Thousands of fans lined the fences surrounding Delmont's Steel City Raceway on Saturday, as the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship celebrated Labor Day Weekend with the Steel City Motocross National. The penultimate round of the 12-race season featured stellar battles throughout the day, and following two grueling 250 Class motos, the first champion of the 2011 season was crowned, as Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki's Dean Wilson, of Scotland, posted a 1-1 moto sweep, to take his second win of the season, and secure his first-career professional title.
In the opening 250 Class moto, Wilson assumed the top spot out of the gates, and never looked back. A slight challenge from GEICO Honda's Justin Bogle, of Cushing, Okla., kept Wilson honest early, but he eventually pulled away from the field to win by nearly 10 seconds.
In Moto 2, Wilson once again found himself at the front of the field early. However, GEICO Honda's Eli Tomac was eager to claim his first win of the 2011 season, and slipped by shortly thereafter. Tomac opened up a comfortable advantage over Wilson, but it wouldn't last long. On Lap 6, Wilson erased the deficit, re-passed Tomac, and effectively ran away from the competition, savoring the closing laps to become the 24th different 250 Class champion in AMA history, and just the third internationally-born rider.
"This is the greatest day to me," said Wilson, who statistically has been the best rider in the entire series this summer. "I went to sleep when I was young dreaming about winning an outdoor championship. Now, it's a dream come true. I was feeling really good today. In the first moto, I got the holeshot, and in the second moto, I didn't get a good start, but I got lucky and found a hole that helped me pass a lot of people. It's just the greatest feeling. I went by the pits and saw on my pit board that I was the 2011 MX Champion, and it gave me goose bumps. I just went out there and rode the way I know how to. I actually didn't want to win it this weekend, because my parents aren't here to share it with me."
Tomac posted a pair of runner-up finishes to claim his best finish of the season with second overall, while Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin, of France, grabbed his first-career podium finish in third (3-3).
