We hear from the stars of the show.
Ryan Dungey (1st 450SX): “It was definitely a good night of racing. With Marvin getting the holeshot, I was able to make some passes, get into second and start chasing him down. Gosh, for nineteen laps we really put on a hard charge. Marvin was riding really good, though. I was doing everything I could to try to get to the inside of him, to make a pass or what the case was. He made a little bobble there on the last lap, we were able to get by and it was a close call. I definitely don’t like to get that close with racing. Overall, to get the win was definitely awesome. And to go 1-2 for KTM! My heart goes out to Marvin. He had a hell of a ride and he had great commitment out on the track riding today. I’m definitely excited to get a victory, but Marvin is the real winner tonight.”
Marvin Musquin (2nd 450SX): “So last lap. I got close to James Stewart. He was a lap down. On the straightaway by the mechanics area, he actually looked back, so he saw me. I revved my bike to tell him, “I’m here, please let me by. Let me do my last lap clean.” I was behind him in the whoops. Obviously he was in the main line, and he turned really tight inside to let me by, and I was missing a little bit of speed going to the triple and I still went for it. Cased the triple so I slowed down a lot, and then I heard him coming because he was still riding and doing his race behind me. I kind of got scared to get landed on by him. I changed lines and I got so out of control, because I got scared. I was scared of getting landed on by him. Feet off the pegs, hit my chest going through the dragon back with no feet on the pegs. I was like, “There we go, I’m down. I’m crashing.” I saved it, went off the track, and I knew Chad [Reed] was behind but not that close. So, let’s get safe, back on the track, and get second. But you know what, tonight for me second is not good, because I feel like I had it, but when I look back, second is my best result. To be leading 19 laps in front of Ryan it was great.”
Chad Reed (3rd 450SX): “It’s been way too long [not on podium] to be honest. I’m better than the last four or five weekends, that’s for damn sure. It’s so funny, you know. You’ve been doing it a long time and last week I made some phone calls and I was like, “man maybe this is my time.” Twelfth is not fun for me. I don’t work that hard, have a good team and good people around me to be a twelfth place guy. A lot of soul searching this week. We made some changes, but mainly just me. Poor performances on my behalf and sometimes you just have to go home and look at the mirror…And that hurts. We made some improvements to the bike, but sometimes it’s all up to the monkey turning the throttle.”
Justin Brayton (5th 450SX): “The whole night overall was good. The heat race win was cool, the holeshot in the main and really the biggest disappointment was my first three laps [in the main] I made a lot of mistakes and went to fifth. I just kind of stayed there. Overall, the top five tonight is definitely something be proud of and build on. It’s a big step towards where I was last year. I’m just happy about it, love riding the KTM and things are clicking. I’m looking forward to keep working hard and getting on the podium. That’s the goal.”
Jason Anderson (7th 450SX): “Atlanta was decent for me. My heat race was mediocre, but my start in the main was pretty sweet. I ended up getting tangled up with a rider, but made my way back up to seventh where I finished. I think that one crash cost me, but overall I think I’m sitting pretty good.”
Justin Bogle (8th 450SX): “Much better. Not the greatest start, just proud of myself for hitting all the jumps first lap. A few rounds this year I’ve actually rolled the whole first rhythm section and then doubled the triple. I made some moves there and got in the zone. I had a solid fifteen laps in me. The last five laps it kind of caught up with me, but I’m okay with that right now because I haven’t really raced a 20 lapper yet. The other races I kind of definitely just mailed it in there at the end, suffering through. So I’m happy with that. I would have liked to have stayed up closer to that top five area. But a single digit finish, making progress and that’s really all I can ask for right now.”
Christophe Pourcel (9th 450SX): “As long as I’m battling in the top 10 and improving every weekend I’m happy. I still want to work on my starts, but it feels good to battle with everyone and stay strong the whole moto. I feel good on the bike. I got the fastest qualifying time, which is good. It’s a long championship, and now it’s time to push.”
