Round Three – Anaheim 2 – 450 Triple Crown

Images by Hoppenworld

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The third round of the 17-round 2019 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship was staged under a full moon in Angel Stadium and A2 was run in the big stakes triple crown format that fans have come to love. Three x 450 Mains provided plenty of action and each ran for a duration of 12-minutes plus 1 lap.

All the most fancied runners automatically made their way through to the mains with qualifying conducted on lap times rather than the normal Heat race format. The round points in the triple-crown format are decided on the results from across the three Mains.

Ken Roczen led the points chase by a single point over Justin Barcia as they readied for A1. When they left Angel Stadium Roczen would still be leading the series, despite a somewhat lack-lustre night for the German, while Barcia would be leaving in a medical transport vehicle…

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Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 1

Ken Roczen scored the holeshot ahead of Cooper Webb, Marvin Musquin and Eli Tomac when the first Main got underway.  Musquin made a small mistake in the first rhythm section which allowed Tomac through to third place. Cole Seely was in fifth ahead of Joey Savatgy and Justin Hill while Chad Reed was in eighth.

Defending Champion Jason Anderson and A1 winner Justin Barcia were taking their time to get up to speed, the pair running 9-10 in the opening laps of the first Main. The track made passing opportunities hard to come by, and instead moves had to be somewhat forced.

With a few minutes remaining it was Roczen leading by 1.2-secs over Webb, who had another 2-secs on Tomac. Cole Seely was still in fifth but Anderson had made his way forward to sixth, Savatgy seventh, Barcia was up to eighth, Reed was in ninth and Dean Wilson was rounding out the top ten.

Glendale winner Blake Baggett was just outside the top ten but then caught up in the bunting on a tough-block and lost a number of places.

Marvin Musquin got the better of Eli Tomac with two-mins left in the allotted time.

As they got the last lap board Cooper Webb closed right on to the tail of Roczen and started to challenge for the victory.  Webb got Roczen over a jump and managed to hold on to take the chequered flag and victory in the opening race of the night.

Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 1 Results

1. Cooper Webb
2. Ken Roczen +00.549
3. Marvin Musquin +07.825
4. Eli Tomac +11.180
5. Cole Seely +13.805
6. Jason Anderson +15.239
7. Justin Barcia +16.161
8. Joey Savatgy +25.974
9. Dean Wilson +29.990
10. Chad Reed +31.487

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Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 2

Cooper Webb shot out of the gates to claim the holeshot in the second bout over a fast starting Cole Seely. Jason Anderson and Justin Barcia both had much better starts this time around and were ahead of a sixth placed Ken Roczen in the early stages of the second Main.

Chad Reed watched on from the sidelines as he had failed to start the second Main after a problem with the Yoshimura Suzuki.

Roczen got the better of Barcia a few laps into the race and then started challenging Anderson for fourth place, the German got past Anderson with eight-minutes remaining.

Musquin then slipped past Seely for third place to make it a Red Bull KTM 1-2 at the front of the race, but Webb maintained a 2.6-second lead over his teammate.

Seely then made a mistake which allowed his Honda team-mate Ken Roczen to close in and take third place from him.

Ken Roczen then fell from third place in the whoops with five-minutes remaining, the #94 was relegated all the way back to ninth place before getting back on the bike. He quickly got back past Baggett, then Dean Wilson to move back up to seventh place behind Eli Tomac.

Tomac and Roczen then squeezed past Cole Seely before the pair chased down Jason Anderson, pushing the Husqvarna man back to sixth place.

Justin Barcia had a relatively lonely race in third place, while Cooper Webb maintained his advantage over Marvin Musquin to the flag to take his second win of the night.

Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 2 Results

1. Cooper Webb
2. Marvin Musquin +03.818
3. Justin Barcia +08.334
4. Eli Tomac +13.289
5. Ken Roczen +14.984
6. Jason Anderson +18.504
7. Cole Seely +19.556
8. Dean Wilson +19.896
9. Aaron Plessinger +23.916
10. Blake Baggett +25.292
    …DNS. Chad Reed

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Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 3

Chad Reed might have missed the second moto with a mechanical problem but that obviously had fired him up for this one as the Aussie legend very nearly claimed the holeshot. Eli Tomac and Cooper Webb swept past him at turn one but Reed was right in the mix. Jason Anderson then lost more positions after making a mistake on a tabletop.

