It was another big weekend for Suzuki star Ryan Dungey as he scored 3-1 at round four of the United States Motocross Championships, although defending champ Chad Reed has zoomed back to second in the series standings.

Australia’s Reed (Kawasaki) finished 4-2 to bounce back from the disappointment of the previous weekend’s round at High Point in Pennsylvania to finish on the podium at Budd’s Creek, Maryland, and move to second in the rankings, now 36 points behind Dungey.

Kiwi hero Ben Townley (Honda) finished 14-3 in his two outings and has slipped from fifth to seventh in the standings.

Reed got a reasonable start in the first 450 moto, settling into fifth behind championship leader Dungey on the opening lap.  He maintained fifth for the majority of the race before passing Townley to take fourth with four laps remaining.

Reed got another good start in the second moto and was third into the first turn.  The Monster Energy Kawasaki rider passed Honda’s Andrew Short for second on Lap 5 and held his position for the duration of the race.

Taking 40 points from the weekend’s event, Reed was third overall and jumped from fourth to second in the championship order.

“This was definitely a much better result than last week,” Reed admitted. “But I still feel like I am a little bit off on a few things.

“I guess the hard thing is that I do the majority of my testing in California and the bike was awesome at the first race which was in California.  Since then, I have been struggling a bit and I have also been struggling at my home test track.

“Our challenge now it to iron out a few of these little issues that are holding us back but on a positive note, pretty much every race from here will be on tracks that are more like my track.

“I know we can do better, and there are a few things that we will do to make that happen,” Reed continued.

The fifth round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship will be held at Thunder Valley Motocross Park in Colorado on Saturday, June 26.

Top 10 results from round four at Budd’s Creek, Maryland:

1. Ryan Dungey 3/1, SUZ

2. Andrew Short 1/5, HON

3. Chad Reed 4/2, KAW

4. Josh Grant 5/4, YAM

5. Mike Alessi 2/12, KTM

6. Brett Metcalfe 6/6 ,HON

7. Ryan Sipes 7/7, YAM

8. Ben Townley 14/3, HON

9. Kyle Chisholm 8/8, YAM

10. Justin Brayton 10/10, YAM

Top 10 championship standings, 450 class:

1.  Ryan Dungey, 171pts

2.  Chad Reed, 135pts

3.  Brett Metcalfe, 131pts

4.  Mike Alessi, 129pts

5.  Andrew Short, 120pts

6.  Josh Grant, 116pts

7.  Ben Townley, 114pts

8.  Ryan Sipes, 81pts

9.  Thomas Hahn, 81pts

10. Kyle Chisholm, 81pts

© Photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

And here’s a neat video commercial featuring Ryan Dungey …