Cole Seely (10th 450SX): “After almost winning that heat race, I felt really confident for the main event. I didn’t get the best start but I was picking off people and thought I had a chance to get up toward the front until I went down. From there I just wanted to get by as many people as possible.”
Eli Tomac (11th 450SX): “I was in a decent position at the start of the Main Event but came together with another rider in the opening laps. I felt like I fought back pretty well for 10-laps, but reached a point where everyone was too far apart for me to make up enough ground. We’re still making improvements and we’ll continue to take it race by race.”
James Stewart (14th 450SX): “I’m just happy to be back and playing in the dirt. Today we worked on testing new pieces on the bike. We haven’t had a lot of testing time, so we came here and we were making a lot of changes. We made the bike a lot better for the heat race, but unfortunately I went down on the next-to-last lap. I went to the semi and was running third, all good, then I jumped in that dragon’s back and jammed my knee pretty good. After that it was kind of survival mode. Even though in the Main Event it was kind of survival mode, I refused to pull off. I’m happy we got through the weekend. It’s the first supercross race I’ve finished since April of 2014. I got 20 laps in and we’ll build off that. We’ve got some work to do, but you’ve got to start somewhere. We found some things that worked well on the bike here and I think that’s going to make us better in the next few races. 14th is not the finish I wanted, but it’s better than a DNF. We’ll get there.”
Malcolm Stewart (2nd 250SX): “I felt good in the main event all the way around. I just had a bonehead move. I clearly did not see him [downed rider Shane McElrath] at all. As soon as he picked his bike up I was already committed. It is what it is. I felt like I came back pretty strong actually once I got back going. That’s just racing. But last year my first race I got 22nd. This year I got 2nd. Of course obviously I’m going to be mad and upset—I didn’t feel like I just gave the race away, but at the same time I felt that it was my race to win and I let it go under me. But overall I’m happy for not being worse than what it was. First place loser, you will take it. It is what it is for a long season.”
Aaron Plessinger (3rd 250SX): “I didn’t get off to a great start, but I worked my way through. The bike was working great, and I can’t thank the team enough. I just fought, picked off people and ended up in third place. I’m stoked with it and hopefully move onto Daytona and fight for that red plate.”
Justin Hill (5th 250SX): “I had to work hard for that one. I was able to get some good points after a bad start so we’ll take it. I know our KTMs are very capable of being up front on the start so I’m looking forward to getting up front and trying to get a win.”
RJ Hampshire (6th 250SX): “I tried riding Thursday and it was hurting me bad, so I just did starts. Just kind of survival all day until the main event. I put fifteen laps in, so that was the goal. We showed decent speed but definitely not what we trained for and stuff. We want to win and that’s what we’re here for. We’ll get there, though. I’m not too bummed on the night considering everything going on. I see it all being pretty fast healing. Then we’ll be ready for next weekend, that’s all that matters. We’ll do what it takes this week and be ready.”
Darryn Durham (7th 250SX): “It was a lot of fun. I’ve been busy over the last couple of months putting my own team together. I actually haven’t gotten to ride very much. I didn’t get to practice starts or anything and I got good starts all day. (laughs) I rode pretty good, I feel like I have a lot of room for improvement and I’m looking forward to building off of this one. So it’s cool.”
Tyler Bowers (8th 250SX): “I didn’t quite feel comfortable all day. The team and I found a suspension setting before the Main Event that I liked. Overall, it’s good considering we’re coming back from surgery and a year away from competition.”
Alexander Frye (9th 250SX): “It’s amazing. The team and I work hard during the week. They give me the best equipment out there. Billy Laninovich and Tyler Rattray—who are my trainers—help make this possible. I also can’t thank the lord above enough. He allowed me to go out there and to show my talents and show everyone we’ve been working hard. I’m really happy with tonight. I just want to take it and keep moving forward. I’m just trying to go out there and get a little better each time.”
Arnaud Tonus (19th 250SX): “The heat didn’t go how I wanted but I took the win in the Last Chance Qualifier. In the main I climbed up to 10th but made a mistake and finished 19th. It felt really good to get back into competition and begin working towards our goal.”
