2017 RedBud Motocross | 450 Moto #2

Moto 2
Baggett gets the hole shot, Jason Anderson right behind in second with Bogle close to the front, but Justin Barcia showed his Bam Bam style to literally force his bike through the traffic to take over the lead. Before the first lap was finished, Baggett and Anderson were battling and making contact. Coming out of a turn and trying to face up the next hill, Baggett’s front tire found the same line as Anderson which tipped Baggett off his bike entirely.

Coming off a quiet but effective fourth place finish in the first moto, Anderson was racing for a win in the second moto as he put continued pressure on Barcia for nearly 10 minutes straight. As Anderson seemed to have closed in, Barcia took a line away and took off. The battle shifted to Tomac looking to overtake Anderson for the next three minutes. Tomac made a move around the bottom of a hill in a corner to line up for an uphill pass on Anderson in tactical fashion.

Pressing on, Tomac put Barcia in his sights and closed the gap to battle within a bike’s length for almost an entire lap. Barcia continued to take the lines away, though, this time from Tomac. Another lap went by with Barcia making distance before making mistakes, still, for the time being, recovered to remain out front.

However, going up and around a corner with very little rut to work with, Barcia washed his back out from under him to dump his bike and drop to fifth before finding his feet on the pegs again. Behind Tomac and Anderson were Peick and Musquin to benefit from the battles and move forward from the mistakes.

In the waning minutes, with only three laps left to go, Tomac continued to lead Anderson, Musquin Peick and Barcia for the top five. Josh Grant, Bogle, Wilson, Seely and Canard (on his second race, returning from injury) rounded out the top 10, which just excluded Craig and Baggett. Yet another moto for Baggett spent almost entirely on recovering lost ground.

A position change came for Grant to bump Barcia out of the top five. Then, after Tomac finished his day going 1-1, Baggett was still putting in work trying to crack the top 10 makes a move on Craig that left only Canard in his way. Baggett overtook Canard with only two turns left to go.

Living up to the weekend’s expectations, Tomac won the day and reclaimed the series points lead.