St. Louis Supercross - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

St. Louis was the host of this past weekend's round of Monster Energy Supercross. The track wasn't as rough as Indianapolis, but it still provided some great racing throughout the night. In the 450 class, Ryan Dungey and Ken Roczen faced off for the third week in a row, and Dungey won once again. That further extended his points lead and showed that he's the best Supercross rider in the world right now. The 250 class saw Jeremy Martin become the first two-time winner in this year's 250 East title chase. It also saw Malcolm Stewart crash three times and leave The Dome with only one slim point  over Aaron Plessinger in the championship. Can the East Region get anymore unpredictable? We've had five different winners, three different riders lead the points, and there's still no clear title favorite. Now with that being said, let's get into the best and the worst of St. Louis.

250 Class:

The Good: Aaron Plessinger | 2nd Place

Aaron has really stepped it up these last few rounds as he is now within one point of being the 250 East points leader. His season started out well with a podium, but then he had a rough race at Daytona which put him a fair bit out of the championship chase. Since then he has gone 2-1-2 and looks like the strongest contender for the title. I don't expect Malcolm to just roll over, though. He's going to fight Aaron hard for this championship, and the champion will probably be decided in Las Vegas. And if it does end up going down to Vegas, we could see some serious team tactics come into play with both regions being combined. I'm very excited about these final three rounds.

The Bad: Martin Davalos | 15th Place

Martin started off this championship with a win and convinced everyone that this was finally his year. Then he had visa issues which caused him to miss Toronto. Since that ordeal, his championship hasn't gone very well. He's had crashes, bad starts, and just hasn't had the speed to win. This past weekend he went down off the start with Dakota Alix and never got going at a decent pace. Another championship down the drain for Martin.... Maybe he'll be the 2017 250 East Region champion?

The Ugly: Malcolm Stewart | 8th Place

You could say Malcolm panicked after going down on lap one of the main event... He hit the deck two more times after stalling the bike on lap one, losing nine points to Aaron Plessinger in the process. The night could have gone much worse, though, as most riders would not get back to eighth after crashing three times. Furthermore, he still walked away from St. Louis with a one point lead over Aaron in the championship, but he has one hell of a battle ahead of him if he wants to win this title. By the way, if Malcolm is able to secure this title he will be forced up to the 450 class next year, and I think we're all looking forward to seeing what he can do in the big boy class.

450 Class:

The Good:  Justin Bogle | 4th Place

Justin's rookie season in the 450 class has been solid. No one expected him to come in and win races or even podium, so there hasn't been a whole lot of pressure on him. Nonetheless, he does need to land a ride for 2017, and decent results are required to grab the attention of the top teams. He started the season outside the top ten, then he got injured, then he landed inside the top ten, and now he scored a top five result in St. Louis. This is a huge step in the right direction and really shows he has some serious potential in this class. Plus, now that he knows he can run up front, it's only a matter of time before he lands on the podium. I'd look for him to be under a factory tent next year.

The Bad: Ken Roczen | 2nd Place

Ken's second place this week may not have been bad, but it was certainly disappointing. He's gone head-to-head with Ryan Dungey for three rounds straight and has gotten second every time. The frustrating part is that it's not from a lack of speed. He was arguably just as fast if not faster than Dungey in Indianapolis and St. Louis.He's just made some dumb mistakes that cause him to give Dungey an insurmountable lead. The good news is that this should give Ken more motivation than ever to train hard during this week and claim the win in Massachusetts.

The Ugly: Weston Peick | 16th Place

Weston's season has not been good. He's been around tenth place or worse the entire season, and then there's the whole Vince Friese situation, which didn't shine a great light on him or the team. To be honest, I don't see why JGR would re-sign him for another year unless he just has some amazing results during the outdoor nationals. There are plenty of guys that are consistently finishing in front of him that will be on the market. And while JGR does have a lot of money tied up in Justin Barcia's deal, there are plenty of guys within the same price range as Weston that I feel would perform better on their equipment. Who knows, maybe he's just had some nagging injuries all year that we aren't aware of. But as of now, he should definitely be feeling the pressure to perform if he wants to secure another factory contract.