McThoughts | A2 | 450 Class | Presented by Leatt and MX101

By Jeff McConkey

Photos by Bigwave

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Saturday night in Anaheim still has everyone talking. First of all, I’d like to wish Ken Roczen a very speedy recovery. As we all know, Kenny had a very scary high speed get off which resulted in a very bad left arm injury. He wasn’t riding over his head or taking stupid chances, he just got bit by a very sketchy section of the track. No, I don’t think he would have caught Ryan Dungey and passed him, but I do believe he had second in the bag.

In other interesting news, Jason Anderson was DQ’d and forced to sit out after throwing a temper tantrum on Vince Friese. I’m a huge Anderson supporter, but I think he was out of line on this one. Anyway, I’ll get into it more in my Frid’Eh Update.

Let’s take a look at the results and see my thoughts.

A2 450 podium: Ryan Dungey, Marvin Musquin, Cole Seely.

Anaheim 2 450 Class

1st Ryan Dungey: Ryan rode great and really pushed the pace all race long. Roczen was not catching him unless Dungey made a huge mistake. Even with Ken Roczen beating Ryan in the first two races, I believe the 3-peat was never in danger. I think Dungey will win both SX and MX crowns, then win Des Nations and then retire.

#1 Ryan Dungey

2nd Marvin Musquin: Marvin is a tad off of Dungey, but has everyone else pretty much covered. His fitness is great and his starts have been up front in the first 3 races. He isn’t far from a win, but he will need Dungey to falter a bit for it to happen. After he has the confidence, a straight up win is very possible.

#25 Marvin Musquin

3rd Cole Seely: This is the race we have been waiting for from Cole. He looked pretty solid all night long and looked to have everyone covered not named Dungey, Musquin and Roczen. Cole will now have to fly the HRC Honda flag solo, so he needs to be this good every weekend.

#14 Cole Seely

4th Cooper Webb: Cooper got the start he needed and finally showed us what we all new he had in him. His bike looked good through the whoops and everywhere else. He’s still way off of the top 3, but it’s still early. Cooper needs to find the cockiness he had in the 250 class and ride with a chip on his shoulder. He’s 10th in points and will be moving his way up.

#2 Cooper Webb

5th Weston Peick: This guy has been shocking me every weekend this season. Just when I think he has finished a season high, he goes out and does better. He looks good on the Suzuki and can obviously turn much better. As good as he has been, I personally can’t see Weston as a top 5 guy.

#32 Weston Peick

6th Josh Grant: What a ride by JG. He got a great start and made it stick. He looks really smooth and calm on the Kawasaki and still has style for days. He’s making the brass at Kawasaki look like geniuses. He just needs to stay healthy now.

#33 Josh Grant

7th Chad Reed: Not the results Chad wants, but let’s be serious, he’s very old in motocross age. It would be interesting to see how he did with a good start. I don’t think he could win, but a podium on the right track isn’t a crazy thought. I know he’s a competitor, but a 7th is pretty sweet with you’re the oldest or youngest.

#22 Chad Reed

8th Eli Tomac: Poor Eli. He looks so good all day and in the heat races, but as soon as it’s Main Event time, he doesn’t look as confident. He needs to figure this out soon, before he gets too down on himself and stops having fun.

#3 Eli Tomac

9th Davi Millsaps: Davi moved forward all race and looked good doing it. I can’t stress how good he looks on the KTM enough, even better than his years on a Suzuki. He’s still a ways away from a top 5, but he will get there.

#18 Davi Millsaps

10th Blake Baggett: Blake has had a rough start. There was a ton of talk about how good he was going in the pre-season. Unfortunately, it hasn’t transferred over into the regular season. He needs a few more like this, and then he needs to move up.

#4 Blake Baggett

Biggest stud: I’m going to give Vince Friese my stud status. Let the bad comments begin, but if you watch the incident closely, you will see that he did nothing wrong. Yes, he used to ride pretty dumb, but this was a clean SX pass and Anderson blew his cool. Congrats to Vince for showing the strength to walk away.

#61 Vince Friese is the STUD of A2.

Biggest Dud: Jason Anderson is my dud. Yes, it’s OK to get mad, but it’s not ok to act like that. Like I said earlier, I’m a big Jason Anderson supporter, but come on, Jason. You’re better than that, and as much as getting DQ’d must sting, I’m sure the fact that someone has video footage of you crashing in the tunnel, well, that’s just too funny. Shake it off and bounce back with a strong clean race.

Biggest Surprise: Watching Ken Roczen crash surprised the heck out of me. He just looked so smooth all day long. I thought he’d make a few little mistakes here and there, but I didn’t see this coming. Get well soon, Ken!