450 US motocross championship preview
With no Ken Roczen and now no Ryan Dungey the edge has been slightly taken off the 450 motocross series with Eli Tomac the overwhelming favourite.
Justin Brayton and Chad Reed are skipping outdoors, Mike Alessi is racing in Canada and Davi Millsaps decided to get an operation on his wrists, so the field isn’t quite as deep as it is for supercross but the speed at the front will still be high!
Tomac showed he could even beat Roczen last year at times, but from the US GPs Eli found better settings on hi Kawasaki and after winning nine races in supercross he will be very confident and even “pissed off” as Davey Coombs put it in our interview here. as he tries to win his first 450 title after the disappointment of supercross.
Can anyone stop Eli? Probably not but they are a couple of guys who have a shot at it.
Marvin Musquin was a mechanical away from winning the 250 Nationals a couple of years ago, he is a two-time MX2 world champion and was third last year in 450 outdoors. He has the credentials and improved this year in 450 supercross winning two races, so he has the momentum but the US tracks seem to favour the all out aggression that Tomac rides with and not the technical style Musquin has, but on his day Musquin has the talent to push Tomac.
Musquin is now the big cheese in the US KTM team, it will be interesting to see if he can step up.
Then there is Blake Baggett. The BTO Sports KTM man is an outdoor specialist, he has won two 250 US outdoor titles and seems to really gel with the KTM, even finding his feet in supercross. Like Musquin, when Baggett is on he is really, really fast, but will be have the consistency to pressure Tomac week-in, week-out? That remains to be seen.
250 US National champ Cooper Webb will be gunning for glory on the 450 Yamaha outdoors. Pic: Cudby
Cooper Webb had all the momentum at the end of last season but his supercross season wasn’t as good as it was supposed to be so has the win been taken out of his sails? Webb of course has experience racing the 450 at a USGP and the MXON so he isn’t going in blind and has been testing for the last six weeks. He has all the tools to potentially be Tomac’s biggest threat but will his confidence have suffered during the supercross season? We will find out in a few days time!
The other big-name contender is Jason Anderson, he won the last round of supercross thanks to Tomac pushing Dungey wide but while he has good speed, Anderson’s starts and consistency are not quite proven over 24 motos, but Anderson when inspired and feeling the flow is a threat to anyone.
Then you have the spoilers, Josh Grant has all the raw talent anyone could want, give him a good start on a track he likes and a podium is not impossible. Dean Wilson is a former National champ who was solid all season in supercross, he has no injuries and could surprise.
And don’t forget Justin Barcia. Despite yet another below-par supercross season, Barcia has good pedigree outdoors, finishing third and fourth in the 2015 and 2016 respectively. Barcia now seems to be a much stronger outdoor rider than supercross, which isn’t ideal in America is supercross takes priority, but KTM have a seat open with Dungey’s retirement and Barcia reportedly is very keen to go there next season, so he needs another good outdoor performance to put his name back in the mind of Roger DeCoster, or even put himself on the map for an MXGP ride in 2018.
Christian Criag move up from the 250 class and will take Roczen’s sport at Honda, his style really suits the 450 so expect some strong motos from him but Martin Davalos who will finally ride a 450 season might struggle on the Husqvarna.
Trey Canard is also an unknown quantity coming back from injury, his talent is still there but will his confidence be back to the point where he can get back on the podium?
Despite the presumed dominance for Eli Tomac there are still plenty of things to watch for this season in 450 motocross!
