Cianciarulo to mend ahead of Pro Motocross Championship
After withdrawing from Wednesday’s Round 12 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Kawasaki rider Adam Cianciarulo sought out additional medical consultation following the injury he sustained in the 450SX Main Event last Sunday. The results revealed his back injury was more severe than the originally thought. Cianciarulo and the team made the difficult decision to not race the remainder of the supercross season and begin his recovery process immediately.
Adam Cianciarulo
“This is not the news I was expecting to be sharing today, but after speaking to additional specialists and the team, it is in my best interest that I sit out the remainder of the supercross season. This is a tough pill to swallow as I was really excited to get back to racing here in Salt Lake City, but I have to be smart with what my body is telling me. For now, I will focus on my recovery and do everything in my power to make sure I am ready to go in July for the start of the AMA Pro Motocross Championship. I want to thank the entire Monster Energy Kawasaki team for their unwavering support through this tough time. We will be back and stronger than ever.”
As of now, the 2020 AMA Pro Motocross Championship is scheduled to commence on Saturday, July 18th at Ironman Raceway and end on Saturday, October 10th at Fox Raceway.
Adam Cianciarulo aims to return to racing for the start of the 2020 AMA Pro Motocross Championship Source: MCNews.com.au
Unlike most of this competitors Ken Roczen had a great gate pick devoid any deep trench in front of him however the 26-year-old failed to use that advantage to any great effect and it was Vince Friese that scored the hole-shot while both Roczen and Tomac made tentative starts and were outside the top ten through the first turns.
Roczen blew past Tomac, then the Kawasaki man returned the favour, only for the German to sneak past yet again. The duo were dicing as they thrust their way forward through the field, the pair up to sixth and seventh only two-minutes into the race.
Early leader Vince Friese then made a mistake, going down and getting shuffled right back to 16th place behind Chad Reed and Malcolm Stewart.
Cooper Webb
Zach Osborne was the race leader four-minutes in the main event with a 1.6-second buffer over second placed Cooper Webb with Jason Anderson equidistant in third. Ken Roczen was now fourth and Tomac fifth after pushing Justin Barcia back to sixth and Dean Wilson to seventh.
Through the whoop section Roczen’s factory Honda looked perfectly settled with great drive off the lips compared to his rivals, but Tomac also had his advantages through other parts of the track as the two chased down third placed Jason Anderson.
Tomac passed Roczen for fourth as the race approached the halfway point. Roczen seemed to lose a lot of pace through the middle of the race after showing what looked like could be race winning speed earlier on in the main.
Eli Tomac then passed Anderson with ease and immediately put clear air between his KX450F and the #21 Husqvarna.
Cooper Webb
With five-minutes remaining Zach Osborne still held on to the lead but was now starting to be attacked by Cooper Webb. Meanwhile Tomac was a further 1.5-seconds behind that duo. Webb saw that Tomac was closing in so redoubled his efforts to get past Osborne, making a pass stick with three-minutes remaining to put Osborne between himself and the charging Kawasaki.
A lap later Tomac sneaked past Osborne to move up to second place but Webb now had 1.5-seconds in hand with two-minutes remaining. That gap was down to half-a-second with two laps to run but then a small mistake by Tomac cost the Kawasaki man his chance of victory.
Cooper Webb a deserving victor, his second of the year and the ninth 450 SX Main win in his career.
Cooper Webb – P1
Zach Osborne third with a clear buffer over Jason Anderson.
Ken Roczen a disappointing fifth, a result he will be left ruing ahead of Sunday’s round 13 of the 17 round Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.
Webb’s win saw him claw back eight-points on Roczen in the championship chase to now only be 16-points behind the German.
Cooper Webb – P1
“It was a great night overall but it was a tough race – the track conditions were definitely tricky and you had to be patient out there. The whoops were tough, I just committed to my lines from the beginning and it played out pretty well. It was a great night to get a win, these are not easily regained, especially with the top guys up here tonight so I want to soak it in but we’ve got five more rounds to go.”
Cooper Webb – P1
Tomac’s second place saw him extend his series lead over Roczen from eight-points out to 13.
There is an 80 per cent chance of rain forecast for this weekend’s event which might throw a spanner in the works for some, while opening up opportunities for others…
450 SX Results
Cooper Webb – KTM
Eli Tomac – Kawasaki +1.908s
Zach Osborne – Husqvarna +15.421s
Jason Anderson – Husqvarna +25.043s
Ken Roczen – Honda +27.089s
Dean Wilson – Husqvarna +28.726s
Malcolm Stewart – Honda +29.118s
Justin Barcia – Yamaha +36.432s
Justin Brayton – Honda +40.072s
Justin Hill – Honda +42.630s
Martin Davalos – KTM +45.092s
Aaron Plessinger – Yamaha +48.149s
Benny Bloss – KTM +1 lap
Blake Baggett – KTM +1 lap
Kyle Cunningham – Suzuki +1 lap
Vince Friese – Honda +1 lap
Chad Reed – KTM +1 lap
Kyle Chisholm – Yamaha +1 lap
Adam Enticknap – Suzuki +2 laps
Carlen Gardner – Honda +2 laps
Cooper Webb
450 SX Championship Points
Eli Tomac -275
Ken Roczen – 262
Cooper Webb – 246
Justin Barcia – 225
Jason Anderson – 208
Malcolm Stewart – 180
Justin Hill – 161
Dean Wilson – 159
Justin Brayton – 157
Aaron Plessinger – 147
Zach Osborne – 144
Blake Baggett – 134
Adam Cianciarulo – 129
Martin Davalos – 121
Vince Friese – 120
Tyler Bowers – 65
Chad Reed – 59
Kyle Chisholm – 57
Benny Bloss – 54
Kyle Cunningham – 40
250 SX
Shane McElrath topped qualifying and won his heat race but it was Monster Energy Star Yamaha team-mate Colt Nichols that scored the hole-shot when the gates dropped in the main.
Championship leader Chase Sexton went down after losing the front and then got caught up with Pierce Brown, by the time the defending champion was up and running again he was down in 17th position.
It only took a few laps for Sexton to push back up inside the top ten and with ten-minutes remaining in the Main he was up to eighth, 15-seconds behind the leading Yamaha duo. It was at that same juncture that McElrath pushed past his team-mate to take the race lead.
Once in front McElrath pulled away from Nichols and with four-minutes remaining held a four-second lead over the 26-year-old. Jeremy Martin was a further six-seconds behind in third while Chase Sexton had clawed his way through the field to be up to fourth, but had another six-seconds to gain on Martin before he could challenge for that final step on the podium.
McElrath slowed on the final lap but still took the chequered flag almost two-seconds in front of Nichols.
Jeremy Martin rounded out the podium ahead of his Geico Honda team-mate Chase Sexton who was left to rue that early mistake that cost him dearly.
The fastest lap of the race went to Colt Nichols.
That win ties McElrath with Sexton on points after what was the sixth round of the 250 East competition.
The lack of spectators due to COVID-19 restrictions as AMA Supercross finally swung back into action on the weekend certainly made for somewhat of a stark backdrop compared to the normal glitz and glamour of a conventional Monster Energy Supercross. Check out this gallery of 50 images from round 11 of the 2020 AMA Supercross Championship staged in an empty Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
Supercross legend gives us his take on Salt Lake City
By Eric Johnson
On Saturday night, March 17, 1990 and with 18,197 fans up in the stands looking on (including this one) inside Sam Boyd Silver Bowl on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada, a young Team Green rider from Southern California named Jeremy McGrath rode his Kawasaki KX125 to the first American Motorcyclist Association supercross main event win of his then young career. Three years later, this time on January 23, 1993 and inside Angel Stadium in Orange County, California and before 55,817 fanatics (including this one), McGrath raced his works Honda CR250 to the first premiere class finish of his career. A decade later, by the time McGrath called time on his biblical-like supercross career, he had amassed 72 supercross main events and an astonishing seven AMA Supercross Championships and had firmly established himself as, far, far and away, the greatest supercross racer who has ever kicked a motocross bike to life and ridden around a football or baseball stadium.
Jeremy McGrath
All this withstanding, who better to seek out and sit down with to get his take on Sunday’s Monster Energy Supercross Series round from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah? A 45,807-seat NCAA college football stadium where the University of Utah Utes fight their wars, the venue marked the return of the Formula 1 of motocross and the first supercross main event in 85 days, and it was there that we asked the greatest supercross racer of all-time to keep an eye on things and report back to us with just what he saw play out from the moment he turned on his TV in suburban San Diego. Check it out.
“I woke up and of course I was super-psyched that racing was going to be back,” said McGrath of his date with his TV set and the launch of the restarted Monster Energy Supercross Series. “It was a little strange that it was going to be on Sunday. There were a few little thing were I was like, ‘Oh, okay, we’re racing again, but it’s a Sunday and it’s a day race.’ I was just kind of running through all the scenarios in my head. I was thinking, ‘What’s it going to look like on TV today? What is this going to be like?’ Nevertheless, I was excited from a fan’s perspective to just see these guys race. It was good. I was psyched.
Empty stadium certainly takes a little glitz and glamour away from SX
“You know, I had thought about going over to Utah to go mountain biking somewhere and then go to the race and then to make a few days of it, but honestly, then I saw Ellie Reed’s post where she showed all of them getting tested for the COVID thing where they out that swab down your nose and almost into your brain and I wasn’t so sure about that. That looked kind of sketchy to me. I don’t know. I still might go to a race, but that first one kind of took me back a little bit and I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, I think it’s better to get round one here out of the way and just see how it goes.’ I know they’re not taking many people to the races right now. I don’t even know if I would have the option to go to the races, to be honest.
