Ken Roczen goes back-to-back with win in San Diego

Published Jan. 15, 2017 1:48 a.m. ET

Samuel Reiman

Ken Roczen has gone back-to-back after winning Saturday night’s 450SX Main Event during Military Appreciation Night at Petco Park in San Diego.

Defending champion Ryan Dungey took the holeshot and had his teammate Marvin Musquin following behind him on the opening lap. However, a mistake on Lap 1 by Musquin cost him second spot to Roczen. Roczen was then able to challenge Dungey for the lead but couldn’t make the pass stick, so chose to ride behind the Red Bull KTM rider for the opening few laps.

As they approached the halfway point, Roczen made an aggressive but clean pass for the lead. However, while he was unable to get back by, Dungey kept him honest throughout the second half of the race. On the final lap, Dungey pulled up alongside Roczen to try and take the lead back, but then made a mistake of his own and watched the Honda go on to win in front of him and extend his points lead.

Musquin rounded out the podium in third ahead of Jason Anderson and Eli Tomac, who battled hard in both their heat race and the main event.

Meanwhile, in the 250SX West class, Shane McElrath took his second consecutive Main Event win in an equally incredible race.

Jimmy Decotis took the holeshot and led a lot of the early stages of the event while McElrath was back battling rookie Austin Forkner hard for fourth place. McElrath eventually emerged ahead but he had a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately for him, he was helped out when Dan Reardon went down from third place. McElrath then closed in on Decotis and Martin Davalos, who were battling for the lead. Davalos took it from Decotis, and then McElrath then took it from Davalos, who faded back to fourth place. Justin Hill was charging McElrath down for the lead and the win in the closing moments, but McElrath was able to cross the line in first by just 0.3 seconds while Aaron Plessinger rounded out the podium.

The Monster Energy Supercross riders will be back in action next weekend in Anaheim.

Unofficial 450SX race results:

1. Ken Roczen
2. Ryan Dungey
3. Marvin Musquin
4. Jason Anderson
5. Cole Seely
6. Eli Tomac
7. Weston Peick
8. Davi Millsaps
9. Chad Reed
10. Justin Bogle

Unofficial 250SX West race results:

1. Shane McElrath
2. Justin Hill
3. Aaron Plessinger
4. Martin Davalos
5. Austin Forkner
6. Jimmy Decotis
7. Jeremy Martin
8. Phil Nicoletti
9. Hayden Mellross
10. Joshua Hansen