View From The Infield: Crowning a 3X 450 Champ

Budds Creek is pretty universally loved by the riders in the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship paddock, but the layout in the valley can make for some steamy races. The heat was up, and so was the humidity.

RJ Hampshire getting some extra cooling in before the gate dropped on the first 250 moto.

Adam Cianciarulo looked cool, calm, and collected as he closes in on a 250 National Championship.

Rounding the first turn, it was Ty Masterpool out front.

Adam Cianciarulo got around Ty briefly, but a mistake by Adam on the second lap dropped him back to fifth. He made it back to second by the end of the moto.

Surprise! Shane McElrath took over the lead on lap five, rode a smart race, and grabbed his first moto win of the season.

Dylan Ferrandis was 16th at the end of lap one, but he charged to fourth by the end of the moto.

Nearing mid-moto, Adam Cianciarulo was pressuring Ty Masterpool again, and made the pass shortly after this.

Michael Mosiman was fifth in moto one, but slipped to 14th in moto two.

Chase Sexton (23) had gone down in the first turn, leaving him to charge from the back of the pack. Getting back to 12th by the finish was a pretty monumental ride, but probably used tons of energy. Even so, he had enough in the tank for a sixth in moto two. Hunter Lawrence (196) had a 10-13 day.

Aaron Plessinger has been working his way back up to race speed after missing a good chunk of the SX and MX seasons with a broken heel. A pair of ninth-place finishes show that he's coming around.

The heat is not Ken Roczen's friend, and he did all he could to keep cool before moto one. He put in a good effort, and finished second.

Justin Bogle scored the holeshot, and was in good shape for the early part of the moto. But he worked his way to tenth by mid-moto, got sick, and was clearly laboring by the end. His finish matched his number, and he opted out of the second moto. After the race, he talked about how he's struggled with Epstein-Barr this season, and has been limited in how much he can train during the week.

John Short (63) continued his string of good rides, with a pair of tenth-place moto finishes. He's been running with some fast company.

Justin Barcia was sixth in moto one, and fifth in moto two. It looks like the post-Washougal testing that the team did paid off.

Coty Schock had one of his best outings in the 450 class, and carded a 13-17 day.

Jason Anderson slithering through the tight section at the north end of the track. He nabbed the second spot on the podium with a 4-2 score.

Kyle Cunningham is another privateer to crack the top ten, and his 11-8 score. Nice!

Marvin Musquin ended his day with a pair of third-place moto finishes.

Before the two lap board came out, we saw a few riders take a second glance to make sure they just hadn't missed it the first time around. Everyone was cooked at this point.

Justin Bogle headed for a cooling bath.

Toshiki Tomita hitting the pool at the Honda rig. Everyone's mission was to get cooled down as quickly as possible after the finish.

Shane McElrath eyeing his starting spot for moto two. After a good first moto, he knew he was going to have to get a great start to work on a repeat.

Brandon Zimmerman gives Adam Cianciarulo a cooling blast before the gate dropped.

Heading for the first turn. Shane McElrath jumped out front early but had an odd moment exiting the second turn, and he briefly gave up the lead.

Mitchell Oldenburg ran out front for the first lap, before being overtaken by Shane McElrath. He eventually ended up in tenth spot, and 14th overall for the day.

After taking over the lead, McElrath ran away with the second moto.

Brandon Hartranft put in his best result in moto two, grabbing seventh.

Uh-oh...when we spied Adam Cianciarulo and Dylan Ferrandis this close together heading up the hill, we knew there was some action coming.

Dylan ran Adam pretty wide in this corner, but it wasn't much more than a chance to rattle his cage.

Dylan took a quick look back to see where Adam was, but there was no harm, no foul, and Adam wisely gave up the spot.

Alex Martin takes peek behind him. Justin Cooper was closing, and took second spot from Al, but the senior Martin still finished third in the moto.

After what's been a pretty rough year for the Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/KTM crew, Shane gave them all something to cheer about at Budds Creek.

Shane was obviously pleased with the result.

Zach Osborne and Marvin Musquin had the front covered as they headed into the first turn for the second 450 moto.

But Eli Tomac hugged the inside, and was on the charge to the front as they exited the turn.

That's some crowded airspace on lap one.

Ken Roczen did his best to hang with Eli early in the moto, but the heat got to him and he popped. He slipped back to seventh by the end of the moto. He's got two motos to go, and he'll be in full rest and recovery mode for a month after the season is over.

Dean Wilson finished the day with an 8-6 moto score, and seventh overall. That's his best pair of motos since rejoining the series at RedBud.

The best battle of the second 450 moto might have been between Zach Osborne and Marvin Musquin. Marvin edged out Zach for fourth.

Benny Bloss is in a battle with his teammate, Justin Bogle, for the second spot at Rocky Mountain ATV-MC/KTM/WPS. For most of the season they've been pretty close in finishes. His 7-11 score and ninth overall probably didn't hurt his chances of hanging onto a ride.