On the racing front, there’s plenty of things leftover from last week to keep an eye on. Cole Seely, Ken Roczen, and Blake Baggett all had very real chances of winning in Oakland. In fact, eventual winner Jason Anderson only led one lap! His spectacular ride wasn’t without some controversy though, as he put a move on Marvin Musquin that ended with Musquin on the ground. Nobody’s expecting Musquin to return the favor today, but you never know what might happen in the heat of battle, and it’s worth watching.

Also worth keeping an eye on are Eli Tomac and Justin Barcia. Last week Barcia put a move on Tomac in a corner that resulted in Tomac going down. It’s up to you to decide what you thought of the pass, but the fact of the matter is Tomac ended up in thirteenth, which dealt another huge blow to his bid for a championship. Odds are he’s not happy about it, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens if he finds himself next to Barcia during tonight’s main event.

The racing has been superb the last two rounds, and the consensus is the difficult, and rutted, tracks have been the key. We have yet to see how today’s track will shape up, but hopefully it produces the same type of action we’ve been seeing lately. It’s got a long whoop section, a sand section, and an interesting berm that’s got an inside line with an elevated outside option. We’ll see how it all comes together when practice begins.

In off-track news, Davi Millsaps announced his retirement earlier this week after suffering a brain injury, amongst other things, before the 2017 Monster Energy Cup. He’d planned on making a return to racing at some point in 2018, but after consulting with doctors and his family, decided to call it a career. For more on that, go here.

Untimed Practice

We’re barely done with the first set of timed practices and things are already getting interesting here in Petco Park. In the 250 A group Joey Savatgy had a crash in a right-hander and went down. He didn't pop back up either, and after a few moments he was off the track and heading back to the pits. We’ll provide an update on Savatgy’s status as soon as we get more information.

In 450 action most of the guys found themselves taking the same lines through the rhythm lanes, but Jason Anderson was experimenting. He played around with tripling into a section where guys were doubling in, and also exited another section by jumping on-on-out (Cole Seely found this line too), while most other guys were double-doubling out. The most interesting part of this session happened toward the end when Anderson put a hard block pass on Alex Ray in a right-hander. It’s not the kind of move we’re accustomed to seeing in practice, and both riders ended up on the ground. Ray wasn’t happy and he seemed to be letting Anderson know how he felt as Anderson picked up his bike. Anderson didn’t appear to respond and simply remounted and rode off. Stay tuned, timed practice is coming up and if this trajectory continues things are definitely going to get interesting.

First TImed Practice

Unlike the untimed practice sessions, there’s not much to report from the first set of qualifiers. Joey Savatgy didn’t come out for this one after leaving untimed practice early due to a crash, which means he’s most likely out for the day. But it’s not all bad for Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki today, as Adam Cianciarulo absolutely killed it in this qualifier. He was fastest right away with a 52.033, and even beat his own time a few laps later. He was experimenting with lines too, tripling into a rhythm lane where most guys were doubling. Aaron Plessinger looked good, and even tripled into the sand section. Most 250 guys were opting to double in there. Justin Hill also looked good, and like Cianciarulo and Plessinger, was playing around with different options. He was able to execute the same on-on-off option exiting one of the track’s rhythm lanes that Anderson and Seely found in their untimed session.

When the 450s rolled out Justin Barcia was fast initially, but Eli Tomac quickly took over the top spot. Moments later Barcia and Seely posted faster times, but Tomac came roaring back with a 51.475 to retake the lead. The time held for a while, but then Blake Baggett edged it out with a 51.425, which would end up being the fastest lap of the session.

Compared to last week the track is holding up pretty good and hasn’t come close to resembling the treacherous sea of ruts the riders were forced to navigate in Oakland. Maybe that’s why the top 450SX times were so close. Take a look—the top eight riders are all within half a second of each other!

Second Timed Practice

The final sets of qualifiers weren’t especially eventful. Adam Cianciarulo picked up where he left off in the first qualifier by logging a fast lap right away. A few laps later he proceeded to beat his own time. As the session wound down it looked like Cianciarulo would be the day’s fastest 250SX qualifier, but with just three seconds left on the clock Justin Hill sliced his way through traffic right before the finish line and stole the top spot with a 51.131.

Joey Savatgy came back out for the final qualifier after sitting the first one out, due to a crash in untimed practice. He looked pretty good too, even hitting the triple leading into the sand. When the roost settled, he’d set the eight-fastest lap of the session.