“I turned the TV on come race time and the first thing I thought of was that they were all outside and everyone was wearing masks and I thought that was kind of strange. And for the pits to be empty like that? I don’t know. It kind of reminded me of a practice day, you know? Nobody was around. It looked like the Vegas supercross where everyone practices and does all that stuff during the day. It looked exactly like that. The track itself looked a lot like Vegas, except that it didn’t have that outdoor section that goes outside of the stadium.
Empty stadium certainly takes a little glitz and glamour away from SX
“Also, the weather was good. You never know what can happen in Salt Lake. Weather can totally come in and go out. I remember one year we were there and it was sunny in the afternoon and they canceled practice and then literally two hours later it was snowing. They got great weather on Sunday. The track condition was also good. It looked a little bit dry at the end of the race, but I think that throughout these next few weeks that they’re racing there, the water is going to mixed into the dirt and it’s probably going to get better and the conditions will get better.
2020 AMA Supercross
“It really was fun watching Eli ride that track,” as he looked back on round 11. “He was doing that slide in turn one and taking the slide into a power wheelie into a manual over a jump, it was some serious bike skill watching Tomac do that. That was really fun to watch because Eli was making it look so cool. That I did like. That wouldn’t have happened if that track had been super-tacky or whatever.
Eli Tomac
“The 450 race was good. In the beginning, all the guys were up front. Blake Baggett got the holeshot and that was pretty cool. You had Justin Brayton up front. Roczen was there and was right behind Eli. Eli kind of did what he typically does and kind of fumbled around for a few laps and then Cooper Webb came in there and I just thought to myself, ‘Oh man, this could be a problem as Cooper Webb is pretty tough sometimes on passing guys. Okay, Eli just has to stay clear of that.’ And from there, a couple laps into it, Eli just did his thing. Whatever triggered Eli to get going, he just started taking off like he always does and found some different lines and some different speed. I did notice that when he started riding the outside line, it looked like he really loosened up a lot and then that’s when he started going right to the front.
Eli Tomac
“I thought for sure Ken Roczen had enough speed to get to second,” continued McGrath. “When he was right behind Cooper Webb, I thought, ‘Man, you know you need to get second here.’ I thought I would see a little more push from Ken’s side to at least get to second place. Webb rode really well to get second and Ken wound up third.
Cooper Webb
“Jason Anderson did well to finish fourth,” furthered McGrath of who came next. “I guess typically Jason doesn’t really ride so good in the altitude, but both him and Zach Osborne were having some good battles. Anderson and Osborne finished fourth and fifth and I thought those guys were riding good.
Jason Anderson
“You know what, dude? I think most of the guys rode and raced really well. I really think so. I think the guys performed well. Those guys, they know where they belong. The series is more than halfway over and they know their position in the series. Yeah, they had to take a break, but I wouldn’t expect anything less. When they went back to the track, they know where they need to be. I thought for some reason that we might see something a little bit different from a couple other guys just because they’d had a break. Honestly, though, I think that for the first month of the whole COVID thing, I’m not sure how much riding everyone was getting in because they didn’t want to go to the hospital in case they had a problem or whatever. I don’t know who did and didn’t do what. Frankly, Eli has an advantage when it comes to altitude. It’s just where he lives. It makes a big difference. As it turned out, Eli was on his game. He was riding great. He was feeling great. You could tell in just the way he was riding that his confidence was up. It looked like it was his title to win.”
Eli Tomac
So as of now, Jeremy McGrath and all the rest of us supercross fans are going to have to wait around for today’s next round of the championship set, once again, for Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“I would assume the track condition is going to be similar, just because now they now know a little bit more about the place,” pointed out McGrath of what’s about to come next. “I would assume some guys are even going to ride better just because they’re going to be in the same place and maybe made a few changes to their bikes, but I don’t see anything going on with Eli. I think he’s just got to relax a little bit, get some sleep and get back on that bike. I don’t see things happening too differently on Wednesday.” You could see just the little things he was doing on the bike that were so cool to watch. He looked so comfortable. Yeah, I’m sure Eli is going to go into Wednesday feeling really good, but you’ve got to stay hungry. It looked like everyone continued on what they had going. The racing was great. The first five, six, seven laps were super-good to watch. I would have liked to have seen Ken get second just because I want to see the title stay tight for a little bit longer, but Eli is trying hard to not let that happen. It was a good race for Eli and it was a good race for the fans. I liked it. I’m excited to tune-in for Wednesday.”
The organisers of the AMA Pro Motocross are facing similar challenges to our own MX Nationals series here in Australia with problems stemming from the differing levels of restrictions in place across different states.
State governments have announced their state-by-state phase-in plans for the resumption of large gatherings, including professional motorsports events. Some states have taken a very restrictive approach to large gatherings (e.g., Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York), while others have found a more lenient approach acceptable so long as social distancing guidelines are followed (e.g., Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, etc.). These varying state approaches have created unique challenges for the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, as several of the pre-eminent venues are situate in restrictive states that may or may not permit large gatherings during the time frame currently planned for the series.
On May 4th it was announced that the series was tentatively set to be held from July 4th through October 3rd. This would leave only 13 days between the end of supercross and the start of motocross. As many states continue to roll out their phase-in plans, it became clear that a further delay in the start of the season would be the most advantageous for the riders, teams, and the events themselves. The farther the series could push back into the summer the better for all. However, there is a hard start of July 18th, this being a live NBC broadcast date – television coverage being paramount for series and team sponsors.
The new plan is to commence the 2020 season on Saturday, July 18th at Ironman Raceway and end on Saturday, October 10th at Fox Raceway. It is the intent to host 10 events and possibly 11 by the end of the season. Series organisers have consulted with OEM partners and have been advised that given the unexpected boost in off-road motorcycle unit sales and parts and accessories over the course of the last month (with many dealerships and after-market companies experiencing record sales), it would be premature to cut the season short at this time. The better approach would be to give the national tracks time over the course of the summer to see if their states relax their requirements to enable them to hold their national event. We are hopeful that some historical venues may be able to return to the schedule but recognize that others may not. Hence, the schedule will be rolled out on a month-to-month basis as racetracks and state officials continue to develop their plans.
Besides the Ironman and Fox Raceway dates, the Series is prepared to announce a surprise for the 2020 season. For the first time ever a pro national will be held at Loretta Lynn’s on the historical AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship racetrack in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. The national will be held in August and will serve as a sort of homecoming for pro riders who have graduated from these familiar grounds. Though Loretta Lynn’s is not a traditional pro national venue, these are not traditional times, and series managers are working hard to schedule nationals at venues in states that are open for business.
In addition to the above, it is the current plan to include the following traditional venues on the schedule: Washougal, WW Ranch and High Point. These venues are located in states that have established clear phase-in guidelines that can be timely met. In addition to Loretta Lynn’s, it is highly likely that two more new venues will be added to the schedule based on the states where they are located. Dates will be rolled out at a later date.
All events, no matter their location, will be conducted with fans with elevated social distancing protocols in compliance with CDC guidelines and as recommended by the Safe-to-Race Task Force. These protocols, currently under development, will be announced at a later date.
AMA Pro Motocross
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Strang wins GNCC Round Five
Taking his first overall win in four years was Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Josh Strang coming through to meet the checkered flag first in South Carolina. Strang’s win would not come easy as he would swap the lead position multiple times throughout the three hour race with FMF/KTM Factory Racing’s Kailub Russell.
Russell jumped out to grab the early lead and earn the $250 All Balls Racing XC1 Open Pro Holeshot Award, but by the time the lead pack came around on the second lap Strang was just two seconds off of Russell. The duo would continue in a heated battle throughout the next five laps. As the white flag flew, indicating one lap left, Strang found himself 1.5 seconds ahead of Russell. Therefore, a battle for the overall win ensued, however, Russell would find some misfortunate as he found himself in a soft spot on a berm. Russell endo’ed over the bars into a fence off to the right of the track, where his bike also became entangled in the fence. Russell was able to get his bike untangled with help from his team, and finish in the second place position. Strang came through the finish line with a one minute and 34 seconds lead over the rest of the pack to earn his first overall win of the 2020 season.
FactoryONE Sherco’s Grant Baylor battled back from a sixth place start to the day to earn his best finish of the season and round out the XC1 Open Pro podium with a third overall. Baylor also had his work cut out for him as he made his way through the pack of XC1 riders. Baylor made his way into the third place position as the two-lap card came out. He would put his head down and push for the remainder of the race to hold onto the last podium position.
Finding himself in the fourth place position for the second race in-a-row was Babbitt’s Online/Monster Energy/Kawasaki’s Jordan Ashburn. Ashburn was faced with battles throughout the duration of the race, swapping between fourth and fifth place for majority of the day. After five rounds of racing Ashburn currently sits third in the National Championship points standings.
FMF/KTM Factory Racing’s Josh Toth was off to a great start as he made his way into a top three spot by the third lap. Toth battled in the third place position for majority of the race, but began to feel ill with just two laps to go. Battling himself just to finish the race, Toth would ultimately come through in the fifth place position.
Coming through in the second place position on the opening lap was AmPro Yamaha’s Layne Michael. Michael would continue to battle towards the front of the pack for the first half of the race. As the race wore on Michael found himself back in seventh, battling to get back up front. When the checkered flag flew, Michael would cross the line with a sixth place finish on the day.