Marvin Musquin then moved past Reed for third place but Reed then managed to hold out Ken Roczen for a number of laps. Reed really made the young German battle for that fourth position before finally allowing the Honda past with six-minutes remaining.

Justin Barcia got cross-rutted and went down heavily and was being treated by the side of the circuit, the #51 would take no more part in the proceedings. The Yamaha rider was sent off for scans on his tailbone area but should be back in action when AMA Supercross heads to Oakland for round four next weekend.

Up front Tomac had pulled the pin and was looking untouchable, by half race distance the Kawasaki man already had a five-second lead over the KTM duo of Cooper Webb and Marvin Musquin.  The two men KTM swapped positions late in the race with Musquin moving up to second place but Tomac was unchallenged on his way to the chequered flag.

While Tomac took the final race win it was Cooper Webb on 26-points for the night that takes the round win ahead of team-mate Musquin.

Anaheim 2 450 – Main Event 3 Results

1. Eli Tomac
2. Marvin Musquin +04.787
3. Cooper Webb +09.202
4. Ken Roczen +12.312
5. Chad Reed +15.281
6. Aaron Plessinger +16.025
7. Dean Wilson +16.309
8. Joey Savatgy +21.417
9. Justin Hill +23.009
10. Vince Friese +25.711

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2019 Anaheim 2 – AMA SX Round 3 – Round Points

1. Cooper Webb 26
2. Marvin Musquin 23
3. Eli Tomac 21
4. Ken Roczen 19
5. Dean Wilson 18
6. Cole Seely 17
7. Aaron Plessinger 16
8. Joey Savatgy 15
9. Jason Anderson 14
10. Justin Barcia 13
    …13. Chad Reed 10

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Cooper Webb

“Last weekend I was tenth and that wasn’t what I wanted, so I had some redemption this week. But to win is insane – to win two races and be on the podium in the last one is incredible! I really have got to give it up to the group at KTM, they took me under and they changed everything for me. It’s been a struggle the last two years, so those guys just constantly pushing me to get back to where I was and reminding me that I still got it. I can’t believe it and I’ll never forget this day. I hope to keep it going, this is an incredible feeling. Man, I’m speechless.”

Marvin Musquin

“It’s not always been my strongest point on the start but I’ve been very consistent today. This week I only rode a little bit on Monday. I stayed in California and we got a lot of rain, but obviously it helped on the knee. I tried to work on it the whole week and I felt good getting on the bike compared to last weekend, so it was important and that’s what I need – to feel good and not have any pain. It was great racing tonight, I didn’t win any motos but I got second overall, I was consistent and I was able to battle for the lead and for the podium.”

Aaron Plessinger

“Anaheim 2 was a pretty good race for me. I kind of was struggling with bike setup all day and then after the last practice we made a shock change, and it was great. I got a few bad starts in the first two main events, which hurt my results, but I felt good all night. I rode what I thought was the best that I have ridden. I went 12, 9, 6, for seventh overall. So, I think I did pretty good for it only being my third 450 race. I’m really amped for Oakland next weekend. I’m going to go back and work on my starts, practice them all week and get it down pat so hopefully we can get up front and get a podium.”

AMA Supercross 2019 Championship Points

1. Ken Roczen 63
2. Eil Tomac 61
3. Cooper Webb 57
4. Justin Barcia 56
5. Marvin Musquin 56
6. Dean Wilson 52
7. Jason Anderson 46
8. Blake Baggett 45
9. Aaron Plessinger 45
10. Cole Seely 44
11. Justin Brayton 37
12. Chad Reed 33
13. Vince Friese 32
14. Justin Hill 30
15. Joey Savatgy 22

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AMA Supercross 2019
250 Western Round Three

As per the premier 450 category the 250 races were also held under the triple-crown format, but with races two-minute shorter than the 450 class.

Colt Nichols landed back in Anaheim with a five-points advantage over Adam Cianciarulo but his buffer had been trimmed back to two-points by the time they left A2.

Cianciarulo though had slipped from second in the championship points standings down to fourth as Shane McElrath moved up to second place on the back of the A2 round win.

