The List: Big Data

By Aaron Hansel and Jason Weigandt

What’s Silicon Valley going to do with all this big data? What’s the NSA got on you? What Ivy-League educated mathematician is ready to revolutionize stick-and-ball sports through new stats?

Numbers are the rage now, and since we’ve got a full season of Monster Energy Supercross and Lucas Oil Pro Motocross under our belt, we decided to do some data mining ourselves for this week’s The List.

First, the Grand National Champion. A long, long, time ago the AMA handed out a Grand National Championship to the rider who collected the most total combined points in supercross and motocross. That title hasn’t been handed out since the 1980s, but such a total still makes for easy bench racing fodder. Who were the best riders when you combine the season’s 450 SX and 450 MX points? Have a look.

Rider	MX Points	SX Points	O/A Points
Ryan Dungey	518	304	822
Ken Roczen	532	285	817
Trey Canard	468	77	545
Andrew Short	302	218	520
James Stewart	226	272	498
Eli Tomac	319	115	434
Weston Peick	290	120	410
Ryan Villopoto	0	368	368
Josh Grant	259	98	357
Justin Brayton	155	196	351
Brett Metcalfe	334	0	334
Chad Reed	198	111	309
Justin Barcia	52	250	302
Matt Goerke	149	75	224
Fredrik Noren	207	0	207
Ben LaMay	164	20	184
Jake Weimer	93	73	166
Josh Hill	0	159	159
Phil Nicoletti	131	23	154
Malcolm Stewart	128	1	129
Broc Tickle	0	126	126

Wow, look at how close Dungey and Roczen are! Amazing to think that after twenty-nine races over the course of nine months, just 5 points separated their season totals. Equally well done for KTM, who adds Andrew Short here to take three of the top four slots in combined points standings.

Just 5 points would separate Ryan Dungey (front) and Ken Roczen. Photo: Simon Cudby

Now to look at the points from a manufacturer perspective. With KTM’s rise, Kawasaki reeling off another 450SX title, Yamaha jumping into the rejuvenation machine, and Honda winning races in both classes, this is a good time for parity between brands in the sport. Here’s a look at how each brand did in each class this year, combining supercross and motocross points.

*Note: We only grabbed points from the top twenty overall finishers in each class and each series.

250

Bike	KX250F	CRF250	RM-Z250	250 SX-F	YZ250F
SX Wins	10	4	0	4	1
Moto Wins	5	1	0	4	14
SX Points	977	1866	0	345	499
MX Points	891	1432	0	905	1570
O/A Bike Points	1868	3298	0	1250	2069

Wow, check out Honda’s huge advantage! The brand gets a nice boost from having two top-notch 250 teams in GEICO Honda and Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs Honda, but the real MVPs were all the privateers who rode CRF250Rs throughout the season, like third-ranked 250SX East Region pilot Vince Friese.

450

Bikes	KX450F	CRF450	RM-Z450	450SX-F	YZ450F
SX Wins	9	0	5	3	0
Moto Wins	0	6	3	14	1
SX Points	654	642	800	882	294
MX Points	625	1126	516	1674	787
O/A Bike Points	1279	1768	1316	2556	1081

Well, judging by what you know from the Grand National points above, did you expect anything less from the KTM 450SX-F?

Manufacturer	Kawsaki	Honda	Suzuki	KTM	Yamaha
SX Wins	19	4	5	7	1
Moto Wins	5	7	3	18	15
SX Points	1631	2508	800	1227	793
MX Points	1516	2558	516	2579	2357
O/A Brand Points	3147	5066	1316	3806	3150

Helped by a big season from Trey Canard, Honda had the most combined points on the year. Photo: Simon Cudby

So, who scored the most total points with all classes and series’ combined? Honda wins it, which is impressive considering the brand locked down just one title (250SX East Region with Justin Bogle) and had all four of its main 450 riders (Trey Canard, Justin Barcia, Eli Tomac, and Wil Hahn) miss a ton of time with injury. Overall, the gates had plenty of red this year, though, which made up the difference.