After moving up to the XC1 Open Pro class from the XC2 250 Pro class it was Live It Xtreme/Kenda/Fly Racing’s Trevor Barrett earning a seventh place finish. Barrett made the necessary moves throughout the race to get himself inside of the top 10 in XC1 in South Carolina.
Phoenix Honda Racing’s Andrew DeLong finished out the day eighth in the XC1 Open Pro class. DeLong was having another great run making his way into sixth and then fifth at one point in the race, but a mechanical issue on the second to last lap put him out of contention for a top five finish on the day. DeLong remains eighth in the points standings after five rounds of racing.
Visiting from the West Coast was Three-Time Endurocross Champion, FactoryONE Sherco’s Cody Webb. As the race got started Webb jumped out to a top five start as the group made their way to the first turn. Webb would check in eighth on the opening lap. As the race wore on Webb was back in the ninth place position for the remainder of the race
Rockhill Powersports/Ti Dezigns/UFO Plast’s Evan Earl rounded out the top 10 in the XC1 Open Pro class. Earl made his way into 10th after battling throughout the day with 3 Bros Racing/KTM/Pearson Farms Racing’s Axel Pearson, who was also visiting from the West Coast.
In the XC2 250 Pro class it was Trail Jesters KTM’s Johnny Girroir clinching his second class win of the season, along with moving himself into the XC2 National Championship points lead. Girroir had a great start, moving himself into the lead early on in the race. However, at the halfway point Girroir would find himself in the fourth place position with his work cut out for him. Girroir put his head down, making crucial passes to regain the lead for the last three laps of racing.
AmPro Yamaha/St. Lawrence Radiology’s Mike Witkowski and Rockstar Energy/Factory Husqvarna Racing’s Craig DeLong were also in the top three mix throughout the duration of the three-hour racing. Witkowski moved himself into the lead around halfway, but would face a battle with Girroir and be unable to make the pass back around him stick. Witkowski finished out the day second in XC2. DeLong would battle between the fourth and third place position throughout the day, making the pass on Enduro Engineering/XC Gear/Husqvarna’s Ryder Lafferty and rounding out the XC2 class podium at round five.
The FMF XC3 125cc Pro-Am class currently has a tentative top three with Moose Racing/Carolina KTM/XC Gear’s Zack Hayes clinching his third win of the season, and holding onto the points lead. Larsons Cycles/Fly Racing/Shoei Helmets’ Nathan Ferderer made his way into second in the class, but would face a constant battle with Raines Riding University/Yamaha Motor Corp’s Jason Raines. Ferderer and Raines would swap their positions multiple time throughout the day, but as the checkered flag waved it was Ferderer taking second and Raines holding onto third.
In the 10 a.m. WXC race it was Enduro Engineering/MEPMX/Fly Racing/KTM’s Mackenzie Tricker grabbing the Trail Jesters $100 Holeshot Award, but after a rough crash on the first lap with a fellow competitor, she would be unable to finish out the race.
BABS Racing Yamaha’s Becca Sheets along with AmPro Yamaha’s Rachael Archer and Beta USA’s Rachel Gutish would find themselves in a three-way battle for almost the entire two-hour morning race. Each one of them would find themselves leading at one point in the race, but it would be Sheets making her way into first as the checkered flag flew. Archer would remain second, holding off a charging Gutish as she rounded out the top three WXC riders.
At the conclusion of the 8 a.m. youth race it was Team Green Kawasaki’s Grant Davis coming through to take the overall win and his third YXC1 Super Mini Sr. class win of the season. Team Green’s Jack Joy battled throughout the youth race, coming through second overall and his class. Coastal Racing’s Lane Whitmer earned third overall, while also taking third in the YXC1 class in South Carolina. Coming through to earn the YXC2 Super Mini Jr. top three positions were Griere Moir, Nicholas Defeo and Caden Vick.
Round 6 of the GNCC Racing Series will be held the weekend of June 13/14 at High Point Raceway in Mt. Morris, PA.
Camp Coker GNCC – Overall Results
Josh Strang – Kawasaki (XC1 Open Pro)
Kailub Russell – KTM (XC1 Open Pro)
Grant Baylor – Sherco (XC1 Open Pro)
Jordan Ashburn – Kawasaki (XC1 Open Pro)
Jonathan Girroir – KTM (XC2 Open Pro 250)
Josh Toth – KTM (XC1 Open Pro)
Michael Witkowski – Yamaha (XC2 Open Pro 250)
Craig Delong – Husqvarna (XC2 Open Pro 250)
Layne Michael – Yamaha (XC1 Open Pro)
Ryder Lafferty – Husqvarna (XC2 Open Pro 250)
GNCC Championship Standings
Kailub Russell 145
Josh Strang 122
Jordan Ashburn 78
Craig Delong 77
Michael Witkowski 71
Josh Strang wins GNCC
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AMA SX Round 11 450 Main Video Highlights
AMA SX Round 11 250 Main Video Highlights
Quotes from AMA Supercross Round 11
Eli Tomac – P1
“Gosh, it felt so good to get back to racing. We really couldn’t have asked for a better day overall. The track was super slick in certain areas and we were drifting the bikes through some of those flat corners, which was a lot of fun, but you had to be careful at the same time. I didn’t get the best jump off the start in the main but was able to tuck inside and quickly recover. It was definitely a scary moment when Adam went down because I was already in the air and his bike bounced up and I had nowhere to go but up and over his bike. I’m glad he’s okay. Overall it was a good day and I am already looking forward to Wednesday.”
Eli Tomac – P1
Cooper Webb – P2
“It’s good to be back racing. It’s awesome just to be able to do what we love. I was battling up there in the beginning – we were all sandwiched – and I was able to actually get around Eli but then he went around us and really laid some good laps. During the middle of the race, I kind of lost speed a little bit and at the end I was really trying hard. I missed a rhythm at the end though, and that really cost me in maybe catching him.”
Cooper Webb – P2
Ken Roczen – P3
“I felt pretty good. I had a decent start, but got bumped around a little bit and lost some positions, so we had to fight our way up there and were kind of just riding in a train; it was hard to make up time. I lost a couple of tenths and gained a couple of tenths here and there and then I kind of stayed the same. Obviously, Eli was super strong and Cooper right in front of me, and I couldn’t really make a move. I had a moment with about a lap to go where I almost crashed really, really bad, and then the last lap I really just rolled everything pretty much just to kind of bring it home. A podium is okay. Obviously we need to put ourselves in front of Tomac, but there’s a lot of racing left and a lot of crashes out there, and with all the lappers, a lot of things can happen. Really, we just have to regroup and try again on Wednesday.”
Ken Roczen – P3
Jason Anderson – P4
“My day went pretty decent. I got a bad start in the Main and ended up fourth but all-in-all, I feel like I rode pretty well all day and was able to make some headway as we work our way into the next six rounds here in Salt Lake City.”
Jason Anderson – P4
Zach Osborne – P5
“It was a positive weekend overall. It was my first race back from injury so it was really good for me to go out there and get comfortable in practice. I feel really comfortable on the dirt here in Salt Lake, which is something that’s not typically my forte but it’s coming around for me. I’m happy with where I’m at fitness-wise and with my bike, so I’m looking forward to the next few races here – onwards and upwards.”
Zach Osborne – P5
Justin Barcia – P8
“It’s nice to get the first round out of the way. It definitely wasn’t how I wanted it to go. It was quite hot and being up here at altitude was definitely difficult. I had high expectations for myself coming into this round and kind of let myself down a bit. I think it’s all things that can be easily fixed and turned around for Wednesday. The main event didn’t get off to the greatest start, and the first lap was chaos. Guys were falling down, and then it was really windy and dusty. The track got down to concrete, it was a pretty gnarly track. All in all, we got out of the first one healthy and still have six more to go. I’m really looking forward to racing again Wednesday. I don’t have to wait another whole week to redeem myself.”
Justin Barcia – P8 – Image Hoppenworld
Justin Brayton – P9
“It was a pretty good day. It felt so good to be back with the guys and the crew at the races and to get behind the gate again. Overall, I’m fairly happy with the day. The heat race was good; I got third there. I had a solid first half in the main and ran second for a long time. To be quite honest, I just pumped up about halfway in and kind of went backwards. Then I had a really big moment where I almost went down and that allowed a guy to get by me and some other guys to close the gap. I’m happy I didn’t hit the ground on that one, that’s for sure, and happy with a solid top-10 result. We’ve just got to keep this ball rolling, especially with the good starts that we got all day.”
Justin Brayton – P9
Adam Cianciarulo – DNF
“Man, I am so frustrated with how today ended up. I cannot tell you how stoked I was to be back racing my KX450 with my whole Monster Energy Kawasaki crew. I felt good all day, rode solid in my heat race and got a great jump in the main event. I just made a small mistake that cost me big time. I’m pretty sore from getting ran over, but we’re going to let the body rest and take all the necessary steps so we are ready for Wednesday.”
Adam Cianciarulo – DNF
Shane McElrath – 250 Winner
“There’s been a lot of anticipation to get back going and it’s finally here. I had a near perfect day and I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made over the last few months since Daytona. My bike was awesome today and I felt great with the elevation. The track was honestly the best case scenario with the weather and wind that we dealt with today. I felt really good and I’m ready for another race in a few days.”
Shane McElrath – 250 Winner – Image Hoppenworld Moto News Weekly proudly brought to you by Dunlop
Jett Lawrence makes return to racing this week
When Supercross reconvenes mid-week it will be the turn of the 250 West competitors to swing back into action which of course means the return of popular young Aussie Jett Lawrence after that sickening crash early in the season at Anaheim 2.
