Wow. What an Anaheim 1 opener we just had. The first round of seventeen of the Monster Energy Supercross series had everything one could want in a race. There were some great rides, some curious ones, some crashes, take-outs and a disqualification even. And in the end, one has to wonder if we’re seeing the beginning of an era in the sport. Let’s get right into this yes?

-Rockstar Husqvarna’s Jason Anderson rode terrifically in both mains (we’ll get to that in a second) to take his first career win in 450SX. Along with Anderson’s first win it was also the first for Husqvarna although let’s be honest here, it’s just a KTM. So I’m having a hard time getting misty eyed thinking of the great Swedish brand and all it’s history. Anyhoo, Anderson—yeah he was amazing. After a surprising second last year at Anaheim he was up and down the rest of the season. Anderson made up a five-second gap on early leader Cole Seely and then just kept it on, winning by four seconds.

You have to wonder if this is something out of Anaheim ’93 when a young 125SX champion named Jeremy McGrath shocked the world and took the main event. Maybe, just maybe this is Anderson’s rising star moment—one where we’re all going to reference back to. All throughout the off-season there has been word of how fast Anderson has been in Florida training with KTM’s Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin. He showed everyone that it wasn’t just a rumor, that’s for sure.

-Speaking of Ryan Dungey, he made contact with a very fast Trey Canard in the main event and went down. He got up and still passed Seely late in the main for the runner-up spot. He was very, very fast as was Ken Roczen who crashed all night long, including in the first turn, to come back to fifth. Canard went down by himself while in third. When you look at the night overall, Anderson, Dungey (with a crash), Roczen (with a crash), Canard (with a crash) were all VERY impressive and the series couldn’t have started any better for them.

-Speaking of the guys who have to be wondering what exactly happened at Anaheim 1. JGR Yamaha’s Justin Barcia tightened up in the arms and faded badly. Eli Tomac wasn’t poor but he wasn’t amazing like we’ve seen before. And perhaps no one had a worse Anaheim than James Stewart. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider was third in the main event and looking to make a move when he cut down on a berm and Dungey collided with him. Stewart flew off the bike and knocked himself out which created a red flag and a restart. Stewart’s status for this weekend is up in the air but the opening round just continued a downward trend at the races for ‘7’ ever since he came back from suspension. This train could be off the rails before it really ever got back on.

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