| August 27, 2016
The 2016 Lucas Oil/AMA 450MX Pro Motocross Championship hasn’t truly been in question since, at the latest, round three, which was the last round in which defending champ Ryan Dungey competed. However, one thing Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s Suzuki’s Ken Roczen doesn’t like to do is lose. If he’s lining up, he’s lining up to win, and that’s what happened at the series finale in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
In moto one, Ken Roczen did as he usually does, snatching the early lead and simply checking out. He fought it out for the first few turns with AutoTrader.com/Monster Energy/JGR Yamaha teammates Justin Barcia and Phil Nicoletti, then off he went. Barcia settled into second in front of Nicoletti, BTOSports.com KTM’s Benny Bloss, Red Bull KTM’s Marvin Musquin, Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac, Barcia’s teammate Weston Peick, Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson, Red Bull KTM’s Dean Wilson, Yoshimura Suzuki fill-in rider Matt Bisceglia, and Bloss’s teammate Andrew Short, in his last-ever MX National.
For Ken Roczen, it was just another dominant day in the office. He ended the 2016 season with 20 out of 24 moto wins. Photography by Rob Koy
Eli Tomac’s forward progress was hurt by a crash, but he still managed to find his way by Musquin for third around the halfway point. By that point, Ken Roczen and Justin Barcia were way too far gone. Roczen won – his 19th moto win of the year – over Barcia, Tomac, Musquin, Anderson, Nicoletti, Bloss, Peick, Freddy Noren, and Wilson.
Andrew Short’s day began to go bad on the line for the final moto, as his team scrambled to fix/change his KTM-prototype rear air-shock. It caused Andrew Short to miss the sighting lap, but his bike was up and running long enough for Short to snatch the holeshot in the second moto before dropping out a lap later as his shock continued to sag.
Justin Barcia took over the lead right away, with Ken Roczen right on his tail, and Roczen didn’t take long to dispatch of Barcia and work his way into the lead. As Ken Roczen pulled away, Musquin moved into third, followed by Anderson, who was soon joined in fifth place by Tomac. Tomac worked his way around Anderson, then quickly dispatched of Musquin.
At this point, the top three seemed to be decided, until Justin Barcia hit the ground about 25 minutes into the moto. He got up with a couple seconds to spare before Eli Tomac came by, but he had about 10 minutes of fighting off Tomac at the end of the moto. And he managed to do it.
Ken Roczen led the final moto of the season by 28 seconds as he took the two-lap board, then backed it down to win by 19 seconds over Barcia and Tomac. Musquin came home fourth about a minute behind Roczen. Then came Anderson, Bisceglia, Peick, Nicoletti, Noren and KTM Canada’s Kaven Benoit.
Ken Roczen ended the 2016 season with 20 moto wins out of 24, giving him a more dominant season than any racer in history outside of Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart.
The finishing order in both motos was identical among the top five, and that’s how they finished overall, as well. Ken Roczen winning over Barcia, Tomac, Musquin and Anderson.
Steve Cox