Jett Lawrence broke his collarbone at Anaheim II but will be back racing later this week – Image Hoppenworld
2020 British Speedway GP cancelled
Due to ongoing health concerns and UK government restrictions regarding COVID-19, organisers have announced that the 2020 Adrian Flux British FIM Speedway Grand Prix, scheduled to take place at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on July 18, has been cancelled.
This decision was made after careful consideration and consultation with the FIM, BSI Speedway, Principality Stadium, Welsh Government and Cardiff City Council, with the health and safety of supporters and riders remaining the top priority.
Due to the considerable logistical issues posed by the current circumstances, it was agreed that it would not be possible to stage the event at a later date in 2020.
Following discussions with Principality Stadium, we are however pleased to announce that the 2021 event – and still the 20th British FIM Speedway Grand Prix to be held at the venue – will take place on July 17, 2021.
Paul Bellamy Managing Director and SVP of Motorsports, IMG
“We are extremely disappointed that we won’t get the chance to celebrate 20 years of British SGP action under the Principality Stadium roof next month. We know how much everyone looks forward to the British SGP weekend in Cardiff – a chance to meet up with fans and friends from around the world, enjoy great racing and experience the unique atmosphere generated by our thousands of fans. Our focus will now be on delivering a fantastic event on July 17, 2021 to celebrate the 20th staging of the British SGP in Cardiff in style. Meanwhile we are working hard with the FIM, our venues and stakeholders on our re-arranged plans for the 2020 FIM Speedway World Championships presented by Monster Energy later this year and will issue further updates on that in due course.”
Tai Woffinden
“The British SGP is always an awesome weekend, so I’m gutted I won’t get the chance to race in front of a Cardiff crowd this year. But that only makes me hungrier for next season’s event. The atmosphere is unreal. It’s always a special night and I can’t wait to be back in July next year. Stay safe and I’ll see you all then!”
Tai Woffinden – Speedway GP 2018 – Netherlands
Moto News Weekly proudly brought to you by Dunlop Source: MCNews.com.au
The 17 round 2020 Monster Energy Supercross Championship should have been finishing at Salt Lake City early in May, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe the series has been suffering through an extended shutdown period. Round Ten was held at Daytona early in March but the gates finally dropped again on May 31 for Round 11, but without the fans present due to social distancing guidelines. The backdrop of an empty Rice-Eccles Stadium certainly took much of the sheen and glitz from the event and almost made it look like a club level arenacross! I can only imagine it felt somewhat the same for the riders.
Ken Roczen topped qualifying
Ken Roczen proved quickest in qualifying ahead of Eli Tomac while the only other rider in the 41-second bracket was Adam Cianiarulo.
Eli Tomac won the opening heat race from Cooper Webb while Ken Roczen topped the second heat ahead of Adam Cianciarulo and Justin Brayton.
Salt Lake City Supercross
As SX fired off the line for the first time in 85 days it was Blake Baggett who scored the hole-shot ahead of Adam Cianciarulo and Justin Brayton. Baggett was looking very strong early on and quickly built a 1.3-second buffer over Cianciarulo, while Eli Tomac was starting to challenge Brayton for third by the end of the opening lap.
Adam Cianciarulo
Vince Friese was fifth ahead of Cooper Webb, Martin Davalos, Ken Roczen and Justin Hill while Zach Osborne rounded out the top ten.
Blake Baggett
Adam Cianciarulo then went down pretty hard in the rhythm section which promoted Brayton up to second place. Both Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac got caught up with the fallen Cianciarulo which worked to Brayton and Baggett’s favour.
Cooper Webb
Once Webb and Tomac extracted themselves from the stricken Cianciarulo they had Ken Roczen for company and had given race leader Blake Baggett and second placed Justin Brayton more breathing space. With 18-minutes remaining Baggett led Brayton by three-seconds.
Eli Tomac
Tomac mis-timed a series of jumps which allowed Cooper Webb to steal that third place, a few turns later Roczen added further insult by pushing Tomac back to fifth place with 16-minutes remaining. That trio were now pushing each other along though and quickly caught, and then passed Brayton who presented no challenge, the Australian Supercross Champion seemingly succumbing to the inevitable and offering no resistance.
Eli Tomac made one mistake, then recovered, chased down the leaders and then left them for dead
Roczen then made a small mistake in the rhythm section which allowed Tomac to sweep back past and up to fourth. Moments later Tomac then also dispensed with Webb and quickly streaked away from the defending champion.
Tomac then really turned up the wick, leaving Webb and Roczen in his dust before closing down Baggett and passing him like he was standing still.
From there it was Tomac by himself as the Kawasaki man just stepped up another gear and ran away from the field to his sixth win of the season. As the track got more challenging Tomac just looked even more untouchable.
Eli Tomac dominated the second half of the race
Cooper Webb resisted the advances of Roczen before eventually pulling away from the #94 Honda to take a clear second place. Roczen had a huge moment where after a table-top he landed, got cross-rutted and speared into the track bordering tough-blocks in what could have been very ugly. From there the German simply rolled home, managing his buffer over fourth placed Jason Anderson.
A socially distanced 450 podium…. 1. Eli Tomac – Kawasaki 2. Cooper Webb – KTM +3.771s 3. Ken Roczen – Honda +13.542s
Jason Anderson claimed that fourth position ahead of Zach Osborne and Martin Davalos. The rider that led more laps than anyone else than Tomac, Blake Baggett, eventually crossed the line in seventh place ahead of Justin Barcia and Justin Brayton. Dean Wilson rounded out the top ten ahead of Malcolm Stewart, who was the final rider to finish on the same lap as race winner Tomac.
Chad Reed qualified 18th but eventually retired from the Main with seven minutes left in the bout. The Aussie veteran currently holds down 17th place in the series with 53-points.
Chad Reed has 53-points.
450 Video Highlights
Eli Tomac’s victory extended his three-point lead over Ken Roczen out to eight-points. Cooper Webb’s second place took a couple of points off the German to be 24-points behind Roczen going into round 12 back in the same Salt Lake City arena on Thursday.
If he holds his game together, Tomac looks likely to lift his first AMA 450 Supercross Championship, Kawasaki’s first since Ryan Villopoto in 2014. It would also mark the first 450 Championship for a Japanese manufacturer since that last Villopoto victory.
This fast conclusion to the season will see another six quick-fire rounds ran over the space of only three weeks running two events per week, one on each Wednesday and another each Sunday leading up to the final on June 21.
450 SX Results
Eli Tomac – Kawasaki
Cooper Webb – KTM +3.771s
Ken Roczen – Honda +13.542s
Jason Anderson – Husqvarna +20.519s
Zach Osborne – Husqvarna +22.619s
Martin Davalos – KTM +24.870s
Blake Baggett – KTM +27.174s
Justin Barcia – Yamaha +30.318s
Justin Brayton – Honda +32.215s
Dean Wilson – Husqvarna +33.664s
Malcolm Stewart – Honda +35.315s
Aaron Plessinger – Yamaha +1 lap
Benny Bloss – KTM +1 lap
Kyle Cunningham – Suzuki +2 laps
Kyle Chisholm – Yamaha +2 laps
450 SX Championship Points
Eli Tomac -252
Ken Roczen – 244
Cooper Webb – 220
Justin Barcia – 210
Jason Anderson – 189
Malcolm Stewart – 164
Justin Hill – 148
Justin Brayton – 143
Dean Wilson – 142
Aaron Plessinger – 136
Adam Cianciarulo – 129
Blake Baggett – 125
Zach Osborne – 123
Vince Friese – 113
Martin Davalos – 109
Tyler Bowers – 63
Chad Reed – 53
Kyle Chisholm – 52
Benny Bloss – 44
Kyle Cunningham – 32
250 SX
Round 11 of Monster Energy AMA Supercross hosted Round 5 of the 250 SX East Championship.
Shane McElrath topped qualifying, won his heat race and then scored the holeshot in the Main ahead of Jeremy Martin and East Championship leader Chase Sexton.
Shane McElrath
Sexton quickly sneaked past his team-mate to move up to second place but McElrath had the speed to keep him at bay and then steadily eke away from the Honda man as the race progressed and went on to take an unchallenged three-second victory over Sexton.
Chase Sexton
With that victory Shane McElrath moved a few points closer to 250 East Championship leader Chase Sexton, the gap narrowing to seven-points.
Shane McElrath
When Supercross reconvenes mid-week it will be the turn of the 250 West competitors to swing back into action which of course means the return of popular young Aussie Jett Lawrence after that sickening crash early in the season at Anaheim 2.
“Until they admit what their problem was, I can just tell you that they were out of specification on the AMA fuel regulation that’s described in the rulebook.”
“I’m going over there so they can tell me what the f—k they did!” exclaimed an exasperated Steve Whitelock, AMA Pro Racing’s Supercross and motocross race director, as he stormed out of the AMA truck on the morning of April 24, 2004, and headed out into the pits outside Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
It was clear at the outset that Whitelock believed Team Yamaha was cheating.
Team Yamaha’s Chad Reed led Factory Connection Honda’s Kevin Windham by 40 points as the 2004 THQ/AMA Supercross Series headed into the final two rounds. That meant all Reed needed was to finish 11th or better at the penultimate round to clinch his first-ever premier-class Supercross title. Considering he finished worse than second place just once in the preceding 14 races and had won 10 of those 14, these were fantastic odds. His family flew in from Australia for the occasion.
