Ken Roczen, who is now 11 points back of Ryan Dungey following a fourth, admitted after the race he felt “off” in the third visit to Anaheim. “I started out in practice not feeling the greatest, for some reason,” commented Roczen following the event. “I just felt a little bit off. In the heat race, I didn’t grab that good of a start but I could kind of sneak around and then I rode a good race. Same thing happened in the main. I had a horrible start. I don’t know what I was doing. Then [Blake] Baggett held me off for three or four laps and that’s when the guys in front gapped us. We caught them at one point, but then I got passed by [Eli] Tomac on the last lap, which I’m not happy about. Basically, the starts are what really hurt me. It is what it is. We’re looking forward to this weekend. We finished fourth, which isn’t awesome but it’s ok.”
Chad Reed’s sixth doesn’t jump off the paper. But, a week after his first podium of the season, Reed rode well to sixth after a bad start. “Tonight was the toughest Anaheim of the three,” said Reed in a team statement. “The track was super technical all day and by the time the night show started the track became pretty one-lined. If you’re not up-front from the start it’s hard to come through the pack on a track like this.”
Davi Millsaps, who finished eleventh, wasn’t pleased with his main event, either. “The main event was a bummer,” said Millsaps in a team statement. “I felt really good today and had solid, competitive times. In the main, I got hung up with another rider and was way behind. This was not a good track to have to move through the pack because it was very one-lined by the main event. We salvaged what we could and will look onward to San Diego.”
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Baggett, much maligned for his perceived lack of supercross skills, continues to improve in his rookie 450SX season. Baggett, now working with Rick Johnson, led his first career SX main at Anaheim 3 and finished a career-best seventh. “The start was definitely tricky tonight,” said Baggett in a team statement. “It dropped down right away, so I had to hit my first shift really quick and drive through the bottom at the start and then go late on the brakes into the first turn.” Although he dropped to seventh, Baggett saw the positive in it. “I ended up dropping back to seventh, but I learned a lot. I’m just going to try to keep building from there.”
Jason Anderson set the bar really high after his Anaheim 1 podium, and while he’s been fast since, he wasn’t pumped on his ninth-place finish. Anderson, in a team statement that he plans on “putting extra work” in this week to improve his results for this upcoming weekend.
For just the second time this season, BTOSports.com KTM’s Andrew Short finished outside the top ten. Short was down in his semi and had to qualify through the LCQ, and with a bad gate pick he got pushed wide off the start and had to work his way through the pack. He finished twelfth on the night. “I was on the gas, but it was a tough out there,” said Short in a team statement. “It’s time to hit the reset button, regroup, and come back strong at San Diego.”
On to the lap charts!
450SX Class
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 1 | 57.316 | 5 | 58.561 | Ryan Dungey |
| 2 | 2 | 57.513 | 8 | 58.662 | Cole Seely |
| 3 | 3 | 57.595 | 6 | 58.586 | Eli Tomac |
| 4 | 7 | 57.867 | 7 | 59.732 | Blake Baggett |
| 5 | 5 | 57.888 | 6 | 59.382 | Trey Canard |
| 6 | 4 | 57.889 | 6 | 58.699 | Ken Roczen |
| 7 | 6 | 58.389 | 8 | 59.395 | Chad Reed |
| 8 | 9 | 58.678 | 8 | 59.905 | Jason Anderson |
| 9 | 8 | 58.962 | 6 | 59.642 | Justin Barcia |
| 10 | 11 | 59.393 | 8 | 1:01.163 | Davi Millsaps |
| 11 | 15 | 59.497 | 16 | 1:00.786 | Jake Weimer |
| 12 | 10 | 59.518 | 7 | 1:00.904 | Josh Hill |
| 13 | 22 | 59.729 | 6 | 1:00.551 | Josh Grant |
| 14 | 12 | 1:00.022 | 8 | 1:01.392 | Andrew Short |
| 15 | 18 | 1:00.063 | 6 | 1:01.672 | Brett Metcalfe |
| 16 | 16 | 1:00.216 | 5 | 1:03.290 | Jimmy Albertson |
| 17 | 17 | 1:00.404 | 8 | 1:03.645 | Mike Alessi |
| 18 | 14 | 1:00.529 | 4 | 1:02.263 | Kyle Chisholm |
| 19 | 13 | 1:00.710 | 4 | 1:02.327 | Vince Friese |
| 20 | 21 | 1:00.785 | 11 | 1:02.595 | Nick Schmidt |
| 21 | 20 | 1:00.810 | 4 | 1:03.701 | Phil Nicoletti |
| 22 | 19 | 1:01.637 | 6 | 1:04.364 | Ben Lamay |
250SX Class
| Lap Rank | Finish | Best Lap | In Lap | Avg Lap Time | Rider |
| 1 | 2 | 58.271 | 3 | 1:00.220 | Jessy Nelson |
| 2 | 1 | 58.634 | 3 | 59.916 | Cooper Webb |
| 3 | 3 | 59.572 | 4 | 1:00.286 | Aaron Plessinger |
| 4 | 8 | 59.647 | 15 | 1:00.657 | Justin Hill |
| 5 | 4 | 59.760 | 11 | 1:00.657 | Zach Osborne |
| 6 | 15 | 59.946 | 2 | 1:01.747 | Tyler Bowers |
| 7 | 5 | 1:00.087 | 5 | 1:00.984 | Matt Bisceglia |
| 8 | 7 | 1:00.341 | 15 | 1:01.074 | Josh Hansen |
| 9 | 6 | 1:00.372 | 3 | 1:00.944 | Shane Mcelrath |
| 10 | 17 | 1:00.452 | 6 | 1:03.175 | Malcolm Stewart |
| 11 | 12 | 1:00.708 | 5 | 1:01.970 | Tommy Hahn |
| 12 | 9 | 1:00.717 | 11 | 1:01.562 | Alex Martin |
| 13 | 11 | 1:00.801 | 4 | 1:01.991 | Jackson Richardson |
| 14 | 21 | 1:00.844 | 5 | 1:03.206 | Zach Bell |
| 15 | 13 | 1:01.072 | 5 | 1:02.158 | Zack Freeberg |
| 16 | 19 | 1:01.073 | 5 | 1:05.213 | Austin Politelli |
| 17 | 14 | 1:01.174 | 5 | 1:02.914 | Chris Alldredge |
| 18 | 10 | 1:01.358 | 10 | 1:01.905 | Cole Martinez |
| 19 | 16 | 1:02.081 | 5 | 1:03.487 | Trevor Reis |
| 20 | 18 | 1:03.267 | 2 | 1:07.026 | Ryan Breece |
| 21 | 22 | 1:04.073 | 4 | 1:07.864 | Johnny Jelderda |
| 22 | 20 | 1:04.274 | 4 | 1:08.744 | Blake Lilly |
Although it took six laps, FIM and AMA officials made the correct call to restart the 250SX main event after Zach Osborne’s gate malfunctioned. According to section 4.20 of the 2015 AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, rulebook: “In the case of a false start (gate malfunction), a race will be restarted with the riders returning to their original starting positions.” Much is left to be debated on how long it took to make the decision, but in the end the right call was made.
