It was another up and down night for Eli Tomac, who qualified fastest, finished third in his heat and started the night just inside the top five. That was the good. The bad? Tomac wasn’t able to find much room to pass on a tight, slippery track and lost a spot to Jason Anderson late in the race. Following a sixth place finish, Tomac is now forty-one points in the hole to Ryan Dungey after just six rounds.

“Leading up to the night show, this has been by far the best day of the season for us,” said Tomac.” “I was excited to get the ball rolling in the night show and came out of the heat race in the top three which was great. Got off to a top five start and couldn’t quite make my passes as quickly as I needed to and ended up finishing sixth place. Overall, the track was difficult tonight but we learned lots and are looking forward to next weekend.” Here’s the video version of the Tomac interview.

Through six rounds, only seven riders have found the top ten at every round—Ryan Dungey, Ken Roczen, Jason Anderson, Cole Seely, Chad Reed, Eli Tomac and…. Justin Brayton. In his second year with BTOSports.com-KTM-WPS, Brayton already has more top tens through six rounds this year (6) than he did all of last season (4).

Trey Canard wasn’t the only rider to return on Saturday, as Andrew Short (first race of season), Justin Bogle (first race since San Diego 1) and Blake Baggett (raced just one round this year) all returned. It was a mixed bag for the three. Short suffered a big crash in his heat, but bounced back to finish fourteenth in the main. Bogle won his semi, but finished fifteenth in the main. Yet, both were better than Baggett, who found trouble in nearly ever race—heat, semi and LCQ—and missed the main entirely.

“Blake knows trying to come back and work his way back into race shape in the middle of the season is a tough thing to do,” said Yoshimura Suzuki’s team manager Mike Webb. “But credit to him, he’s willing to take his lumps and fight his way back up the ladder."

As for Short, his heat crash was brutal, but he did make a little history by lining up for the main. He now has thirteen consecutive seasons with a start, which ties him with Larry Ward, Jeremy McGrath, and Tim Ferry for fifth all time.

450SX Class

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	57.995	2	58.972	Ryan Dungey
2	2	58.137	6	59.042	Cole Seely
3	5	58.170	7	59.404	Trey Canard
4	4	58.215	7	59.128	Jason Anderson
5	3	58.325	3	59.099	Ken Roczen
6	6	58.398	3	59.432	Eli Tomac
7	7	58.523	3	59.974	Marvin Musquin
8	8	58.528	3	1:00.040	Chad Reed
9	9	59.244	6	1:00.337	Weston Peick
10	11	59.392	6	1:01.575	Davi Millsaps
11	10	59.648	8	1:00.469	Justin Brayton
12	12	59.823	18	1:00.399	Jake Weimer
13	13	1:00.123	6	1:01.080	Wil Hahn
14	17	1:00.235	3	1:02.662	Christophe Pourcel
15	15	1:00.249	4	1:01.575	Justin Bogle
16	14	1:00.271	7	1:01.486	Andrew Short
17	18	1:00.712	5	1:03.119	Phil Nicoletti
18	19	1:01.036	6	1:02.990	Mike Alessi
19	16	1:01.178	9	1:02.434	Vince Friese
20	22	1:01.543	4	1:04.177	Tommy Hahn
21	20	1:01.648	6	1:04.134	Nick Schmidt
22	21	1:03.860	2	1:09.467	Jeff Alessi

Nothing shocking about this week’s lap times, as they were darned close to the 450SX results. A number that sticks out is Jake Weimer setting his fastest time on lap 18. He told us, “My mechanic put on the board five to go. So I was going to put on a push there and then I crashed, yeah, then got up and crashed again when Schmidt crossed over some ruts, went down again.” Indeed, on the very next lap, Weimer went from that 59.823 to a 1:12.888.

Once again the segment times offer up shocking data. Do you know who was fastest in two of the three segments? Eli Tomac! He finished sixth and even went back a spot in the main. Eli logged the fastest time in segments one and three, but there’s an asterisk there. The first and third segments were very short, the bulk of the lap came in segment two, and Ryan Dungey was fastest there.

Segment one was very short, from the finish line and through turn one, so it was basically just a test of that corner connecting to the start straight. It only took a bit over eight seconds for the top guys to get through there, and Tomac’s 8.425 was fastest.

In Segment three, on lap 11 Tomac logged a 9.881, Roczen had the second-best time with a 9.898 on lap 9.

The last few weeks we’ve been talking about Ryan Dungey’s new-found aggression in the opening laps. Want proof? Segment two started with the holeshot stripe. At the start of the race, Dungey got the holeshot and then pushed so hard through that segment that he set the fastest time of anyone in that segment all night. He did this on the very first lap! He did it in 39.095 on the first lap, then only hit 39.232 on the second lap.

