Ryan Dungey wins Supercross finale in Las Vegas quagmire

It was the craziest night of weather at a Las Vegas Monster Energy Supercross that anybody could remember: It was unseasonably cool, unseasonably wet and for a brief moment when the sun came out after the opening ceremony fireworks, a rainbow could be seen over the Sam Boyd Stadium scoreboard.

If there was a pot of gold at the end of it, it was hard to see it through the rain that fluctuated between driving and steady during the preliminary races, and 26 million pounds of mud.

It ceased raining before the main events, but most spectators kept their foul weather gear on, just in case.

“I just want to thank these fans for coming out,” Honda rider Malcolm Stewart said over the public address system after slogging to a 250SX class heat victory. The announced crowd of 36,714 soggy Supercross enthusiasts cheered for themselves through arm holes in their rain ponchos.

“Rain or shine baby!” Stewart exclaimed after racing began on schedule, which had seemed a long shot earlier in the day. A big thunderstorm washed out all but one session of afternoon qualifying and transformed the banked turn at the scoreboard end of the course into a swimming hole.

The championship in the featured 450SX class already had been decided coming in — Ryan Dungey had clinched his second consecutive title and third of his career at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey last week — so perhaps it really didn’t matter who the best mudder was.

But a win is a win, and it turned out the best rider all season long also was the best mudder in the season finale. Dungey’s ninth victory of the season and the fourth of his career in Las Vegas was almost as wild as the weather.

Ken Roczen, who finished second to Dungey in the championship, was leading when he crashed his yellow Suzuki. Dungey, running second on a KTM, crashed directly into him. Dungey got up and restarted in first. Roczen got up and restarted in second, before pulling off the track a short time later.

This is what Dungey said after his 31st career victory and unexpected Las Vegas mud bath: “Those were the toughest conditions I’ve raced in all year. Ken was putting a charge on; he was going good. He made a mistake and I had nowhere to go. Thankfully, I could pick the bike up and it was still running and it wasn’t bent.”

He should have just said here’s mud in your eye. Dungey finished 11.9 seconds ahead of second place Jason Anderson, who rode a Husqvarna. Eli Tomac finished third aboard a Kawasaki.

In the combined East-West Shootout for the 250SX machines, Kawasaki rider Joey Savatgy raced to a dominating win, but lost the West region championship by one point to Yamaha’s Cooper Webb. Stewart, younger brother of two-time 450SX titlist James “Bubba” Stewart, finished third in the Shootout to nail down the East region crown.

It was the second straight region championship for Webb, who became the first West rider to wear consecutive crowns since Justin Barcia in 2011 and 2012.

There was a scary moment on Lap 11 of the 250SX main event when Tyler Bowers missed a jump and struck a flagman and Chris Alldredge crashed his Kawasaki just beyond the start-finish line. Alldredge was taken from the track on a stretcher with a dislocated hip. Neither Bowers nor the flagman was injured.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. His motor sports notebook runs on Friday. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski