“Ryan was clearly fast today, fastest in qualifying, won the heat and the Main Event. I got a look at him in the Heat race so for twenty-six laps I was following and I’m giving up a little bit in the turns. He’s strong. Whether it is set-up or his style…it might be a combination of them all.” Chad Reed, 34 years old in March, was the only rider who could follow the reigning champion around the slippy but challenging course inside the Petco Park stadium (with some of the brightest lighting we’ve seen at a Supercross).
The Australian kept the KTM within two seconds for much of a lengthy twenty lap main event after a lively start. Once Ken Roczen – probably the only athlete able to match Dungey’s pace and precision – had run off the track and out of the battle for second/third then the front two were unchallenged as Cole Seely, Jason Anderson and RCH Suzuki-mounted German went for the final rostrum spot.
Dungey could not have been more comprehensive to bag his maiden win of 2016, the 28th of his career and his ninth from the last nineteen rounds but it was Reed’s resurgence on the YZ450F in just his second race and since the deal with Yamaha Motor U.S. was announced late that caught the eye. Reed might be twelve years older compared to when he took his first crown in blue back in 2002 on a YZ250F but his technique and tidy style was good enough here to vie for victory if Dungey had made a slip. Much will depend on whether ‘22’ can repeat the start at the Petco that will place him into contention. It was back in San Diego in 2014 where Reed crashed in the whoops and ended a genuine chance of championship success. Last Saturday could be the launch of a twilight shot at glory once more (something of a popular theme for Yamaha in their racing at the highest level).
“Earlier in my career I can remember being mad-as-hell with second and getting beaten by a couple of seconds but now I am thankful,” he said. “When you make a career out of being on the podium more times than not then it feels like a long time [since his last in 2015] and we’re used to being here. I learnt a lot tonight and will put it in the memory bank for next week.”
“[It was] Validation for myself. I hear everybody, and sometimes you doubt yourself. You think ‘man, am I crazy?!’ The wife says yes and my agent also but…the feeling is there and you cannot walk away from it,” he went on. “I see Kev [Windham] and Ricky [Carmichael] and the others who have stepped away and I’m not ready. I’m not ready to be a [TV] announcer or a Team Manager. I want to be a racer.”
Roczen lamented his mistake through his Instagram channel and Jason Anderson was in the mix but will lose the red plate after being bumped from third to fifth after jumping on a medical flag. Dean Wilson was elated with a Heat victory (giving KTM an early clean sweep before the Main) but suffered with a start and a mistake when it counted. Christophe Pourcel was also sprightly, particularly off the line, but had no answer to the bustling going on in the opening laps that almost made it hard to keep track of proceedings (They were a little more aggressive that I was, but I just have to be patient and keep pushing,” the Frenchman said who had not raced SX for five years prior to Anaheim eight days previously). “It is going to be like that all year,” observed Reed. “Starts are going to be key and that’s why we worked so hard on them this week.”
Once Eli Tomac hones his starts on the factory Kawasaki then he will be in contention and Justin Barcia just seems to be struggling for confidence on the JGR Yamaha (rumours of a rift between the team and Yamaha floating out from the paddock and talk of the set-up even moving away from blue in 2017). A spat between Anderson and Barcia from the Heat race – the Anaheim winner moving the Motocross of Nations rider wide and off the track – showed that there is little love lost between the two.
250SX and Cooper Webb is showing ‘Herlings-esque’ levels of superiority in the category. Mistakes in the Heat saw the champion coming through the Semi and therefore missing the best gate pick for the Main. Deep in the top ten around the opening lap he picked off his rivals in a surprisingly shallow field – the young Mitchell Oldenburg showing promise but also a tendency for mistakes – and set about Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne. The former Grand Prix star led for the majority of the fifteen laps after dealing with Jordan Smith and at one stage looked set for a maiden 250SX victory but Webb closed, showed a wheel and passed and Osborne retaliated immediately which ruined his line and speed for the whoops. Webb had several bike lengths and started to pull away with three laps to go as Osborne then dropped the FC250 out of the second turn and tumbled to sixth.
Supercross moves to Anaheim again, then to Oakland and back to Petco Park in the next three weeks in a bizarre and insular circle and could perhaps explain why the arena in San Diego was not full to capacity (I’d estimate around two thirds of the 40+ seats were taken) as California again had to wrap up against some winter temperatures.
Photo by Ray Archer
