(Photo: Feld Entertainment, Inc.)
By Aaron Bearden
More often than not, the opening round of Monster Energy Supercross is a tame one compared to the races that follow. The tracks tend to be more tame, aggression and desperation aren’t as high and there’s a general feeling of nervous tension as riders feel their bikes and each other out on the course.
That certainly wasn’t the case this year.
A challenging track and intense action saw the Supercross field in midseason form, supplying the sort of racing that awes and occasionally worries spectators watching on.
There were a host of talking points thrown into the opening night in Anaheim. Let’s break them down.
Sudden Comfort
On paper, Ken Roczen’s ride to a Round 1 win seems like it was an easy one. Despite struggling through an illness-filled December, Roczen immediately showed strong form in Anaheim. He took the lead on the opening lap of both his heat and main, kept from putting a wheel wrong and won by a sizable margin at race’s end.
But Roczen’s 450SX victory wasn’t as simple as it may have seemed. Honda teammate Chase Sexton started right in his tracks and stalked Roczen through the opening laps, even throwing a few attempted passes at him along the way.
Given Roczen’s potentially limited physical endurance after his December sickness, there seemed to be an opportunity for Sexton to strike and overcome the veteran. But Sexton dumped his bike into a corner while pursuing Roczen and (literally) fell out of contention. A few laps later he dropped again in the whoops, all-but assuring he wouldn’t play any role in the fight for the win.
No one else was remotely close to Roczen. After Sexton’s issues, he was able to cruise to a comfortable win and make a strong statement of intent to the Supercross field.
“I’m a little surprised,” Roczen admitted in the post-race press conference. “I felt surprisingly good. It just came down to not riding as much in December. When you don’t do 20s all the time they just feel a little foreign.”
On the opposite end of Roczen’s triumphant night was Sexton, who saw a prime opportunity at a season-opening win end with a disappointing fifth-place result.
“I kinda feel like an idiot for making those mistakes,” Sexton admitted. “The first one kind of caught me off guard. The second one was pretty much me just riding off emotion.
“Unfortunate for me, but I showed a lot of fight in that one.”
Chaos Gives Way to Cooper Webb Consistency
While Roczen rolled to victory, the field behind him found themselves embroiled in chaos.
There were passes, dashes and more than a couple crashes. Justin Barcia knocked down Jason Anderson while fighting for a spot on the podium. Marvin Musquin and Malcolm Stewart collided a little further back in the field and both fell over.
Stewart let Musquin know of his umbrage with the incident afterward.
Tempers ran high after a CRAZY 450SX Main Event here in Anaheim 🔥#SupercrossLIVE pic.twitter.com/74nZAVGnRo
— Supercross LIVE! (@SupercrossLIVE) January 9, 2022
Seemingly everyone struggled with the challenging conditions. While they suffered, defending champion Cooper Webb provided another consistent ride that helped him maximize what had otherwise been a quiet night in Anaheim.
Webb surged through the top-five and into second in the final 10 minutes to finish on the second step of the podium. His night wasn’t anything flashy, but the result was enough to position him well heading into the early stretch of the season.
“I wasn’t too mad,” Webb said of his night. “I was bummed in the heat when I tucked the front. That’s about it. (The) track was tough. You had to find that fine line between being aggressive but not going too far.”
Behind him in third was Barcia, who had to settle for a finish two spots lower on the podium than he’d managed in three-consecutive season-opening wins prior to 2022. Like Webb, the veteran was just happy to come home with a respectable result from a challenging night.
“I’m quite happy with myself and with how I managed the race,” he said. “I wasn’t the fastest guy. The whole race was a lot of pressure and I usually handle that quite well. For the first round it was one of the trickiest tracks.”
Musquin’s Manic Night
A fourth-place finish isn’t usually something to celebrate for Marvin Musquin, but it wasn’t a bad result given the eventful night he’d endured.
That said, the French rider might not have have a friend in Stewart for a while moving forward.