Dylan Ferrandis also gained a place on the points table, moving up to third outright by a single point over Cianciarulo.

Colt Nichols had won the first Main from Ferrandis but it was Ferrandis that took top honours in Main #2 from Shane McElrath with Nichols in third.

McElrath twon Main #3 to take the 26-points for the overall round win ahead of Ferrandis and Nichols.

Australian privateer Tomas Ravenhorst ranked 21 out of the 46 riders that participated in the qualifying sessions but with only the top 18 automatically going through to the Mains he again had to contest the LCQ. Unfortunately the Victorian missed out on the Mains after finishing seventh in the LCQ.

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250 Main Event 1

1. Colt Nichols
2. Dylan Ferrandis +02.602
3. Shane Mcelrath +10.893
4. Adam Cianciarulo +12.274
5. RJ Hampshire +15.184
6. Jacob Hayes +19.320
7. James Decotis +23.504
8. Chris Blose +26.168
9. Cameron Mcadoo +27.166
10. Michael Mosiman +32.907

250 Main Event 2

1. Dylan Ferrandis
2. Shane McElrath +01.347
3. Colt Nichols +02.589
4. RJ Hampshire +09.612
5. Cameron Mcadoo +19.900
6. Michael Mosiman +23.485
7. Jacob Hayes +26.658
8. Chris Blose +31.385
9. Mitchell Harrison +38.432
10. Sean Cantrell +42.393

250 Main Event 3

1. Shane McElrath
2. Adam Cianciarulo +03.232
3. Dylan Ferrandis +04.608
4. Colt Nichols +05.317
5. RJ Hampshire +18.507
6. Cameron Mcadoo +19.847
7. Michael Mosiman +23.711
8. Chris Blose +25.113
9. Jacob Hayes +26.109
10. Jess Pettis +34.097

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AMA SX Round 3 – 250 Western Round Points

1. Shane McElrath 26
2. Dylan Ferrandis 23
3. Colt Nichols 21
4. RJ Hampshire 19
5. Adam Cianciarulo 18
6. Cameron Mcadoo 17
7. Jacob Hayes 16
8. Michael Mosiman 15
9. Chris Blose 14
10. Mitchell Harrison 13

Shane McElrath

“We’ve been learning a lot throughout the season so far. I mean, we had a really good off-season but you can’t really do bike setup without going to the races and that’s my comfort – that’s really what we’ve been searching for. The last two weekends have been upsetting because of the way I’ve been riding but we’ve just kept pushing – perseverance produces hope, so this is good for us.”

Dylan Ferrandis

“The short amount of time between each main event made it physically demanding, but I felt good and strong all night. All the rain from the week, made for a really technical rhythm section, but the bike was awesome. My teammate and I were able to put the bike up front at every start. I’m a bit disappointed to finished second again, but me and my team are going to analyze our race and work on what we need for the win.”

Colt Nichols

“The track was very difficult. It got really rutty and soft during the third main event, so made it very hard to continue to jump the rhythm sections and keep everything consistent. The bike was incredible, got off to three really great starts. I’m a little bummed with the way I rode in the last main event after getting the holeshot, but overall it was a good night. Still came out with a podium, can’t be mad at that. It was also pretty tough to bounce back in between each race, with there being a short time in between each one of the main events. Made it physically demanding, but happy with the way I rode. Just have to get a little bit better.”

Adam Cianciarulo

“It was a rollercoaster night to go from being out front to falling to finishing on the podium. I really want to put the mistakes behind me and I think with three races, I was able to show that I could still be up front even on an off night. We are still in the hunt and will be working hard to make sure we get back on top.”

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AMA Supercross 2019 250 Western Championship Points

1. Colt Nichols (Yamaha), 70
2. Shane McElrath (KTM), 68
3. Dylan Ferrandis (Yamaha), 63
4. Adam Cianciarulo (Kawasaki), 62
5. RJ Hampshire (Honda), 57
6. James Decotis (Suzuki), 44
7. Chris Blose (Husqvarna), 44
8. Cameron McAdoo (Honda), 41
9. Michael Mosiman (Husqvarna), 39
10. Jacob Hayes (Yamaha), 37

Source: MCNews.com.au