But trouble was brewing. AMA Pro Racing had issued a press release the Friday evening prior to the Salt Lake round stating that, at the previous round in Irving, Texas, the sanctioning body had gathered fuel samples for testing, and found Reed and his teammate David Vuillemin, along with Yamaha privateer Tyson Hadsell, were all using fuel that “was found to be in noncompliance” with the fuel regulations adopted prior to the 2004 season.
When asked exactly what the problem was with Yamaha’s fuel, Whitelock at the time said, “Until they admit what their problem was, I can just tell you that they were out of specification on the AMA fuel regulation that’s described in the rulebook.”
Lead is a very useful ingredient in race fuel as an octane booster. Octane determines fuel volatility; the higher the octane number, the more difficult the fuel is to ignite. If the fuel is too volatile for a given compression ratio, it will ignite due to compression before the piston reaches the top of its stroke and the spark plug fires. This is known as detonation, and the downward force of the explosion against the upward momentum of the piston will kill an internal-combustion engine. Quickly. Leaded fuel also helps the oil-gas mix in a two-stroke engine keep the top end well-lubricated. Prior to the rule change for the 2004 season, everybody racing a two-stroke at a professional level was using leaded fuel.
Higher compression means more horsepower, so when Whitelock found Yamaha’s race fuel tested at more than three times the legal limit for lead, the AMA took it seriously. Three times the limit seems like a large disparity, after all. Imagine racing with a 750cc engine in the 250cc class. Clearly, perspective is required.
“In the big scheme of things, I really, truly don’t believe that anyone was cheating. Obviously now we don’t even test fuel at all. I think that we’ve come full circle to the point where now it’s a flawed test, it’s too inconsistent, the variation is too big. So, unfortunately, it really was an upturning weekend, you know? I had flown my parents into town, and for me it was like all your dreams coming true. Your whole life you wanted to be a Supercross champion. I think I had a 35-, maybe 37-point lead. Suddenly that shrinks down to 12 points or something. I had to ride a lot more defensively those last two races. I’d won a lot of races that year, and I think I probably would’ve won the last two, but I couldn’t push it. Instead of 44 [career wins], I might have 46 right now.”
Steve Bruhn—an aerospace-engineer-turned-photojournalist who, after his years following the Supercross and motocross circuit, went on to work at NASA until his untimely passing a few years ago—got ahold of the official numbers from the AMA at the time. He had a way of putting things in simple terms: “The legal limit for lead is 0.005 grams per liter, and Yamaha’s fuel tested at 0.017 to 0.018 grams per liter,” Bruhn said at the time. “Three times a tiny number is still a tiny number.”
The AMA’s response? You can’t be just a little bit pregnant.
With years of hindsight, the numbers seem puritanical. The EPA limit for lead in fuel is 0.05 grams per gallon—that’s 0.189 grams per liter—which calculates to almost 38 times the limit set by the AMA back in 2004. But the penalty for breaking these technical rules was to be determined “at the discretion of the race director.” In this case, that was Steve Whitelock, who had already made his feelings known as he stomped off toward the Yamaha truck. And once a penalty was issued for a particular violation, that set the precedent for future, similar violations.
Before the racers took to the track in Utah, Chad Reed, David Vuillemin, and Tyson Hadsell were all docked 25 points—equivalent to one race victory.
Whitelock explained how he came up with the 25-point penalty at the time: “The rulebook gives us a menu of penalties. We can disqualify, we can take points, we can fine, we can suspend—I mean, we can do all kinds of things. So Vuillemin, who earned 18 points in the race at Dallas, lost 25 points. Reed, who happened to win in Dallas, lost 25 points. But the race that the people saw, the winner that they saw on the podium, and the prize they saw him with on the podium, and the prize money, if we would’ve disqualified him, all that would’ve become a ghost. We can’t do that to the people that watched the motorcycle race, so we decided the points is the best way.”
Yamaha quickly appealed the decision. Although it was unlikely to change anything in terms of the championship (with Reed still likely to win and Vuillemin safely in fourth place in points), when a race team is found to be in noncompliance with race regulations, it can be very bad for marketing. It could make Yamaha look like it was only winning because it was cheating.
Whitelock predicted the appeal would fail at the time: “This is black and white. There’s a value, they’re over the value—gee whiz. There’s a problem here. It’s not like ‘I think it’s dirty riding.’ It’s just like if you do a pee-pee test.”
“It’s hard to tell who is trying to bend the rules and who just made a mistake. As an official, you have to make a call on the rule. A disqualification is a lot worse than just taking points, because it’s a smaller penalty for those who scored fewer points, and because it throws everything off as far as the show is concerned. People went to the races and they saw a person win, and then now that person didn’t win, and it’s confusing. If you take points, they keep the win, the trophy, the bonus money, but they lose points. I think that’s the best way to do it.”
Six days later, the AMA sent out a press release denying the appeal. “The appeals submitted by the riders never refute AMA Pro Racing’s finding that fuel tested after the Texas Supercross was found to be in noncompliance,” said the AMA’s director of competition, Merrill Vanderslice, in the release. “Instead, the appeals attempt to cast doubt on the testing methodology, the validity of the AMA Supercross fuel requirements, whether or not their fuel impacted performance, and the appropriateness of the penalty. Based on the language in the AMA Supercross Rulebook, none of this is appealable.”
Yamaha also requested to have its tested fuel samples returned so that it could conduct its own tests. The AMA refused.
With such a harsh precedent now set, it should have been a wake-up call when Kawasaki teammates James Stewart and Michael Byrne had their two-stroke race fuel drawn at the Budds Creek MX National a little over a year later in 2005, and they were both found to be similarly in noncompliance. After the Reed fiasco, logically, why would Kawasaki risk “cheating” just like Yamaha did, after all? But they were both docked 25 points for the infraction, and the AMA was just as responsive to their appeals. Whitelock and company just dug in their heels.
Life comes at you fast, though. Less than a year later, with everyone now racing four-strokes, defending AMA Supercross champ Ricky Carmichael’s fuel was found to be in similar noncompliance after the San Diego Supercross. Although four-strokes benefit much less from lead in their fuel, Carmichael was still initially docked 25 points. He responded with threats to boycott the rest of the series, which threatened attendance numbers, which threatened income for race promoter Live Nation (now Feld Motorsports). But Live Nation had an ace up its sleeve in the form of its agreement with the FIM—the worldwide sanctioning body under whose umbrella the AMA falls—and the FIM agreed to step in and take a look at the ruling.
A little over a week later, the 25-point penalty was rescinded, citing a “disparity in testing protocols” between the identical FIM and AMA fuel specifications, and Carmichael’s Suzuki race team was instead fined $20,000. Carmichael went on to win that championship by two points over Stewart and Reed, who both ended the championship with 336 points to Carmichael’s 338.
There have been myriad theories about how and why these fuels tested too high for lead—contamination from the lead solder on the gas cans, residual lead in the pump lines, and even poor material handling at the testing facility—but the AMA did eventually switch testing companies with prejudice, and the current fuel rule sets the legal limit for lead at 0.025 grams per liter.
In the end, though, the hows and whys of the fuel testing out of spec don’t really matter. Anything decided by “the discretion of the race manager” falls at the feet of the person drawing that paycheck.
Nashville hosted the 14th round of the AMA Supercross Championships last weekend and it was a night that saw a series of ups and downs for Team Green.
Nissan Stadium – Nashville
The first blow for Kawasaki came when 250 East Coast Championship leader Austin Forkner had his traditional practice crash, but this time the Pro-Circuit Kawasaki pilot was forced to sit out the night with a knee injury.
Austin Forkner fell heavily early in the night
It was also not looking great for Kawasaki in the 450 category after Eli Tomac was forced to the LCQ, his KX450F ground to a halt while the 26-year-old was leading his heat race.
Tomac’s machine let him down while he was leading his heat race
450SX Report
Heat race winner Ken Roczen was in a class of his own leading into the main event. Championship leader Cooper Webb had looked far from convincing, both during qualifying and his heat, but the plucky KTM rider shook those shackles off come the main and pulled the holeshot ahead of Blake Baggett, Marvin Musquin, Joy Savatgy, Roczen, Dean Wilson and Tomac when the main got underway.
Cooper Webb took the holeshot
There was a palpable tension in the stadium when Musquin move to second and immediately started putting pressure on his team-mate, followed by an audible gasp from the crowd when Marvin crashed out of the whoops section on lap three.
Musquin chasing Webb
Savatgy inherited second but the big mover was Roczen, the German soon all over the Kawasaki rider. Then Savatgy lost the front of his Kawasaki going into a bowl right hander, forcing Roczen to crash into the downed KX, before then falling over the back of the berm and tumbling down into another part of the track.
Ken Roczen tumbled off the circiuit and down a bank without his machine
Savatgy had been carted off the track with what looked like a broken collarbone.
“Nights like tonight are a tough pill to swallow. We were running great all day. I felt strong and fast in the heat race, and felt like I was in position to do the same in the main event. I just landed off that triple and hit some slick spot and washed the front end. I dinged myself up pretty good and will go get everything checked out on Monday to make sure I am ready to go in Denver.”
Savatgy and Webb
Webb was gifted a handy lead but he was still clearly struggling through the two whoop sections. It wasn’t long before Eli Tomac was finding his mojo and raced by Wilson, Baggett and Webb to take the lead.
Eli Tomac
A few laps later Baggett move to second ahead of Webb.
Blake Baggett
Musquin worked his way up through the field in a desperate attempt to salvage points and Roczen was on a similar come from behind mission.
Ken Roczen
Tomac took the chequered flag well ahead of Baggett, who had Webb right on his back wheel all of the way to the line.
