Round 6: San Diego 2
US Supercross 2016
450 Main Event
Ryan Dungey didn't have the best start--for about 100 feet. Just like he did two weeks ago in Oakland, he simply go on the brakes early, let everyone drift wide, and put his Red Bull KTM across the holeshot stripe first. You pretty much know what Dungey did with the twenty laps after that.
Behind him, HRC Honda men Cole Seely and Trey Canard were second and third. Seely took off, not quite matching Dungey's pace but distancing himself from everyone else. It was a strong ride, and second is his best of the season.
"Dungey didn’t make any mistakes and was able to run just a little bit faster than me,” said Seely.
Canard, meanwhile, had his hands full with and Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John's Suzuki's Ken Roczen and Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac. Roczen eventually shoved his way in the door and made the move on Canard to get to third. "Tonight I have to be satisfied with a third, but I didn’t feel comfortable, we made a lot of changes to the bike. I'm leaving here healthy, I'm going to keep looking at the positive side."
After Roczen got Canard, Tomac tried to do the same, but repeated pass attempts came up short. Eventually Rockstar Energy Husqvarna's Jason Anderson took advantage and surprised Tomac with a slick block pass, then made relatively quick work of Canard. This slid Anderson to fourth, and Canard kept Tomac at bay all the way to the end to hold fifth. That's Canard's best finish of the year.
450 LCQ
Blake Baggett crashed in the first turn and will be not be lining up for the main with his sixth place finish. Weimer started in sixth and finished in second. Christophe Pourcel led from start to finish. Cade Clason tried sliding in on Nick Schmidt on face of the finish line jump on the last lap and celebrated as if he got it, but it wasn’t enough. Close but no cigar.
450 Semis
Semi 2: Justin Bogle led this one from start to finish, leg swag and all. Blake Baggett started in second, but crashed back to fourth. Nice to see the number 19 and 4 back on the track, but Baggett was in serious trouble after the fall, getting sucked into a W.Hahn/T.Hahn/Vince Friese battle for the final transfer. On the last lap Friese snuck underneath Baggett to take the final spot, sending Baggett to the LCQ.
Justin Brayton was riding like a man on a mission after his heat race crash and even tripled out of the corner after the second set of whoops—the first to do that all day. Let’s see if anyone else picks that up for the main.
Semi 1: Mike Alessi pulled one of his signature holeshots, but Peick was all over him. Although it took Peick two laps to make the move, he made it stick and cruised for the win. Jake Weimer was nearly in last place on the first lap and is headed to the LCQ.
250 Main
The right hand start claimed more victims as Hayden Mellross, Alex Martin, and Kyle Cunningham found themselves on the ground. Chris Alldredge had the early lead, but on lap two, his bike had a problem and he spent the remainder of the race cheering on his teammate, Joey Savatgy, from the mechanics area.
With Alldredge out, Savatgy inherited the lead and had Cooper Webb pressuring him for the next five laps. Webb showed Savatgy a wheel multiple times, but couldn’t make the pass. Webb tried cutting low and inside twice in the corner after the first triple, but could never make the move stick. Savatgy slid by each time and tripled into the sand section while Webb was only able to double. On lap seven while charging, Webb washed his front end in the right sweeper after the start straight. Big mistake, and it allowed Savatgy to cruise from there to his second career win. Savatgy will run the sole 250 red plate and for the third week in a row heading to Dallas.
Cooper got up quick, but was in about sixth. He quickly harged back onto Christian Craig in second and they began battling as they have in weeks past. Webb tried cutting way down low on the entry to the corner before the start straight and momentarily made the pass, but that just shot him super wide by the exit of the turn--had to check up and clipped a tough block coming back onto the track. He was eventually able to catch Craig again and make the pass, enough to take second with Craig in third.
Colt Nichols put together yet another strong run through traffic for a solid fourth. Zach Osborne was solid and tried to hook on with Webb after Webb recovered from his brief crash, but ended up losing a little ground and ended up fifth.
GEICO Honda teammates Jimmy Decotis and Jordon Smith were up front early, but Decotis faded back from third, just behind the Savatgy/Webb battle at one point, to seventh. Smith ended up crashing out right behind Webb and didn't finish.
250 Heats
250 LCQ
The best word to describe this LCQ is carnage. Six guys went down, all separately. Chase Marquier went down the hardest and took a ride on the Asterisk mule with his head low, bummed. Also down while in a transfer position: Bracken Hall and Noah McConahy. Scott Champion bulldogged his way to the front, Killian Auberson got landed on by Marquier but somehow stayed up and managed to take second, then Steven Mages and Austin Politelli took the final transfer spots. Bummer for Trevor Reis and Dillan Epstein, who ended up just short in fifth and sixth.
Heat 2:
Cooper Webb took the early lead and started to check out before Zach Osborne got fired up and reeled him back in. From then, Osborne pressured Webb the whole race matching each of his rhythms. Osborne went for the kill shot, with a block pass attempt in the turn before the last triple but couldn’t make it work and had to settle for second. Most of the 250's are doing the triple into the sand second now. The thing about this triple is it’s more of a double, a turn and a single—pretty gnarly.
Heat 1: Christian Craig picked up the holeshot and then nearly lost it with a squirrely first turn fresh from the dirt wurx crew. Chris Alldredge washed his front end on lap two, but got up quickly and still managed to finish fifth. There were some hard block passes back and forth between Geico Honda teammates Jordon Smith and Jimmy Decotis in the early laps—the kind of block passes that you normally don’t seem from teammates. Joey Savatgy came through the pack and Decotis put up the same fight he did with Smith, but it wasn’t enough and Savatgy took second.
Morning Report
Blue bird skies down here in downtown San Diego and Blue Angels graphic kits on the Motorcycle Superstore Suzukis. What a great day for Monster Energy Supercross. Round six in the series and round two in Petco Park in 2016. It’s military appreciation here and nearly everyone is representing somehow with unique gear, graphics, or both.
Another right handed start should make things interesting—it’s a 180-degree right so hopefully fewer guys will go flying off the track than with a 90-degree. With seven 180-degree turns, there should be lots of great passing opportunities throughout the night.
This will be Andrew Short’s first race in 2016 after injuring his shoulder in December. Shorty was looking good at press day, but told us he doesn’t have any expectations for the weekend. Blake Baggett, and Justin Bogle are also making their return this weekend.
Racer X is on site for round six of Monster Energy Supercross. San Diego's old Jack Murphy Qualcomm Stadium is a spot rich in SX history, and although Petco Park only joined the tour starting last year, it's plenty familiar because we just raced here a few weeks ago!
The plot has changed quite a bit since then. Ryan Dungey came into San Diego 1 without the red plate, now he's holding it firmly. The rider with the points lead back then, Jason Anderson, has yet to get back on the podium in the official results (he briefly stood on the box here last month but was penalized back to fifth). Justin Barcia, James Stewart, Broc Tickle, Kyle Chisholm and many others who were here for round two are not, but Blake Bagget and Andrew Short, who were not racing, are back. In the 250 class, Cooper Webb has the red plate like he did at SD1, but now Joey Savatgy has one as well, since they're tied in points.
Add this all up and you can see the world of supercross can be fast changing. But if you're the 450SX competition stacked up behind Dungey, you're hoping for more change soon. Dungey won on that night here four weeks ago, and he's held control of the series since. Will anything change? You'll find out right here.
