Mother Nature and Lady Luck shake up Vegas Supercross Final

Mother Nature gave Monster Energy’s Supercross season finale some much needed unpredictability  Saturday night.  Heavy rain and hail turned Sam Boyd Stadium’s bone dry, high speed adobe into a torturous muck fest.  While not as epic as  Daytona’s 2008 deluge, the mud gave riders, crews and fans a Vegas night to remember.  Many 250s  riders could only  paddle their way through the dragon backs and triple jumps and the  450 guys didn’t have it much better. 

To offset the molasses-like lap times, AMA officials shortened the races to keep the total program running time within Fox Sports live broadcast slot.  It spilled over anyway.   With both 250 Championships still at stake, the series’ driest racecourse became a slow motion field of drama. It was also the first time the Dave Coombs Sr. Combined East/West  Shootout had counted for Championship points.   The unexpected elements managed to make the 450 race more entertaining too.  With Dungey getting his ninth main event win, the result was  familiar but the route wasn’t as he found himself lying on the ground just a few laps in.  
 
250 East
Malcolm Stewart made history for himself and brother James on his Geico Honda securing the 250 East Championship with a third place finish in the combined 250 East//West shootout race.  The Stewarts are the only brothers to have both won a 250 class Championship.  Malcolm will be riding 450s next year.  James? Who knows.
 
250 West
Joey Savagty’s overall win on the Pro Circuit Kawasaki and Cooper Webb’s 12th place finish created a rare Series points tie.  2015 Champion Webb, riding with a broken scaphoid wrist bone, retained the 2016 crown by virtue of more event wins this year.
 
450s
Jason Anderson and Ken Roczen had plenty of reasons to deny freshly crowned champ Ryan Dungey a final race win.  Dungey led from the start but Roczen quickly ran him down passed decisively but then tossed it away on a jump and his tumbling Suzuki took Dungey down too.  Dungey was up and underway quickly, his bike amazingly undamaged but Roczen’s machine was tweaked and he was out of the race.  Jason Anderson then gave chase but was never able to challenge for the lead. At the end, in remarkably clean Captain America riding gear, Dungey notched his 31st career win twelve seconds ahead of Anderson followed by Eli Tomac much further back.  As he has demonstrated all year, nice guy Dungey does almost nothing wrong including being on the right side of lady luck the few occasions he’s needed her.  
 

The riders get just a two-week break before the twelve-race Lucas Oil Outdoor National Series launches May 21st at Hangtown California.