Eli Tomac takes the win
Wilson, Osborne, Musquin, Seely, Roczen, Bogle and Bowers rounded out the top ten. Not what they had wished for but still a far better outcome than non-finishers Justin Barcia, Justin Hill, Joshua Grant and Savatgy.
450SX Main Event Results Eli Tomac – Kawasaki Blake Baggett – KTM +11.644 Cooper Webb – KTM +13.808
Webb now has a 21-point lead over Tomac and Musquin with three rounds remaining. Three more top four finishes would be enough for Webb to win the crown, no matter where other riders finish. But there is still plenty of mouth-watering racing to come.
Eli Tomac – P1
“It was tough, you can use it (going to the LCQ) to your advantage or not, I actually felt that I kept warm and found some rhythm but it was pretty wild, the truck was a mile away so when we had the mechanical I had to push it all the way back which made it a time crunch (to get back in time for the LCQ) so I just poured it on in the main, got back to our old self and it felt good to do that.”
Eli Tomac
Blake Baggett – P2
“The track was super slippery and the whoops were cupped out so it felt like you were fighting the bike a lot and using a lot of energy, I had a few good spots but the best man won tonight, Eli took advantage of a few spots where I was slower, got to give it up to the team, we thought we may have a win but not tonight.”
Blake Baggett #4
Cooper Webb – P3
“When I was out front it was good but I could tell they were catching me but I was struggling with lines and whoops so it was like, I will learn and see what these guys are doing then see if I can’t keep on their wheel, maybe mount an attack later, but obviously it didn’t work out like that with the track being so slippery and not being able to attack.”
Cooper Webb leads Eli Tomac early on
450 SX Highlights Video
450SX Main Event Results
Eli Tomac – Kawasaki
Blake Baggett – KTM +11.644
Cooper Webb – KTM +13.808
Dean Wilson – Husqvarna +18.940
Zach Osborne – Husqvarna +23.804
Marvin Musquin – KTM +49.921
Cole Seely – Honda +41.979
Ken Roczen – Honda +50.242
Justin Bogle – KTM +1 lap
Tyler Bowers – Kawasaki +1 lap
Chris Blose – Husqvarna +1 lap
Ben Lamay – Honda +1 lap
Kyle Chisholm – Suzuki +1 lap
Mike Alessi – Honda +1 lap
Justing Starling – Husqvarna +2 laps
Post Race Press Conference
450SX Points after 14 of 17 Rounds
Cooper Webb – 309
Eli Tomac – 288
Marvin Musquin – 288
Ken Roczen – 267
Blake Baggett – 238
Dean Wilson – 220
Cole Seely – 176
Joey Savatgy – 174
Justin Barcia – 154
Chad Reed – 151
Justin Brayton – 141
Justin Bogle 138
Aaron Plessinger – 123
Justin Hill – 122
Tyler Bowers – 116
250 East Coast Report
Chase Sexton and Justin Cooper came into Nashville 26 and 28-points behind Forkner respectively so this was as good a chance for them to make up serious ground on the championship leader who had to sit out the main with a knee injury. The pair looked on track to perhaps make that happen when they came through turn one together, Sexton leading Cooper.
250 SX Nashville
Unfortunately for both riders Cooper then had a complete brain fade in the second corner, not only dive-bombing Sexton but then also running into the Honda rider so high that they locked bikes and fell into each other.
Justin Cooper leads Chase Sexton
While Cooper and Sexton went through the traditional frantic bike pick up scenario, Davalos inherited the lead and romped away to the win, doing his team-mate in Austin Forkner a massive favour in the process.
Martin Davalos
Well behind Davalos the action was aplenty as Sexton and Cooper sliced there way back through the field and by race end had promoted themselves back onto the podium. Sexton will head to the next round only three-points adrift of Forkner.
250 East Coat Main Event Results Martin Davalos – Kawasaki Chase Sexton – Honda +3.508 Justin Cooper – Yamaha +8.575
Kyle Peters, Brandon Hartranft, Mitchell Oldenburg, Kyle Cunningham, Ryan Sipes, Mitchell Falk and Alex Martin rounded out the top ten
Martin Davalos – P1
“I was forced to recover from a myriad of injuries during the off-season and my neck was one of them that I didn’t think would be an issue but I had problems with my arms and hands locking up so I spoke to Mitch and we got a heap of doctors in California to check me out and find solutions, as far as tonight goes the guys made a mistake and I took advantage of it, put myself in the right position and what we did with my neck a week ago definitely calmed my neck a little bit but all up, I am pumped to be here and this is awesome. I am looking for a 450 ride next year, I feel that would suit me better.”
Martin Davalos
Chase Sexton – P2
“I got a pretty good start and I really felt that tonight was my night so I made a quick pass on Justin and I was honestly just trying to sprint away but I clipped some of the rhythm which allowed him (Cooper) to get alongside me, I don’t have much to say about it except it is a bummer and it put us along way back but I was able to put my head down and get back to second.”
Chase Sexton
Justin Cooper – P3
“We (Sexton and I) were one and two after the start, battling hard with everything on the line with Austin out so I went to block pass him in that flat berm but as I went to pull away I felt that our bikes were connected at that point which took us both down which is kind of a bummer.”
The third round of the 17-round 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship was staged under a full moon in Angel Stadium and A2 was run in the big stakes triple crown format that fans have come to love. Three x 450 Mains provided plenty of action and each ran for a duration of 12-minutes plus 1 lap.
Angel Stadium – A2
All the most fancied runners automatically made their way through to the mains with qualifying conducted on lap times rather than the normal Heat race format. The round points in the triple-crown format are decided on the results from across the three Mains.
Ken Roczen led the points chase by a single point over Justin Barcia as they readied for A1. When they left Angel Stadium Roczen would still be leading the series, despite a somewhat lack-lustre night for the German, while Barcia would be leaving in a medical transport vehicle…
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 1
Ken Roczen scored the holeshot ahead of Cooper Webb, Marvin Musquin and Eli Tomac when the first Main got underway. Musquin made a small mistake in the first rhythm section which allowed Tomac through to third place. Cole Seely was in fifth ahead of Joey Savatgy and Justin Hill while Chad Reed was in eighth.
Defending Champion Jason Anderson and A1 winner Justin Barcia were taking their time to get up to speed, the pair running 9-10 in the opening laps of the first Main. The track made passing opportunities hard to come by, and instead moves had to be somewhat forced.
With a few minutes remaining it was Roczen leading by 1.2-secs over Webb, who had another 2-secs on Tomac. Cole Seely was still in fifth but Anderson had made his way forward to sixth, Savatgy seventh, Barcia was up to eighth, Reed was in ninth and Dean Wilson was rounding out the top ten.
Cooper Webb
Glendale winner Blake Baggett was just outside the top ten but then caught up in the bunting on a tough-block and lost a number of places.
Marvin Musquin got the better of Eli Tomac with two-mins left in the allotted time.
As they got the last lap board Cooper Webb closed right on to the tail of Roczen and started to challenge for the victory. Webb got Roczen over a jump and managed to hold on to take the chequered flag and victory in the opening race of the night.
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 1 Results
Cooper Webb
Ken Roczen +00.549
Marvin Musquin +07.825
Eli Tomac +11.180
Cole Seely +13.805
Jason Anderson +15.239
Justin Barcia +16.161
Joey Savatgy +25.974
Dean Wilson +29.990
Chad Reed +31.487
Cooper Webb
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 2
Cooper Webb shot out of the gates to claim the holeshot in the second bout over a fast starting Cole Seely. Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia both had much better starts this time around and were ahead of a sixth placed Ken Roczen in the early stages of the second Main.
Chad Reed watched on from the sidelines as he had failed to start the second Main after a problem with the Yoshimura Suzuki.
Roczen got the better of Barcia a few laps into the race and then started challenging Anderson for fourth place, the German got past Anderson with eight-minutes remaining.
Ken Roczen
Musquin then slipped past Seely for third place to make it a Red Bull KTM 1-2 at the front of the race, but Webb maintained a 2.6-second lead over his teammate.
Seely then made a mistake which allowed his Honda team-mate Ken Roczen to close in and take third place from him.
Ken Roczen then fell from third place in the whoops with five-minutes remaining, the #94 was relegated all the way back to ninth place before getting back on the bike. He quickly got back past Baggett, then Dean Wilson to move back up to seventh place behind Eli Tomac.
Cooper Webb
Tomac and Roczen then squeezed past Cole Seely before the pair chased down Jason Anderson, pushing the Husqvarna man back to sixth place.
Justin Barcia had a relatively lonely race in third place, while Cooper Webb maintained his advantage over Marvin Musquin to the flag to take his second win of the night.
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 2 Results
Cooper Webb
Marvin Musquin +03.818
Justin Barcia +08.334
Eli Tomac +13.289
Ken Roczen +14.984
Jason Anderson +18.504
Cole Seely +19.556
Dean Wilson +19.896
Aaron Plessinger +23.916
Blake Baggett +25.292
…DNS. Chad Reed
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 3
Chad Reed might have missed the second moto with a mechanical problem but that obviously had fired him up for this one as the Aussie legend very nearly claimed the holeshot. Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb swept past him at turn one but Reed was right in the mix. Jason Anderson then lost more positions after making a mistake on a tabletop.
Chad Reed in front of Jason Anderson
Marvin Musquin then moved past Reed for third place but Reed then managed to hold out Ken Roczen for a number of laps. Reed really made the young German battle for that fourth position before finally allowing the Honda past with six-minutes remaining.