250SX West Region

Lap Rank	Finish	Best Lap	In Lap	Avg Lap Time	Rider
1	1	59.234	9	1:00.097	Joey Savatgy
2	4	59.322	10	1:00.528	Colt Nichols
3	3	59.371	4	1:00.330	Christian Craig
4	7	59.504	4	1:02.200	Jimmy Decotis
5	21	59.554	2	*59.554	Chris Alldredge
6	2	59.573	5	1:00.305	Cooper Webb
7	5	59.683	6	1:01.291	Zach Osborne
8	19	59.998	6	**1:00.755	Jordon Smith
9	6	1:00.396	5	1:01.253	Mitchell Oldenburg
10	18	1:00.851	2	1:05.660	Michael Leib
11	11	1:01.043	3	1:02.851	Kyle Cunningham
12	8	1:01.168	3	1:02.221	Kyle Peters
13	9	1:01.403	3	1:02.284	Cole Thompson
14	10	1:01.685	3	1:02.540	Cole Martinez
15	15	1:01.940	7	1:03.719	Alex Martin
16	14	1:01.974	3	1:03.535	Mitchell Harrison
17	12	1:02.149	4	1:03.350	Scott Champion
18	13	1:02.523	4	1:03.546	Hayden Mellross
19	16	1:02.522	2	1:06.010	Chris Howell
20	17	1:03.256	5	1:06.621	Steven Mages
21	20	1:05.258	3	1:07.284	Austin Politelli
22	22	DNF	DNF	***DNF	Killian Auberson

*Alldredge completed just one lap.

**Smith completed six of fifteen laps.

***Auberson did not complete a timed lap.

Well, you would have put money on Cooper Webb having the fastest time, right? Well there he is in sixth. Jason Thomas covered Webb’s speed gap over the competition more in depth in his Breakdown column. 

250 Notes

If anyone needs to get something going in 250SX, it’s Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Chris Alldredge, who has had a crash-filled SX career so far. It looked like San Diego could be his breakthrough, until a bike problem ended his night while he was leading the main event. “My day went really well,” said Alldredge in a team statement. “I started the day with the best free practice I’ve ever had. In my heat I had a great start but made a mistake and had to fight back to bring it home fifth. In the Main Event, I had a great start. I got off the line really well, led to the first corner checked up a bit and then swung out into the lead. I felt good and was ready to put in my 15 laps until I unfortunately had a bike problem that put me out of the race. I’m really looking forward to the next race.”

As we watched him walk off from an early crash last weekend holding his arm, we thought Zach Osborne's SX season was done. At the track, we heard his arm might be broken. Well, all turned out okay and Osborne not only raced in San Diego, he showed great speed by topping both 250 qualifying sessions. In his heat, he pressured Cooper Webb the whole way and came up just short on a last-lap pass attempt. It looked to be Zacko’s night—until the main event. "Today was so positive in practice and even my heat race with a second place,” said Osborne in a team statement. “In the main event I just got like a 10th place start, rode really tight and never showed what I had during the day. A lot of positives can be taken away but I haven't been on the podium since Anaheim 2 and it's starting to get really frustrating. Big time bummer tonight, just going to regroup and go to Dallas." Osborne finished fifth.

Another top five for CycleTrader.com/Rock River Yamaha’s Colt Nichols, who passed Osborne coming from the back and finished fourth. Nichols is now up to fourth in points, has been in the top ten in every race, and has four top fives in six races.

After last week’s breakthrough win in Arizona, hopes were high that GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig in his home race in San Diego. But Craig wasn’t quite feeling it, and settled for third.

“I got a good start in my heat race and won it pretty easily,” said Craig in a team statement. “I was confident going into the main, but I was also kind of flustered. I was overwhelmed and riding a little off. Not too good of a start coming out of the hole, and me and another rider bumped coming off of the gate. I made some passes, got up to second, I was riding all right, and then just got tight and locked up around lap ten. I rode it out—Cooper [Webb] ended up getting me with three laps to go and I pretty much just tagged along with him. I would have liked to have gotten a win, but for how I felt all day, I’ll take a third.”

For a while, it looked like Craig’s teammate Jimmy Decotis could grab his first career podium, but he faded back to seventh after running third early. “My night was good, overall I feel like I was riding really well,” said Decotis. “I put myself in a good position there with a good start, but I just kind of pumped up in the last eight laps. I couldn’t ride the bike like I wanted to, so I just played it safe. I really didn’t want to do something dumb and crash while I wasn’t riding right.”

When we get to Arlington this weekend, we’ll have to ask Decotis to elaborate on his eating habits. He also had this to say post race. “I’ve been cleaning my diet up, Rock [team manager Mike LaRocco] is probably pumped on that but not my results. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing, eating good, riding good, putting in the motos. I’m just going to stay positive, that’s all I can ask for. I’m excited for a good healthy week to put some motos in and get strong.”

51Fifty Energy Yamaha’s Hayden Mellross has been fast this year, but the Australian has had terrible luck. He crashed off the start in San Diego and fought back for thirteenth.

"Another day of progression,” he said in a team statement. “The main didn't' start out as I hoped but I becoming more familiar with these tracks and was locked in great battle the last four laps or so and finished with energy to spare." 

Also back there early was rookie Mitchell Harrison, who missed time this year with a concussion. The Yamalube/Star Racing Yamaha rider was also down early and fought through the pack with Mellross, eventually finishing right behind him in fourteenth.

Heck of a ride from Barn Pros/Home Depot Yamaha’s Scott Champion who was experiencing mechanical problem before the drop of the gate. Champion started dead, dead last and fought back to twelfth. His teammate Cole Martinez snagged his first top ten of the season. Great night for the barn boys.

(Seriously, look how far Champion is behind!)