At Anaheim 1, Jason Anderson was able to blast to the front and win the race. At San Diego 1 and Anaheim 2 he couldn’t quite make those passes, but in Oakland he did take the measure of Cole Seely and Chad Reed.
A week earlier, Anderson couldn’t quite find that magic, and ended up fifth. At that race, Eli Tomac looked fast enough to pass Reed before crashing, but in Oakland Tomac wasn’t as good. Reed was great at rounds two and three, and merely really good at rounds one and four. Seely has two thirds and two sixths, meaning he’s been at the front or back of this same battle at every week. Ken Roczen has two bad starts and two okay ones, but one of his good starts (in San Diego) was mixed with an off-track excursion.
The result of this scramble is a phenomenal points battle, with just two total points separating Anderson, Reed and Roczen, and seven total between this entire five pack. The points accurately reflect how close these riders are to each other, as they exchange the mantle of “Who was second or third best to Ryan Dungey.”
| Position | Rider | Hometown | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ryan Dungey | Belle Plaine, MN  | 391 |
| 2 |  Ken Roczen | Mattstedt, Germany  | 331 |
| 3 |  Jason Anderson | Edgewood, NM | 315 |
| 4 |  Eli Tomac | Cortez, CO | 290 |
| 5 |  Chad Reed | Kurri Kurri, Australia  | 250 |
| 6 |  Cole Seely | Newbury Park, CA | 219 |
| 7 |  Marvin Musquin | La Reole, France  | 208 |
| 8 |  Justin Brayton | Fort Dodge, IA | 200 |
| 9 |  Trey Canard | Shawnee, OK | 196 |
| 10 |  Jake Weimer | Rupert, ID | 128 |
That’s the problem. This was billed as another #deepfield and another loaded season, and even with injuries to James Stewart and Justin Barcia, and now Trey Canard, there’s plenty of talent in the mix. But the season currently lacks the expected sizzle, because Ryan “freaking” Dungey is both a beast and a machine, and battles in the pack never look as good as ones for the lead.
But these battles have been good! At Oakland, Anderson made his final move on Seely for fourth on lap 17. At Anaheim 2, the Reed/Roczen/Tomac fight went down to lap 19. In San Diego, Anderson passed Seely for third on lap 16, at Anaheim 1 he took the lead from Seely on lap 14, and Dungey didn’t move into second until the last lap. We’ve seen passing and battles right down to the wire, and it would be absolutely incredible if these late passes were for the lead.
But Dungey has gone 2-1-1-1 and has led 55 of the last 60 laps. He hasn’t finished worse than second at a supercross since round six in San Diego last year—nearly a full calendar year.
There’s another group battling, too! Justin Brayton, Jake Weimer and Davi Millsaps are separated by two points. Millsaps might be the fastest of this group, but he’s also had the most crashes and bad starts, so it’s working out to where these guys are even. This trio found each other in Oakland and battled right to the end. Brayton got a good start but said this was his worst ride of the season, and he fell into the clutches of Weimer. They shadowed each other for several laps before Weimer finally got around to take ninth on lap 15.
Millsaps then got around his Brayton on lap 16, and then set about passing Weimer for the last four laps. Earlier in the night, Millsaps had made the move on Weimer for a spot in their semi race. Now the BTOSports.com KTM rider was throwing everything at the new Soaring Eagle/Jimmy John’s/RCH Suzuki man, until the battle boiled over, with Millsaps crashing into Tuff Blocks and going down just before the finish line jump, right before they saw the white flag.
Millsaps would end up dropping from tenth to twelfth, with Wil Hahn picking up the pieces for tenth. Weston Peick, who was in eighth and ahead of this battle, went down on the last lap, also. In one final lap, Weimer fended off Millsaps and picked up a spot from a downed Peick to get eighth.
It was the second week in a row a late-race crash cost Peick. In Anaheim, he was the victim of a hard block pass from Brayton, another battle that went down to the wire.
If these battles took place a few spots forward, the supercross fans would have been going nuts. Instead, Dungey has reduced these great races to second and third, eighth and the rest. The victor gets the spoils and the attention, but there’s plenty to talk about a little further back.