Osborne, like many others, wasn’t sure if the restart was going to come after five laps had elapsed. “My gate didn’t fall at all in the main during the first start—it didn’t move—and I was really frustrated in the first five laps because I felt like it was blatantly obvious that my gate didn’t drop. They finally red flagged the race in lap six and I felt like I had a second chance,” he said in a team statement. Osborne finished fourth following the restart.
Cooper Webb, who was leading before the restart, was visibly upset when the red flag waved. “I was actually pissed off. I finally got a good start, made it easy on myself, and then I didn’t know why they red-flagged it so I was like freaking out,” he told Racer X. “I calmed down and then luckily got another good start, and that made it a lot easier for myself.” In the end it worked out for Webb, who won his third race of the season.
On the other end of the spectrum, Justin Hill was adversely affected by the restart, as he went down with Malcolm Stewart on the second start. Hill, “bummed” about the restart, would fight back to finish eighth. “I’m bummed about the restart because I had a decent start in the first gate drop,” stated Hill in a team statement. “But it is just part of racing, and unfortunately, I suffered that crash in the beginning. I’m glad I was able to salvage the positions I did and get into the top ten.”
Malcolm wasn’t quite as fortunate, as another crash later in the race led to a seventeenth-place finish. “Our main event, before the restart, I was running fourth. I had a clean start that I was happy with and I was riding strong,” he said in a team statement. “After the restart I got into it with [Justin] Hill in the first turn and I went down. I got back up and tried to fight my way back to the front and was pushing so hard that I washed out the front end and fell again.
"I'd say I lost focus after the first crash. There will always be ups and downs in racing and today was full of them. I wish they didn't restart the race,” he continued. “I really don't agree with the reason we had to start again, and as usual a lot of people benefitted from the restart and others of us lost out. I'll just put this one behind me and move on."
GEICO Honda’s Matt Bisceglia returned at Anaheim 3 after missing the previous two rounds with a concussion. Bisceglia, before the restart, led for the first time since New Jersey a year ago. He didn’t get as great of a start after the red flag, but worked up to fifth, his first top-five in 2015. "Ever since my concussion at A2 I’ve had very limited time on the bike. I pretty much had to just rest,” he said in a team statement. “After tonight, I'm feeling really confident with my speed and the progress we have made with my program."
Lucas Oil/Troy Lee Designs KTM’s Shane McElrath was one of the fortunate ones to benefit from the restart. A week after sliding outside the top ten for the first time this season, McElrath rebounded to match a season high of sixth. “I was definitely thankful that we got to have a full restart,” said McElrath in a team statement. “I should be getting better starts, and thankfully I was able to put a decent one together on the restart. I felt good and I know I’ll just keep working at getting on that podium before the season is over.”
Another victim of the restart was Osborne’s teammate Zach Bell. Bell, who was inside the top five before the restart, lost his front brake following the red flag and finished twenty-first. “I was in a good position after the second gate drop, but something got in my front brake and it ended up locking up around lap ten, which made it hard to ride,” he said in a team statement.
Josh Hansen had more than just racing on his mind at Anaheim 3, as he became a father to a baby girl earlier in the week. “It’s been a great week,” said Hansen in a team statement. “My baby girl was born this week, which took priority. Today went pretty well and I know with a start I can be on the podium. I’m having fun every weekend and feel like I’m building momentum each week.” Hansen finished seventh on the night, his fourth top-ten of the season.
The restart played devils advocate to Tyler Bowers as well. He crashed after the red flag and finished fifteenth, dropping him to fourth in points, 27 behind Webb. Bowers entered the night just 8 back of Webb. “This has been a tough week,” said Bowers in a team statement. “I’ve been sick all week and today was no better. I had a podium finish lined up in the first start and was working my way there in the second, but threw it away. It’s unfortunate, but just as it happened to me this week, the same can happen to anyone else next week. We’re still in this.”
It was a banner night for the Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha team, as Aaron Plessinger joined Webb on the podium. “It’s amazing. Getting up on that podium, it’s just been a long time coming,” he told Racer X. “Since the first round I knew I could do it, but just had to get a good start. I did that tonight and it definitely showed.” Plessinger now has three top-fives in five rounds.
