Anaheim 2: Race Day Feed
US Supercross 2016
Morning Report by Kyle Scott & Jason Weigandt
The track is a little soft in the early practices with lots of ruts forming all the way through the corners and into some sections. Even some Glen Helen like ruts all the way up the face of the triple in the outfield.
There are two sets of whoops here and one is legit! We'll see if they stay that way all night.
The step down jump after the finish is quite a little booter. No one is really able to stay low off of it. Tomac went down in the first practice section here. Nothing major, but he launched high and to the right on top of the tough blocks. He quickly pulled into the mechanics area, adjusted his levers and went back out.
Dungey and Roczen were the first to get through the long rhythm in the first practice doing 3-2-3-2.
450 Main
Davi Millsaps and Ryan Dungey battled for the holeshot early in this one, Millsaps ended up just inside of Dungey out of turn one to secure it. The BTOSports.com KTM mounted Millsaps rode well early, holding Dungey at bay for a few laps while Chad Reed quickly worked to third to shadow them. The rest of the contenders? Way back. Ken Roczen had a bad start again, Eli Tomac wasn't much better, Jason Anderson and Cole Seely as well. Worse, Trey Canard collided with Justin Brayton and crashed out, completing a terrible night for him complete with a scary heat race crash and a cut hand.
On the fourth lap, Dungey dove inside of Millsaps and looked to have a pass made, but he bobbled trying to get out of a rut, and Millsaps squirted back ahead. Dungey tried an inside again a half lap later, and firmly shut the door to put his Red Bull KTM into the lead. Reed was right there and got around Millsaps on lap six, but by then Dungey was already rolling out front. Dungey just looks amazing right now, and while Reed charged hard, Dungey kept on pulling away.
Then some heavy hitters started moving toward the front. Weston Peick was next in the order behind Millsaps, but soon Tomac, Roczen and Anderson steamrolled through. They got around Peick and Millsaps, then closed on Reed to make for a tremendous battle for second during the second half of the race.
With a few laps left, Tomac was using his trick line through a rhythm lane to get close to Reed and try to set him up for a pass for second. But Tomac washed the front end of his Monster Energy Kawasaki in a corner and went down. This pu Roczen into third, and he attacked Reed before a late mistake. Reed held on for second behind Dungey for the second-straight week.
"I was sitting behind Davi for a bit and I was able to make the pass," said Dungey on Fox Sports' TV coverage. "Chad was back there for a bit, I know he was wanting that ninth Anaheim win, but my bike was working awesome. It's everything right now--the preparation, good starts, pushing hard the first five laps."
"Last week I was happy," said Monster Energy/360Fly/Chaparral Yamaha's Reed. "I keep telling myself this year I want to be appreciative with seconds and just getting up on the podium. But man I'm a competitor. I'm a little bummed on that ride. This was a really fun track, a lot of challenges out there, it had ruts....I would normally call that a track that suits me. But I struggled all day. To struggle and not feel 100 percent and get a second, I'm happy. We'll do our homework and keep going. Consistency is going to be key. There's a reason why we're [Dungey and I] are two time champs, it takes 17 rounds."
"It was tough, obviously the start didn't happen again, I'm actually pretty pissed off about it," said Roczen, of Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John's RCH Suzuki. "I came back strong in the second half, I made a mistake in that second whoop section, I think I might have been able to get Chad. We're going to come back strong, we're going to keep drilling those starts, and we'll make it happen, I promise you that."
Tomac picked it up to take fourth, ahead of Anderson's Rockstar Husqvarna. Honda HRC's Seely came from about tenth to snag sixth after back-to-back podiums to start the year. Millsaps was seventh ahead of his teammate Brayton, and Red Bull KTM's Marvin Musquin came from last--down in turn one--all the way back to ninth in a great ride.
Team Tedder/Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jake Weimer logged another solid ride with tenth, and Monster Energy Kawasaki's Wil Hahn had his season-best with 11th. Christophe Pourcel had a terrible start and finished 12th, ahead of SmarTop MotoConcepts' Mike Alessi. Peick crashed back to 14th on his Autotrader.com/Monster Energy JGR Yamaha, and CycleTrader.com/Rock River Yamaha's Tommy Hahn was 15th.
250 Main
What a race! Cooper Webb got off to his typical lackluster start, and his main competitors--Christian Craig, Joey Savatgy and Zach Osborne--were ahead of him. Craig stole the lead from Savatgy quickly and put down some incredible laps, while Webb went to work from about fifth. First he picked off his Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha teammate Alex Martin, but then the going got tougher.
First Osborne put up a heck of a fight for third, Webb finally made his way around. Savatgy crashed from second all by himself in the whoops, leaving only Craig to try to stop Webb from snagging another win. And Craig fought for it! Webb caught him, and they spent three laps going crazy with passes, Webb repeatedly diving inside, and Craig squaring him up each time to hold him off.
On lap seven, Web made the pass in the last turn before the finish. Craig squared him up in the next corner and took it back. They exchanged spots again and Craig stood Webb up in the corner before the second whoops. They went back and forth standing each other up corners, but keeping it clean, which allowed Osborne to close in on the gap they had on him.
After awhile, it seemed like Webb would have to get frustrated and maybe get dirty, but instead he kept his cool. He finished the stand-up game by getting inside in the first turn corner, which forced Craig to check up and lose all his momentum going into the first rhythm section. This allowed Webb to pull away and ultimately check out.
"That was actually fun," said Webb, not angry over all the moves by Craig. "Been awhile since I've battled someone like that. Zach was in there too keeping it close."
Once Webb had the lead, Osborne was right there on Craig and made his move entering the first set of whoops. After all that battling, Craig looked like he had lost all his steam at this point as he was no longer charging and settled for third.
"I got tight--haven't led like that before," said Craig. "I'm learning."
"I wish I had pushed a little harder while they were in that battle," said Osborne. "Cooper's riding awesome, not taking anything away from him at all. I think it will take a perfect moto from me to win one of these."
Late in the race, Savatgy made his way back up to fourth, getting around Craig's GEICO Honda teammate Jimmy Decotis. Then came Jordon Smith, followed by Motorcyclesuperstore.com Suzuki's Kyle Cunningham with his best race of the season.
Another strong ride for Colt Nichols, the CycleTrader/Rock River Yamaha rider is 7-5-8 in results early this season. Mitch Oldenburg was ninth on a Go Pro/Red Bull/Troy Lee Designs KTM, with Ride365.com Honda's Kyle Peters logging another consistent performance with tenth.
Alex Martin had a rough night. He went down in his heat in the whoops in the exact same spot after a good start in the main.