At the gate drop it was Honda HRC rider Cole Seely who claimed the holeshot but the lead was quickly handed to JGR Yamaha’s Phil Nicoletti after the first turn. Christophe Pourcel, the fastest rider in qualifying, was putting on fight for second in the first lap with Seely.

Justin Barcia was holding down the fourth place position while Roczen was sitting in fifth waiting for a chance to move up the pack. Roczen and Barcia exchanged back-and-forth for the fourth place position with Roczen ultimately taking the spot. Nicoletti  and his teammate, Barcia came together and relinquished their third and fourth place positions, allowing Eli Tomac into the ranks.

Tomac took advantage of his opportunity to do what everyone has been waiting to see all season and do battle with Roczen. This began what quickly became the best battle of the moto for second place while Seely maintained the lead.

Seely did everything in his power to hold the longest lead he had all season while Roczen and Tomac battled for second over the course of a couple of laps before Roczen decided to take the battle to the front.

Roczen passed Seely and Tomac followed and the two held 1-2 until the finish. Seely placed third.

In Moto 2, Broc Tickle took the holeshot and was followed closely by Justin Brayton and Marvin Musquin. Just behind those three were the top three from the first moto in order of Cole Seely, Ken Roczen and then Eli Tomac.

After just five minutes, Roczen had made his way through the pack to first position followed by teammate Tickle with a determined Tomac in hot pursuit. Within the next five minutes Tomac had made it happen and passed Tickle to put in work on Roczen once again.

As the race came down to the final three laps it was all eyes on Tomac trying to overtake Roczen, and it was close for every single corner. Roczen made a mistake coming over a double but quickly recovered. Then Tomac opened up and tried multiple alternate lines nearly passing while also nearly coming off his bike, but Roczen held him off into the final lap.

With an insane battle around every turn, Roczen managed to hold off Tomac and take the win and Tomac taking second.

450 OVERALL RESULTS

1. Ken Roczen (1-1)
2. Eli Tomac (2-2)
3. Broc Tickle (6-3)
4. Cole Seely (3-6)
5. Marvin Musquin (7-4)
6. Christophe Pourcel (4-8)
7. Weston Peick (5-9)
8. Blake Baggett (8-7)
9. Justin Brayton (9-11)
10. Justin Bogle (13-10)

450 CLASS POINT STANDINGS

1. Ken Roczen 243
2. Eli Tomac 196
3. Cole Seely 151
4. Marvin Musquin 136
5. Ryan Dungey 131
6. Jason Anderson 113
7. Broc Tickle 109
8. Justin Barcia 108
9. Christophe Pourcel 107
10. Trey Canard 97

Photo: Simon Cudby