As we mentioned in 10 Things to Watch, a big priority for Ken Roczen last week was starts. “Roughly done 300 starts in 2 days,” he wrote on Instagram last week. While Roczen got a good start in his heat, he was again forced to come from behind in the main after a poor start. Ask by Steve Matthes if starts were the missing ingredient so far is, Roczen emphatically said, “Definitely. Three rounds and I’ve just been getting bad starts. My heat race start actually wasn’t bad. We’re just going to keep working them and working them. That’s all I can do. I’m doing everything I can to be the best that I can be. That’s all I can do.”

He went on to say in a team statement that he felt he was taking steps forward and that starts will be a focus again this week. “I practiced a lot of starts (last week) and feel pretty comfortable. Obviously, it didn’t happen in the main but we’re going to keep working on that because I think that’s what is holding me back from being at the very top.”

Roczen wasn’t the only contender hampered by the start. Jason Anderson, Cole Seely and Eli Tomac were all tenth or worse off the start. Seely, who finished on the podium at the first two rounds, got the worst of it, finishing sixth. “After tonight’s main-event result, I’m not too stoked,” he said in a statement. “I had to do some major damage control after a bad start, a hectic first three or four laps and a little mishap, but I was able to come from outside the top ten to sixth. I guess I can’t complain about that too much, but I really wanted to get more points for the championship.” 

Anderson, the Anaheim 1 winner, couldn’t quite find the same magic at Angel Stadium this time. He finished fifth on the night. "Tonight was not the greatest, but also not the worst,” he said in a team statement. “I got fifth which is nothing to be bummed on. Just gonna come into next weekend and try and get back on the podium."

450SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	4	57.202	4	58.859	Eli Tomac
2	3	57.432	5	58.551	Ken Roczen
3	1	57.472	6	58.607	Ryan Dungey
4	2	57.945	9	58.693	Chad Reed
5	9	58.067	9	59.279	Marvin Musquin
6	5	58.151	5	59.274	Jason Anderson
7	6	58.229	12	59.437	Cole Seely
8	8	58.322	9	59.815	Justin Brayton
9	14	58.368	3	59.708	Weston Peick
10	7	58.407	3	59.991	Davi Millsaps
11	10	58.747	3	1:00.446	Jake Weimer
12	11	59.171	7	1:00.285	Wil Hahn
13	15	59.254	6	1:02.741	Tommy Hahn
14	12	59.655	6	1:01.018	Christophe Pourcel
15	16	1:00.164	6	1:02.787	Vince Friese
16	22	1:00.403	2	1:00.403	Trey Canard
17	21	1:00.431	5	1:01.283	Phil Nicoletti
18	13	1:00.467	4	1:02.224	Mike Alessi
19	18	1:00.886	4	1:03.864	Lawson Bopping
20	19	1:02.269	4	1:06.524	Dakota Tedder
21	17	1:02.279	3	1:04.444	Nick Schmidt
22	20	1:05.528	2	1:11.462	Jeff Alessi

It would appear Ryan Dungey was the fastest man in Anaheim, but Eli Tomac and Ken Roczen logged the best times—and you already read about their bad starts above. You can trace Tomac’s entire night back to practice. Eli told our Steve Matthes there were only about three good gates to choose from in Anaheim. Well, Eli qualified seventh and had the fourth gate pick in his heat, he started behind Dungey and Roczen and finished third. That gave him the fifth pick in the main. No bueno.

“Yeah, the start, once again it’s like you’ve got to get top two in your heat race to get the good starting pad,” said Tomac. “All of our gates are pretty jacked, and that’s what I’m going to blame it on, although I probably shouldn’t. The line coming out of the gate is so important and there were probably only three good gates and they get taken up.”

Tomac has been the picture of consistency this year—he’s literally finished fourth at all three races! But Anaheim 2 was his best performance yet. “Big improvement on the race side of things, at least I was a podium-speed guy,” said Tomac.

The kids are fast, but that old salty dog Chad Reed has some tricks too. Tomac caught Reed and then Chad pulled out a triple-triple combo in a rhythm lane. “I never saw anyone do it during the day, and the sucker pulls it out on lap eight!” said Tomac with a laugh. “I was like holy crap!”