Musquin’s night nearly risked ending early. He was caught up in a crash with Barcia during his heat, requiring a late rally from the KTM star to avoid the last-chance qualifier.
A quiet start in the feature gave way to more drama when Musquin was caught up in the collision with Stewart that left both riders on the ground. From there the feature became a race of damage control, with Musquin attempting to rally through the field and salvage a strong night.
To his credit, the Frenchman did just that. Musquin roared through the back half of the top-10 and into the top-five. In the final laps he engaged in one of the best battles of the night with Sexton, ultimately prevailing ahead of the Honda rider to end his night one spot off of the podium in fourth.
That result keeps Musquin in a decent championship position leaving the opening race. He just might want to be mindful about potential payback from Stewart moving forward.
Other Early Signs
Eli Tomac has endured worse opening nights, but his debut with the Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing team wasn’t much to note. Tomac wasn’t really a factor in the feature, coming home a quiet sixth after benefitting from some of the race’s attrition.
Stewart’s fuming frustration with Musquin at night’s end followed a rally back to seventh in the main. Joey Savatgy was quiet in eighth, while Aaron Plessinger was lucky to salvage ninth from a difficult day in Anaheim. Anderson’s fall at the hands of Barcia bounced him back to 10th.
Adam Cianciarulo was positioned in the top three early on after a strong start, but faded to 11th at the end. He’s riding with a preseason shoulder injury, though, so the physicality of Saturday’s race means that result might not be as bad as it appears.
Perhaps the most disappointing result went to Dylan Ferrandis. The teammate of Tomac hoped to have a strong ride to open what he hopes will be a title-contending campaign. But Ferrandis stalled his bike after getting caught up with Sexton in the whoops and then suffered a trip off-track, relegating him to a disappointing 16th at race’s end.
Early Injuries
While the 450SX class’ attrition was mostly limited to disappointing finishes, the 250SX class saw some nasty falls that seemingly resulted in injuries.
Christian Craig shot past early leader Vince Friese to secure a comfortable win in the 250 feature, opening his 30-year-old season with another victory.
A few of his fellow competitors were much less fortunate.
Colt Nichols held an early lead in the opening 250 heat and seemed poised for a heat victory to begin his night. But Nichols endoed in a whoops section and suffered a brutal fall, his bike landing on top of him and leaving him laying on the edge of the racing surface.
Nichols didn’t return to the race. He was left just off the racing surface as the field completed the final three laps before being transported off of the course. .
Jalek Swoll’s night ended even quicker in Heat 2. He suffered a hard crash in the opening rhythm section and elicited a red flag so he could be taken off-course in a backboard. The heat was restarted completely, per series rules.
Neither rider returned to action for the rest of the night.
450SX Main Results
- Ken Roczen
- Cooper Webb
- Justin Barcia
- Marvin Musquin
- Chase Sexton
- Eli Tomac
- Malcolm Stewart
- Joey Savatgy
- Aaron Plessinger
- Jason Anderson
- Adam Cianciarulo
- Dean Wilson
- Justin Brayton
- Max Anstie
- Mitchell Oldenburg
- Dylan Ferrandis
- Brandon Hartranft
- Shane McElrath
- Cade Clason
- Fredrik Noren
- Justin Starling
- Ryan Breece
250SX Main Results
- Christian Craig
- Seth Hammaker
- Hunter Lawrence
- Garrett Marchbanks
- Vince Friese
- Michael Mosiman
- Jo Shimoda
- Robbie Wageman
- Dominique Thury
- Carson Mumford
- Chris Blose
- Nate Thrasher
- Mitchell Harrison
- Cole Thompson
- Dilan Schwartz
- Ryan Surratt
- Dylan Walsh
- Logan Karnow
- Hunter Schlosser
- Kaeden Amerine
- Derek Kelley
- Devin Harriman
Next Up
Monster Energy Supercross ventures to Oakland’s RingCentral Coliseum on Jan. 15 for the second round of the 2022 season.
