Townley rattled at Washougal

Returning  to the West Coast
for round 8 of the 12 round Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship series,
Ben Townley looked set to build on his third place in the overall standings
however a first moto crash  threw a spanner in the works for the
Kiwi.

The Washougal Motocross Park and
‘Retro’ weekend welcomed thousands of MX fans to the slick and
tricky circuit and Townley took the opportunity to wear an open face
 ‘Steve Mc Queen’ lookalike helmet with face mask on the
450 parade lap.   Quickly changing back to his Troy Lee Designs
helmet before the 30 second board, Townley rolled onto the starting grid
ready for battle.   As the gate dropped he grabbed a  good
jump and was positioned in the top 5 on the opening lap.  Entering the
whoop section BT wheel spun and then grabbed a hand full of throttle which
shot him off to the side of the whoops where he went down hard.  
 He failed to rejoin the race with a painful shoulder and later
decided to sit out moto 2.

“I banged my right shoulder
pretty hard when I went down and could not lift it to grab onto the
bars.  It’s bruised pretty badly so will have to give it a few
days of rest and hopefully by the middle of the week I can assess if it
will be possible to ride.  We have two free weekends until Unadilla so
I’m quite confident I will be good to go.” explained
Townley.

Townley has slipped to
5^th in the standings but is still within reach of Australian,
Brett Metcalf in 3^rd.  

www.bentownleymx.com

Race results:

Round 8 of 12

450 Class (Moto Finish)

1. Ryan Dungey, Belle Plaine, Minn.,
   Suzuki (1-1)


2. Andrew Short, Smithville, Texas,
   Honda (2-2)


3. Brett Metcalfe, Australia, Honda
   (3-5)


4. Tommy Hahn, Decatur, Texas, Suzuki
   (7-3)


5. Nick Wey, Dewitt, Mich., Kawasaki
   (10-6)


6. Ryan Sipes, Flaherty, Texas,
   Yamaha (5-11)


7. Kevin Windham, Centreville, Miss.,
   Honda (9-9)


8. Kyle Chisholm, Valrico, Fla.,
   Yamaha (8-10)


9. Dan Reardon, Australia, Yamaha
   (12-7)


10. Kyle Cunningham, Fort Worth,
    Texas, Yamaha (11-8)

450 Class Championship
Standings

1. Ryan Dungey, Belle Plaine, Minn.,
   Suzuki, 368


2. Andrew Short, Smithville, Texas,
   Honda, 273


3. Brett Metcalfe, Australia, Honda,
   257


4. Josh Grant, Riverside, Calif.,
   Yamaha, 238


5. Ben Townley, New Zealand,
   Honda, 223


6. Mike Alessi, Victorville, Calif.,
   KTM, 219


7. Chad Reed, Australia, Kawasaki,
   204


8. Ryan Sipes, Flaherty, Texas,
   Yamaha, 166


9. Kyle Chisholm, Valrico, Fla.,
   Yamaha, 158


10. Kyle Regal, Kemp, Texas, Honda,
    157