With another first-moto victory, James Stewart is solidifying his status as a third legitimate contender in the title race.
It hasn’t been the season Chad Reed was hoping for thus far, but perhaps his fortunes are shifting. Grabbing the MotoSport.com Holeshot, Reed became the eighth different rider to lead a lap in the 450 Class so far this season.
Reed was followed closely by Stewart, who applied the pressure before making the pass for the lead on Lap 2. Clearly not satisfied with his bike through the first two rounds, things are clicking for Stewart lately. He won his first moto of the season last weekend and followed that up with another opening moto victory at High Point after building his lead and comfortably leading the rest of the race.
Taking advantage of poor starts from both Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen, Trey Canard worked his way around Jake Weimer, Andrew Short and eventually Chad Reed before the midpoint of the race to move into second place. Dungey and Roczen would be factors before the race was over though.
At the start of the race, Dungey had to work his way up from about seventh, while Roczen was even further back outside the top-ten. The two made started moving through the pack, linking up with each other shortly after passing Short for fourth and fifth. Dungey caught up to Reed about 13 minutes into the race but struggled making a pass. That allowed Roczen to catch up to the two of them, and a great three-way battle ensued. Reed held off both riders as long as he could but gave up those two positions by the time the countdown clock reached ten minutes. Reed’s fifth-place finish ends up a season-best result though.
Within a few minutes, the Red Bull KTM duo had caught up to Trey Canard, triggering a tight three-way battle for second place. With less than a minute left on the clock, Dungey looked like he might have a line on Canard, but Canard shut the door and retained the position. Dungey kept pushing and ended up making a mistake once they got inside of three laps to go. Getting cross-rutted going off a jump, he came up short on the landing and went off the track. Dungey did well to save it, but not only was Canard out of his grasp – at least for now – but Roczen passed him. Already trailing his teammate by 12 points entering the day, giving up those two points to Roczen was the last thing Dungey wanted.
With two laps to go, Roczen and Dungey would move up to second and third, respectively, after Canard went down on a jump. Canard would remount for fourth place but saw his podium positioning slip away. Had the race lasted a little longer, the KTM duo may have caught up to Stewart – that’s how fast they were going by the end of the race, as Stewart saw his lead get cut from about 15 seconds at one point down to four seconds by the time the checkered flag came out.
One notable name on the list is Ryan Sipes, who finished just outside the top-ten in 11th place. Sipes retired from Lucas Oil Pro Motocross and has been racing the GNCC off-road series instead this year, but he decided to contest today’s race at High Point.
High Point 450 Moto 1 Results
1. James Stewart
2. Trey Canard
3. Ken Roczen
4. Ryan Dungey
5. Chad Reed
6. Andrew Short
7. Josh Grant
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Brett Metcalfe
10. Weston Peick
11. Ryan Sipes
12. Ben Lamay
13. Matt Goerke
14. Fredrik Noren
15. Killy Rusk
16. Cade Clason
17. Evgeny Mikhaylov
18. Ronnie Stewart
19. Kevin Rookstool
20. Joey Peters
