RIDGEDALE, Missouri: Haiden Deegan earned the holeshot if the first moto of the 450 class and kept a steady gap between himself and Ken Roczen at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena.
A couple of small mistakes by Deegan allowed Roczen to close the gap significantly in the middle stage of the race, but he was held up first by Vince Friese and lost pace.
Roczen waited for Mitchell Harrison on the cool down lap and exchanged words with him as well.
Points leader Jorge Prado got a slow start and was barely inside the top 10 on the opening lap. He moved up to sixth by the end of that lap and found RJ Hampshire for a top five position on Lap 3.
Two laps later, he began to pressure Cooper Webb, who promised last week that he would make “hell sure” Deegan wouldn’t win the championship, but animosity between Webb and Prado took precedence.
Wedged between these two battles, Hunter Lawrence rode without a challenge ahead or behind until Roczen got held up by lapped traffic.
