Now known as “The Holeshot Kid”, Mike Alessi utilized one of his ”‘good as gold” starts to win the first 450cc moto of his career on Sunday afternoon, the victory coming at the 41st Annual Dirt Diggers Hangtown Motocross Classic near Sacramento, California. (Hangtown hosted its first professional motocross race in 1968 and has been a part of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship since 1974). Initially leading the race, the Californian made a mistake, exiting the track after getting out of shape exiting an off-camber turn. Alessi kept his cool and he and his RM-Z450 reentered the race back sixth place. From there Red Bull Honda’s Ivan Tedesco took control of the race, while Alessi picked up the pace and began a charge back towards the front. As the race forged on, Alessi was up to third and in the waning stages of the moto, was right on the rear fender of Tedesco. Stalked by the #800 bike, Tedesco made a mistake on one of the many Hangtown hills his gaffe allowing Alessi by and into the lead, a lead he maintained to the finish line. Tedesco placed a disconsolate second, one spot ahead of teammate Andrew Short and two places ahead of JGR Yamaha’s Cody Cooper.
JGR’s Josh Grant holeshot the second 450 moto at Hangtown and would immediately open a large gap on Alessi and Red Bull Honda’s Ivan Tedesco who were fighting over second. At one point Grant almost crashed, coming off his 450F in a gnarly rut, only to run beside his bike, hop back on and save his position. Grant would continue to lead, but made a grave mistake shortly thereafter when he unintentionally ignored the red and yellow flag that was thrown due to a downed rider. As mandated, Grant as supposed to roll the jump, didn’t, and was, after the race, docked a position. So with the moto complete, penalties assessed and the results added up, it was Mike Alessi the overall winner with a double moto sweep. Ivan Tedesco earned second overall with 2-4 finishes and Chad was Reed was third with a 6-3. Red Bull Honda’s Andrew Short ended his afternoon in Northern California in fourth, nailing down 3-6 scores. The penalized Grant finished fifth overall day, quite despondent to have his first career 450 moto win yanked away from him.
As he did twice a week ago at curtain-raising Glen Helen round of the 2009 National Championship Series, 250cc class rookie Justin Barcia aced the holeshot in the opening moto at Hangtown, drafted by Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Christophe Pourcel and GEICO Powersports Honda’s Trey Canard. Smoothly and methodically, the former MX2 World Champion moved up on Barcia and passed him on lap three. Barcia, however hung tough to finish second ahead of teammate Trey Canard.
After a lowly, crash-caused seventh place finish in the opening moto, Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey rode to a gate drop-to the checkers win in the second mode. Behind him, Pourcel would eventually roll into second place, a spot he would hold to the end. Honda’s Trey Canard placed third in the heat. After the moto, however, the final results were changed-up as Pourcel also fell victim to the red and yellow flag, a signal he failed to acknowledge. While it cost him a position (dropping him to third in the moto behind Canard), the French-born rider left Hangtown with the 250cc overall. Brett Metcalfe ended out the afternoon and reigning MX2 World Champion Tyla Rattray who was fifth overall with a 4-7 finishes.
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