On lap seven, Reed ran a 58.7. That wasn’t going to cut it, so on lap eight, he busted the triple-triple and went 58.3, and then he logged his best lap, 57.9, on lap nine. In fact, Reed held under the 58.7 mark all the way through lap 15, when he hit a 58.8. That helped him weather the storm from Tomac and Roczen for a while. Eli and Kenny regrouped for one last push, both logging blazing 57.7s on lap 18, while Reed and Dungey were in the 59s. But Roczen bobbled on lap 19, running a 59.9, and Tomac crashed on the last lap, running a 1:07. Reed’s like that veteran pitcher in baseball—he might not have the 100 MPH heater like the kids anymore, but he knows how to throw the right pitch at the right time to get out of trouble.

Let’s get deep on segment times, which, again, provide some shocking results. And this week we stole a copy of the track map so you can see the segments! The AMA divided the track into four segments. Dungey won the race but did not set the fastest time in any segment. Anderson was fastest in segment #1, Roczen in segments #2 and #4, Millsaps in #3. Dungey had merely the fourth, eighth, sixth and third fastest times in each segment. Dunge looks faster and more aggressive than ever, but he’s still winning races through solid, consistent laps. And good starts!

Roczen is not struggling with fitness. Last week we noted that Kenny was the fastest rider in the final seven laps. This week, while making a last-ditch effort to catch Reed, he set the fastest time of the night in Segment #4…on lap 20!

250SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	57.597	4	59.767	Cooper Webb
2	4	58.552	5	1:00.120	Joey Savatgy
3	2	58.710	2	1:00.183	Zach Osborne
4	3	58.875	3	1:00.711	Christian Craig
5	5	59.550	3	1:00.867	Jimmy Decotis
6	6	59.586	3	1:01.023	Jordon Smith
7	8	59.601	9	1:01.240	Colt Nichols
8	9	1:00.279	7	1:01.336	Mitchell Oldenburg
9	7	1:00.311	4	1:00.929	Kyle Cunningham
10	12	1:00.564	2	1:02.960	Chris Alldredge
11	13	1:00.772	2	1:03.176	Michael Leib
12	19	1:00.861	3	1:03.302	Alex Martin
13	10	1:01.176	3	1:02.504	Kyle Peters
14	11	1:01.634	5	1:02.548	Cole Martinez
15	20	1:02.674	2	1:07.166	Bracken Hall
16	22	1:03.019	3	1:04.259	Fredrik Noren
17	14	1:03.220	3	1:05.386	Luke Clout
18	17	1:03.515	3	1:05.822	Hayden Mellross
19	15	1:03.882	7	1:05.311	Scott Champion
20	16	1:03.937	3	1:05.179	Chase Marquier
21	21	1:03.501	2	1:06.012	Steven Mages
22	18	1:04.385	2	1:05.750	Chris Howell

In the 250s, Christian Craig admitted that once he was done battling Cooper Webb for the lead, he was breathing hard and got tight. He just settled in for a podium after that. The lap times show Craig running under one-minute laps through lap 9, then a 1:00 and a 1:01 while battling for the lead on laps 9-10. Once Webb had secured it, Craig ran a 1:02 and 1:03 on laps 11 and 12. On lap 15, he ran a 1:05, admitting he just rolled the whoops to stay safe. Segment 2 of the track featured the big whoops. Craig’s best time through Segment #2 was a 19.4 on lap three. On lap 15, he went through Segment #2 in 22.6.

More news and Notes

Jimmy Decotis is off to a nice start in his re-birth with GEICO Honda. Through three rounds Decotis is fifth in points and has finished outside the top five only once. He had a chance to tie a career-best fourth at Anaheim 2, but lost the spot to Joey Savatgy in the waning moments of the race. “I’m struggling with the first few laps. I’m just getting eaten up, I have to work on that,” he said in a GEICO Honda team statement. “My last lap was a bad lap and Joey Savatgy got me. Fifth place is okay, but not great because it should have been fourth. I’m a little bummed on it.”

Jordon Smith wasn’t able to backup his first career podium, but sixth is another consistent finish for Smith, who tweaked his wrist in practice.  “The day for me was a little rough,” he said in a statement. “I felt good but I was just struggling a little bit in the big whoops. I crashed there in practice and kind of hurt my wrist a little bit. Overall I got out of it pretty safe and scored some points, it’s a long season and we’re all right there still. Just want to be consistent every week and put ourselves in a good position at the end of the year.”

MAD Racing/Dirt Candy Suzuki’s Luke Clout had just a few days to prepare for Round 3 of Monster Energy Supercross after flying from Australia early last week to begin his fill-in roll with the team. Clout, a former MX2 Australian motocross champion, qualified for the main event through the LCQ and finished fourteenth. “Pretty cool experience at A2, 14th overall not bad for two days on the bike. Lots of stuff to work on!,” he wrote on Instagram. “Staring down the start was an experience with 50,000 people!”