Justin Barcia got cross-rutted and went down heavily and was being treated by the side of the circuit, the #51 would take no more part in the proceedings. The Yamaha rider was sent off for scans on his tailbone area but should be back in action when AMA Supercross heads to Oakland for round four next weekend.
Up front Tomac had pulled the pin and was looking untouchable, by half race distance the Kawasaki man already had a five-second lead over the KTM duo of Cooper Webb and Marvin Musquin. The two men KTM swapped positions late in the race with Musquin moving up to second place but Tomac was unchallenged on his way to the chequered flag.
While Tomac took the final race win it was Cooper Webb on 26-points for the night that takes the round win ahead of team-mate Musquin.
Eli Tomac takes the win in the third main for the night
Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 3 Results
Eli Tomac
Marvin Musquin +04.787
Cooper Webb +09.202
Ken Roczen +12.312
Chad Reed +15.281
Aaron Plessinger +16.025
Dean Wilson +16.309
Joey Savatgy +21.417
Justin Hill +23.009
Vince Friese +25.711
2019 Anaheim 2 – AMA SX Round 3 – Round Points
Cooper Webb 26
Marvin Musquin 23
Eli Tomac 21
Ken Roczen 19
Dean Wilson 18
Cole Seely 17
Aaron Plessinger 16
Joey Savatgy 15
Jason Anderson 14
Justin Barcia 13
…13. Chad Reed 10
2019 Anaheim 2 – AMA SX Round 3 – Round Points
Cooper Webb 26
Marvin Musquin 23
Eli Tomac 21
Cooper Webb
“Last weekend I was tenth and that wasn’t what I wanted, so I had some redemption this week. But to win is insane – to win two races and be on the podium in the last one is incredible! I really have got to give it up to the group at KTM, they took me under and they changed everything for me. It’s been a struggle the last two years, so those guys just constantly pushing me to get back to where I was and reminding me that I still got it. I can’t believe it and I’ll never forget this day. I hope to keep it going, this is an incredible feeling. Man, I’m speechless.”
Cooper Webb
Marvin Musquin
“It’s not always been my strongest point on the start but I’ve been very consistent today. This week I only rode a little bit on Monday. I stayed in California and we got a lot of rain, but obviously it helped on the knee. I tried to work on it the whole week and I felt good getting on the bike compared to last weekend, so it was important and that’s what I need – to feel good and not have any pain. It was great racing tonight, I didn’t win any motos but I got second overall, I was consistent and I was able to battle for the lead and for the podium.”
Aaron Plessinger
“Anaheim 2 was a pretty good race for me. I kind of was struggling with bike setup all day and then after the last practice we made a shock change, and it was great. I got a few bad starts in the first two main events, which hurt my results, but I felt good all night. I rode what I thought was the best that I have ridden. I went 12, 9, 6, for seventh overall. So, I think I did pretty good for it only being my third 450 race. I’m really amped for Oakland next weekend. I’m going to go back and work on my starts, practice them all week and get it down pat so hopefully we can get up front and get a podium.”
Aaron Plessinger
AMA Supercross 2019 Championship Points
Ken Roczen 63
Eil Tomac 61
Cooper Webb 57
Justin Barcia 56
Marvin Musquin 56
Dean Wilson 52
Jason Anderson 46
Blake Baggett 45
Aaron Plessinger 45
Cole Seely 44
Justin Brayton 37
Chad Reed 33
Vince Friese 32
Justin Hill 30
Joey Savatgy 22
AMA Supercross 2019
250 Western Round Three
As per the premier 450 category the 250 races were also held under the triple-crown format, but with races two-minute shorter than the 450 class.
Colt Nichols landed back in Anaheim with a five-points advantage over Adam Cianciarulo but his buffer had been trimmed back to two-points by the time they left A2.
Cianciarulo though had slipped from second in the championship points standings down to fourth as Shane McElrath moved up to second place on the back of the A2 round win.
Dylan Ferrandis also gained a place on the points table, moving up to third outright by a single point over Cianciarulo.
Colt Nichols had won the first Main from Ferrandis but it was Ferrandis that took top honours in Main #2 from Shane McElrath with Nichols in third.
McElrath twon Main #3 to take the 26-points for the overall round win ahead of Ferrandis and Nichols.
Australian privateer Tomas Ravenhorst ranked 21 out of the 46 riders that participated in the qualifying sessions but with only the top 18 automatically going through to the Mains he again had to contest the LCQ. Unfortunately the Victorian missed out on the Mains after finishing seventh in the LCQ.
250 Main Event 1
Colt Nichols
Dylan Ferrandis +02.602
Shane Mcelrath +10.893
Adam Cianciarulo +12.274
RJ Hampshire +15.184
Jacob Hayes +19.320
James Decotis +23.504
Chris Blose +26.168
Cameron Mcadoo +27.166
Michael Mosiman +32.907
250 Main Event 2
Dylan Ferrandis
Shane McElrath +01.347
Colt Nichols +02.589
RJ Hampshire +09.612
Cameron Mcadoo +19.900
Michael Mosiman +23.485
Jacob Hayes +26.658
Chris Blose +31.385
Mitchell Harrison +38.432
Sean Cantrell +42.393
250 Main Event 3
Shane McElrath
Adam Cianciarulo +03.232
Dylan Ferrandis +04.608
Colt Nichols +05.317
RJ Hampshire +18.507
Cameron Mcadoo +19.847
Michael Mosiman +23.711
Chris Blose +25.113
Jacob Hayes +26.109
Jess Pettis +34.097
AMA SX Round 3 – 250 Western Round Points
Shane McElrath 26
Dylan Ferrandis 23
Colt Nichols 21
RJ Hampshire 19
Adam Cianciarulo 18
Cameron Mcadoo 17
Jacob Hayes 16
Michael Mosiman 15
Chris Blose 14
Mitchell Harrison 13
AMA SX Round 3 – 250 Western Round Points
Shane McElrath 26
Dylan Ferrandis 23
Colt Nichols 21
Shane McElrath
“We’ve been learning a lot throughout the season so far. I mean, we had a really good off-season but you can’t really do bike setup without going to the races and that’s my comfort – that’s really what we’ve been searching for. The last two weekends have been upsetting because of the way I’ve been riding but we’ve just kept pushing – perseverance produces hope, so this is good for us.”
Shane McElrath
Dylan Ferrandis
“The short amount of time between each main event made it physically demanding, but I felt good and strong all night. All the rain from the week, made for a really technical rhythm section, but the bike was awesome. My teammate and I were able to put the bike up front at every start. I’m a bit disappointed to finished second again, but me and my team are going to analyze our race and work on what we need for the win.”
Colt Nichols
“The track was very difficult. It got really rutty and soft during the third main event, so made it very hard to continue to jump the rhythm sections and keep everything consistent. The bike was incredible, got off to three really great starts. I’m a little bummed with the way I rode in the last main event after getting the holeshot, but overall it was a good night. Still came out with a podium, can’t be mad at that. It was also pretty tough to bounce back in between each race, with there being a short time in between each one of the main events. Made it physically demanding, but happy with the way I rode. Just have to get a little bit better.”
Colt Nichols
Adam Cianciarulo
“It was a rollercoaster night to go from being out front to falling to finishing on the podium. I really want to put the mistakes behind me and I think with three races, I was able to show that I could still be up front even on an off night. We are still in the hunt and will be working hard to make sure we get back on top.”
Adam Cianciarulo
AMA Supercross 2019 250 Western Championship Points
The opening round of AMA Supercross for 2019, the famed Anaheim 1 event, was staged in uncharacteristically muddy conditions at the Californian venue on the weekend.
2019 AMA Supercross underway! Image Hoppenworld
Chad Reed took second place in the LCQ in order to move through to the main, but was caught up in a turn one incident in the main event that left the 36-year-old Aussie legend with plenty of work to do. Reed was down around 16th place after the incident, but steadily plugged his way through the field in the trying conditions to take 14-points from his ninth place finish, ahead of Cole Seely and Justin Brayton.
Chad Reed got caught up in a turn one incident on the opening lap – Image Hoppenworld
Reigning AMA Supercross Champion Jason Anderson had conversely started well, but then drifted back through the field, looking increasingly uncomfortable as the race wore on before eventually finishing in 14th place.
Another top runner that failed to fire to his potential was KTM’s Marvin Musquin. The 29-year-old was inside the top ten throughout the event, but never looked likely to threaten the front runners. The Frenchman still took eighth place to get a good first score on the board and 15 points.
Marvin Musquin
“The riding was not too bad but physically it was not an easy day as I didn’t have much time on the bike this off-season. But we knew it coming in, so the goal was to score some points and I ended up eighth in the Main Event. I had a great start and Cooper did too, but we almost got into each other and he went down. I avoided him but I lost a lot of ground. It would have been a little bit easier on me to get out front – I was right there in second place behind Cooper, it was pretty cool – but almost both of us crashing. My goal, once again, was to be consistent and score points and that’s what I did. Eighth is not too bad considering and now we can move on and get better from there.”
Marvin Musquin
Cooper Webb was caught up in the same lap one melee that had troubled Reed but recovered strongly and, at times, was the fastest man on the track as he pushed his way forward all the way to fifth place at the flag. One was left with the impression that if the race went longer, Webb would have made up even more places as the 21-year-old really did look stronger than the others in the late stages of the main and set the fastest lap of the race.
Cooper Webb
“Anaheim I is in the books and overall it was a really good day. We started with free practice just getting the hang of the track and I was able to qualify seventh. In the heat race, I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts and I didn’t ride to my potential, so I had a bad gate pick in the Main Event. I had a pretty outside gate but I nailed the start and I was first in the first turn but unfortunately, I fell over. It was slicker than I thought but I was able to get up and really put my head down and charge really hard to come back to fifth. I guess I had the fastest lap of the race, so that was really cool and I’m feeling confident and good with that result, so I’m ready to go to Phoenix next weekend!”
