held for an extended period of time.Once untangled, from the gate Roczen shot down the start straight to round the first corner in dead last. He then charged past half the field to be in tenth at the halfway mark and worked hard in the next four laps to pick of other riders. Roczen was unable to close the eight-second gap to the leading five but still finished in the points and is currently lying fourth in the standings.

Bam Bam: Barcia made it two wins in a row in Atlanta

“Two for two is not a bad way to start,” said Barcia. “I wanted a good start, I got the holeshot, and just rode hard from there. The track was super tough tonight. It was very slick and there were a lot of places where the bike was sliding around. I was trying not to make any mistakes. Fortunately, everything went really smooth and we got the win.”

“I am really upset that I got stuck in the gate,” said a disappointed Roczen. “It was hard coming through the pack in the first few laps because a lot of the slower riders don’t jump all of the jumps and I had to work harder to get around them.  I was able to come up to sixth and almost got into the top five. I was happy with my line choices and glad to finish safely. I am looking forward to St. Louis and hopefully getting my first win of the season there.”

Overall Results SX Round 8 Atlanta