The circus has rolled into Angel Stadium for the final time in 2014, and Monster Energy Supercross is ready for its fifth round. We’ve heard the track folks have been soaking water into the track since Monday to try to soften it up a bit. The Anaheim 2 race turned out so dry and hard by the end, but there’s only so much you can do. Even based on Southern California’s usual standards, this has been a very dry winter, and that’s going to be reflected in the dirt.
Track looks pretty technical, though, with a deep, long set of whoops. One rhythm lane is already proving something special, with Eli Tomac, in his first race back since tweaking his shoulder at Anaheim 1, going triple-quad and conquering the whole section in two leaps. Welcome back, Eli! We didn’t see anyone else do it in that session but we might have missed an attempt—the free practices are short and stuff happens quickly. Expect others to pick up on that combo once the laps count for qualifying in about an hour.
In some news, well, the big news is in fact Tomac’s return. Soaring Eagle Casino RCH Dodge Suzuki’s Josh Hill was actually tempted to race despite breaking his collarbone last week in Oakland, he told us yesterday he emerged from surgery pain free and felt pretty good. We didn’t see him in practice, though, so it appears he thought better of racing, but don’t expect Josh to be out for long.
Also new is Ivan Tedesco on the KTM 350SX-F for Rockstar Energy Racing. Ivan says he made the choice himself—it was not a contractual situation for the team or an order from KTM. The team had asked to try a 350 and KTM gave them the parts to race one, but team manager Dave Gowland says they didn’t have to do it. They put their 250 East SX fill-in rider Cole Thompson on it for a few races, but Thompson didn’t do so well, so they’ve decided to hold him from racing until the 250 east opener. With the 350 vacant, Tedesco decided to try it in testing this week and actually went faster on it than his 450! So he wanted to race it and will indeed do so tonight.
Be sure to follow us @racerxonline on Twitter and Instagram for up-to-the-minute updates from the pits and the track. And we’ll see you back here tonight for a practice report.