Cooper Webb
Dean Wilson was another rider that looked very strong in the trying conditions, but unlike Webb, Wilson started really strongly and looked likely to win the event before he made a mistake, and then seemed to lose his speed. Wilson was eventually chased down by Justin Barcia, Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac but still bagged a highly creditable fourth place in the season opener. That performance from the privateer certainly raised plenty of eyebrows.
Dean Wilson – Image by Hoppenworld
Malcolm Stewart had started strongly with Wilson, the pair running in close company up front for most of the early laps and it looked as though it would be a battle between the two for a win.
Dean Wilson and Malcolm Stewart were the early breakaway leaders – Image by Hoppenworld
Stewart though lost the rear on a corner entry and went down, he rejoined the race quickly but did not look like a challenger again as he drifted back to seventh place by the chequered flag, 12-seconds behind sixth place finish behind 450 debutante Aaron Plessinger.
Aaron Plessinger
“Anaheim 1 went pretty well. I got better and better every time I went out on the track. The heat race went awesome. I started out about fifth or sixth, got past some guys and finished third. I was pretty amped on that and I went into the main event pretty happy with myself. I got a great start and just maintained it. There were sometimes where I felt a little winded, but I couldn’t back down and pushed on to the finish and got sixth. I’d say Anaheim I, my first 450 race, was pretty good in my eyes. We’ll keep making improvements and head into Phoenix hot on the ball.”
Aaron Plessinger
It was Plessinger’s team-mate Justin Barcia though that took the major price and the $12,000 USD prize money for the win, let alone his contingency bonuses from a very happy Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing Team and other sponsors.
Jim Perry – Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager
“Today at Anaheim, the Monster Energy AMA Supercross kick off was a great day for the bLUcRU. Justin Barcia took the main event win which was awesome. The new YZ450F has been a great bike for Justin. The team’s been working hard in the off season. He’s been working hard in the off season; and it showed tonight. He was fast in practice and was fast in his heat race. It kind of came together in the main event. Justin enjoys the mud and it was starting to rain pretty heavy. Definitely a great night for him and awesome to see the YZ450F in the winner’s circle. It was also a great night for Aaron Plessinger, the rookie, as he starts his career in the 450SX class. He got a great Heat race finish in third and went on to the Main Event, started towards the front, put in a solid moto and finished sixth. Great results for both guys and looking forward to next weekend.”
2019 AMA Supercross got underway at A1 – Image Hoppenworld
Barcia had also won his heat race to qualify for the main, but was in seemingly no hurry to make his way to the front of the pack in the main event. The 26-year-old just plugged away smoothly as he saw those in front eventually flail, allowing the New Yorker to avoid any incidents and go on to take what in the end was a fairly dominant win.
Justin Barcia
“Anaheim 1 was an awesome day. I had a lot of fun in practice, then going into the heat race it started to sprinkling a little. I didn’t get the best start but made some good passes and got into the lead and won my heat race which was awesome, and it felt really good to get that first one out of the way at the first race. The main event it was really pouring down. It was looking tricky watching the 250 start so I definitely got a little excited and nervous and all those feelings you get at the first race. I got off to a pretty decent start and worked my way up to third by a little over half the race. I played it smart and tried to make no mistakes. One of the guys went down in front of me and then I was able to charge harder and catch the leader, make the pass and ride a smooth race to the win. For me this is incredible, I haven’t won a 450 race in over six years so it’s a pretty awesome feeling. I couldn’t be much happier, I’m really excited to go to Phoenix. I just want to stay, smart, smooth, fast, consistent and focus on the championship plate.”
Justin Barcia – Image Hoppenworld
Likewise Ken Roczen, rode smart but looked strong and in the final laps closed down markedly on Barcia. The Yamaha man likely had speed left in his toolkit as he buttoned off in the closing laps, but after Roczen’s horrific injuries and considering the very tough conditions, it was heartening to see the German looking strong and confident.
2018 AMA Motocross Champion Eli Tomac also started the season steadily and strong. Racing again for Monster Energy Kawasaki, the 26-year-old (why does it always seem he is so much older than that?), showed that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Tomac confidently marched his way through the field after being caught out by the same lap one incident that troubled Reed and Webb.
Eli Tomac – Image by Hoppenworld
Tomac dominated the latter half of the 2018 Supercross season, and pretty much decimated the competition in the 2018 AMA Pro Motocross Championship. My money is on Tomac for the 2019 AMA SX Title.
AMA Supercross 2019 450 Round One Main Event Results
Justin Barcia – Yamaha
Ken Roczen – Honda +3.053
Eli Tomac – Kawasaki +4.890
Dean Wilson – Husqvarna +9.948
Cooper Webb – KTM +17.107
Aaron Plessinger – Yamaha +24.833
Malcolm Stewart – Honda +36.186
Marvin Musquin – KTM +47.621
Chad Reed – Suzuki +58.144
Cole Seely – Honda +71.386
Justin Brayton – Honda +1 lap
Blake Baggett – KTM +1 lap
Vince Friese – Honda +1 lap
Jason Anderson – Husqvarna +1 lap
Justin Hill – Suzuki +1 lap
Joey Savatgy – Kawasaki +1 lap
Carlen Gardner – Honda +2 laps
Ben Lamay – Honda +2 laps
Justin Bogle – KTM +2 laps
Ryan Breece – Yamaha +3 laps
AMA Supercross 2019 450 Round One Main Event Results Justin Barcia – Yamaha Ken Roczen – Honda +3.053 Eli Tomac – Kawasaki +4.890
AMA Supercross 2019 Championship Points
Justin Barcia – Yamaha 26
Ken Roczen – Honda 23
Eli Tomac – Kawasaki 21
Dean Wilson – Husqvarna 19
Cooper Webb – KTM 18
Aaron Plessinger – Yamaha 17
Malcolm Stewart – Honda 16
Marvin Musquin – KTM 15
Chad Reed – Suzuki 14
Cole Seely – Honda 13
Justin Brayton – Honda 12
Blake Baggett – KTM 11
Vince Friese – Honda 10
Jason Anderson – Husqvarna 9
Justin Hill – Suzuki 8
Joey Savatgy – Kawasaki 7
Carlen Gardner – Honda 6
Ben Lamay – Honda 5
Justin Bogle – KTM 4
Ryan Breece – Yamaha 3
250 SX
Colt Nichols got the new year off to a sensational start tonight, taking his first career Monster Energy AMA Supercross 250SX win at the season opener at Angels Stadium of Anaheim. It was great night for Monster Energy/Star/ Yamaha Racing with teammate Dylan Ferrandis joining the Oklahoma native on the podium in second-place.
Dylan Ferrandis
Nichols started the night looking poised for a top result with his solid second-place finish in his Heat race. When the gate dropped for the Main Event, he was ready. He got a good start and went on to lead every lap of the race in spite of worsening weather conditions. The result was an impressive win for the 24yr old and a stunning debut for the all-new 2019 Yamaha YZ250F.
Colt Nichols
Colt Nichols
“It’s really an indescribable feeling to win at A1. The conditions were far from perfect but I was able to stay focused, ride my laps to take the win. That was the longest race of my life, it felt like. My mechanic gave me five to go, four to go, three to go… You’re kind of talking to yourself a little bit to get through it. I just tried to stay consistent. I really didn’t know how big of a lead I had and who was in second at the time, so just tried to keep the focus forward. I knew if I tried to relax a little too much I’d probably make a big mistake and crashed. So I just kind of tried to keep it moving and it ended up working out for me. The off-season was great this year. I was really, really pumped on how everything went. This is really what it was for. You can’t describe the feeling I had jumping that finish line in first. That’s why we all do this. For me to cross that off my list was a really, really big deal. That made all the suffering, all the pain of the past two years completely worth it.”
Colt Nichols
Victorian privateer Tomas Ravenhorst contested the A1 series opener on his privately entered KTM 250 SX-F. The 23-year-old finished a creditable 12th place in his Heat Race then went on to finish eighth in the LCQ but missed out on joining the main event this time around.
AMA Supercross 2019 250 Western Round One Main Event Results
Colt Nichols (Yamaha)
Dylan Ferrandis (Yamaha) +16.398
Shane McElrath (KTM) +20.268
RJ Hampshire (Honda) +42.339
Adam Cianciarulo (Kawasaki) +48.964
Garrett Marchbanks (Kawasaki) +59.254
Jimmy Decotis (Suzuki) +1 lap
Jacob Hayes (Yamaha) +1 lap
Chris Blose (Husqvarna) +1 lap
Jess Pettis (KTM) +1 lap
AMA Supercross 2019 250 Western Championship Points
Colt Nichols (Yamaha), 26
Dylan Ferrandis (Yamaha), 23
Shane McElrath (KTM), 21
RJ Hampshire (Honda), 19
Adam Cianciarulo (Kawasaki), 18
Garrett Marchbanks (Kawasaki), 17
Jimmy Decotis (Suzuki), 16
Jacob Hayes (Yamaha), 15
Chris Blose (Husqvarna), 14
Jess Pettis (KTM), 13
Monster Energy Supercross next heads to Glendale, Arizona, next Saturday, January 12, for Round 2 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship at State Farm Stadium.
Adam Cianciarulo aims to return to racing for the start of the 2020 AMA Pro Motocross Championship 
