Kit Palmer | January 8, 2017
2017 Anaheim I Supercross 450 Results: Ken Roczen dominated the opening round of the 2017 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series with an impressive near wire-to-wire victory at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, January 7. Roczen was edged for the holeshot by Marvin Musquin but that would be his only flaw all race long.
2017 Anaheim I Supercross 450 Results
Ken Roczen ran away from the field at Anaheim I. Photography by Kit Palmer
Roczen, in his first supercross on his new Honda HRC Team, quickly took care of Musquin and simply ran away from the 20-rider field in the 20-minute plus one lap main event. Roczen’s lead pretty much grew with every lap, and he took the checkered flag 16.2 seconds ahead of the defending champ, Ryan Dungey.
“It’s like I’ve been saying [all week], I’m just bringing that much more focus [into the season] and I’m super fit,” said Roczen. “I had a lot of fun out there. The track got rough, and since they tamed it down it helped out a lot once it got rough. We’ve got to keep our head on our shoulders, bottom line.”
Dungey had to work for his second place. He didn’t get a very good start but made some quick passes to get into fourth by the end of the first lap. He fought hard to get around his Red Bull KTM teammate Marvin Musquin, then battled his way past Eli Tomac (Monster Energy Kawasaki) for second. Once he did that, however, Roczen was already long gone.
“[Ken] rode great,” Dungey said. “From where I was at [coming off an injury] to have the first big race, this gets my feet back in the game. All we’ve done is testing and we’ve been waiting to get into a race. This was a true challenge. There was a good distance between first and second and that’s a challenge. I’m looking forward to closing that.”
Ryan Dungey had to work hard for his second place. Photography by Kit Palmer
Musquin eventually got around Tomac for third, as did last year’s winner Jason Anderson for fourth. Tomac slipped back to fifth at the end, saying afterward that he suffered a bout of arm pump.
Roczen’s teammate Cole Seely was sixth, followed by Davi Millsaps, who was riding banged up from a pre-season crash (plus he was dealing with a cold/flu).
Weston Peick, Josh Grant and Cooper Webb, who was making his 450SX-class debut, rounded out the top 10 overall.
Absent from the main event was Red Bull KTM’s Trey Canard. Canard fell earlier in the day in practice, injuring his shoulder. He went down again in his semi and then chose to give the shoulder a rest and did not start the main event.
Mike Alessi suffered a big crash in the main and was slow to his feet. A source close to the team said that Alessi took hit to his head in the fall but should be okay; he was up and about following the race. They are hopeful he’ll be good to go next week in San Diego.
Chad Reed failed to finish the race as well. While battling with Peick, the two riders came together, sheering off his bike’s waterpump cover, resulting in the bike running out of coolant.
2017 Anaheim I Supercross 450 Results
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