That was carnage! Ken Roczen took the holeshot at A1 with Chase Sexton his teammate on his tail, and host elite level riders fighting tooth and nail behind them in an intense start to the season. Sexton looked like he had extra pace but a few laps in Sexton went down, got up still fighting for a top five then lost his composure and crashed in the whoops almost taking out Adam Cianciarulo who had a great start in third.
Marvin Musquin went for a pass on Malcolm Stewart but took them both out as they chased top five, meanwhile Sexton got his way back to sixth passing Ferrandis who then stalled in the whoops after coming from outside the top ten.
Up front, Roczen had a ten second lead but the battle was on for second with Anderson all over Barcia. He made the move but then Barcia retaliated and left Anderson on the deck and Webb back up to third and on the back wheel of Barcia! Webb then made his move to second as yet again Webb, who didn’t look great at the start of the main, took advantage of everyone else’s mistakes and found his flow as the race went on.
Eli Tomac had a strange race with a bad start,getting inside the top ten close to Webb in the opening couple of laps, then dropping back to tenth before coming forward again to sixth.
But it was Ken Roczen’s night, silky smooth and zero mistakes on a track when everyone else was making them, to take another win at Anaheim, with Webb second and Barcia third. Behind the podium trio, two guys who had been on the deck earlier in the main, Musquin and Sexton, crossed the line together with Musquin getting the verdict for fourth.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said delighted Roczen. “My December has been horrendous, I didn’t expect that at all. Everything just went right and I am very thankful for that. The track was brutal, I just tried to manage it and push as much as I had to.”
Christian Craig walked away with the 250 race win once he got by early race leader Vince Friese – who didn’t make things easy for Craig initially! Seth Hammaker then worked his way around that man Friese but he came under pressure from Marchbanks who put Friese back to fourth.
Hunter Lawrence had a bad start but came through to fourth passing Friese, then passed Marchbanks on the last lap to get third – and nearly got Hammaker for second on the last turn! It was a nightmare start for Jo Shimoda who hit the gate and had to come from last to seventh. Micheal Mosiman, who had been flying all day long and won his heat, got rammed after a bad start by Dylan Walsh, (who qualified for his first supercross with a win in the LCQ), that left Mosiman tipping over and, like Shimoda, coming from the back of the field in a race he would have expected to challenge for the win but he had to settle for sixth tonight.
Craig said: “This is bucket list for me, I grew up in those stands as a kid. What an awesome main event, I felt awesome all day. Didn’t get the best of starts made my way through the pack, clean passes then just clicked off my laps.”
Report: Jonathan McCready