Bogle boggles at motocross
Justin Bogle blew away all comers during his 10-day stint at the 2011 Monster Energy Mammoth Motocross in Mammoth Lakes, June 16-26. Bogle, who piloted an Amsoil/Factory Connection/Thor Honda, won all three regular Pro classes in Open, 250 and 450, where he outdueled Yamaha/GYTR rider Ryan Hughes, who earlier in the week topped even fellow legend and Supercross King Jeremy McGrath for bragging rights in the drama-fueled Vet 30+ Pro class events.
Bogle topped the 250, 450 and Open Pro classes, and won each and every time he got on the bike at Mammoth, which included all of his divisional wins and his Open Pro main event win over Honda of Houston’s Chris Pluffe and 250 Pro main event win over Troy Lee Designs/Lucas Oil/Red Bull Honda’s Jessy Nelson.
Kawasaki’s Justin Hill was another big Mammoth Motocross winner. Hill won the 450 Intermediate-class final, including back-to-back final wins in the Schoolboy and Open Intermediate classes, no easy feat considering Mammoth’s challenging high altitude conditions.
Kawasaki Team Green’s Justin Hill took back-to-back Intermediate-class wins. In the 250 Intermediate main, Thomas Covington took the main-event win over Brady Kiesel. Covington edged out Kiesel by a mere four seconds.
Few competitors fared as well as Hughes did during the event. During the opening weekend’s Veteran class action, on Day 1 the 38-year-old Hughes finished 1-2 in two heats. “And I only finished second in that last moto because I got a flat tire with four laps left,” he noted. On Day 2, he finished first, and was named overall combination winner.
The following weekend, he took third in the 450 Open (after starting in 30th in the gate) against top college-age athletes, and finished second in the 450 Pro, riding in a field packed with the sport’s top professionals, and bested only by Bogle, who was crowned the event’s reigning 450 Pro champion.
Hughes added another win to his Mammoth week when he topped the FMF Two-Stroke class, finishing 17 seconds ahead of Suzuki rider Michael Lapaglia. Moments after the race, however, Hughes and Lapaglia ended up scrapping in the paddock dirt.
Want to see just how high up racers’ tensions can run after coming off the track? A YouTube video of the post-race fight was posted on Saturday, June 25, even before Mammoth Motocross was finished. It has since drawn more than 37,000 views.
In the Junior class main event, Kristoffe Palm captured the win in the 450s, and Antoni Hernandez topped Ryan Surratt in the 250s.
His fracas earlier in the day not withstanding, Hughes remained upbeat about his Mammoth Motocross experience. “The track’s amazing … I love racing here,” Hughes remarked late Sunday. “It’s safe, but at the same time it’s also pretty tricky. You gotta use your smarts … the track can reach out and grab you anytime.”
Brett Snider, Parts and Manufacturing & Product Marketing Manager for Yamaha, praised the event’s production team. “From the locals to the AMA Pro National riders, the whole thing was run like clockwork,” Snider commented. “There must have been 6,000 riders trying to qualify to come here. It’s a race you want to run, you want to make it to Mammoth. It was perfect, just fantastic.”
–Results and additional reports: Mammoth Motocross and Transworld MX