The second 450 qualifier started without Jake Weimer, who broke his wrist in the first qualifier. Bummer for Weimer, who’d only recently gotten back to racing after suffering serious preseason injuries. For everyone else, Tomac set the bar early with a 51.123. Nobody was able to touch it for a while, but late in the session Anderson busted out a 50.788. Tomac quickly responded with a 50.632, which ended up being the fastest lap of the day. Like the first qualifier, the times from this one are pretty close. The top ten were all within one second of each other!

250SX Heat One

It was all Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki when the first gate of the night dropped—Adam Cianciarulo and Joey Savatgy shot out to the front and immediately distanced themselves from the field. Behind them Aaron Plessinger was working his way forward, but he didn’t get the start and by the time he made it into third he had no chance of catching the leaders. The best battle of the race took place early after Mitchell Harrison blew off the track on the first lap. He worked his way past Ryan Breece for ninth, then nearly crashed right after the dragon’s back. He lost the final spot back to Breece but was able to battle his way forward to qualify. Cianciarulo, Savatgy, Plessinger, Shane McElrath, Kyle Chisholm, Dakota Alix, Harrison, Killian Auberson, and Jean Ramos all qualified.

250SX Heat Two

Alex Martin got this one going by taking the early lead but Justin Hill was on him like a magnet and motored by after one lap. Martin settled in for second, but ended up crashing right after a dragon’s back. It took him a little bit to get going again, but he was able to ride his way back to sixth while Hill rode to a comfortable win. Elsewhere there were plenty of crashes. Noah Mcconahy crashed while running eighth, Bryce Stewart went down, and Justin Hoeft had a scary looking crash after clipping a Tuff Block in a rhythm lane and nearly getting hit by the next few bikes. He was carried off the track and the medical flags came out, forcing riders to roll the section. Fortunately he was able to eventually walk off the track under his own power. Hill, Christian Craig, Chase Sexton, Bradley Taft, Phil Nicoletti, Martin, Justin Starling, Cole Martinez, and Robbie Wageman all transferred to the 250SX Main.

450SX Heat One

Jason Anderson got the holeshot with Justin Barcia in tow. It looked like a battle might develop between the two, but Malcolm Stewart came in hot and pushed Barcia high to take over second. Barcia got him back a few turns later, but by that point Anderson had a small gap, which is all he needed to race comfortably to the win. Barcia kept Anderson in sight but was never able to get close enough to challenge. Alex Ray crashed hard when he came up short attempting to triple into the sand section. Dean Wilson was right behind him and went down, but was able to regroup and pass Dakota Tedder for ninth right before the finish line with a lap to go. Anderson, Barcia, Weston Peick, Josh Grant, Justin Brayton, Malcolm Stewart, Benny Bloss, Vince Friese, and Wilson all transferred to the main.

450SX Heat Two

Cooper Webb  jumped out to the lead but it ended about as quickly as it started. Justin Bogle and Ben LaMay got into each other and both careened off the track. The bikes were tangled with LaMay underneath, and the red flag came out for Bogle, who was motionless on the ground. He eventually left the track on the Alpinestars Medical Mule with his right arm bandaged and cradled in a sling. Judging from the expression on his face, he was in some serious pain.

On the restart it was all Marvin Musquin, but after a couple laps he found himself under pressure from Cooper Webb and Cole Seely. Webb made the pass by pulling up alongside Musquin in a rhythm lane and shutting the door in the ensuing turn. A lap later Seely went by in the whoops. Then Tomac went by, then Baggett, then Roczen. Musquin just couldn’t hold a position. Up front Seely had closed right up on Webb but ran out of time and had to settle for second. Webb, Seely, Tomac, Baggett, Roczen, Musquin, Tickle, Reed, and Tyler Bowers all transferred to the main.

250SX LCQ

The Holeshot went to Hayden Mellross but Justin Hoeft wasted little time in taking over the lead. Hoeft pulled a gap and it looked like he was on his way to an uncontested win. But then he dropped the front over a jump, bailed off the bike, and crashed hard. Just like that his night was over. That put Mellross all by himself in first, with Michael leib riding to a lonely second. Ryan Breece and Bradley Lionnet took the final transfer spots.

450SX LCQ

Ben Lamay got the 450SX LCQ going the right way by jumping out to an early lead. Behind him were Dakota Tedder and Adam Enticknap, with Kyle Cunningham battling to fourth on the first lap. Enticknap quickly took over second and Cunningham nabbed third from Tedder with one lap to go. Other than that, not much happened—the top four were separated by a significant margin over fifth. Lamay, Enticknap, Cunningham, and Tedder took the final transfer positions of the night.

250SX Main Event

This one got underway without Alex Martin, who for some reason, pulled off the gate mere seconds before the it dropped. When the gate did drop it was Joey Savatgy taking the holeshot with teammate Adam Cianciarulo right behind. Cianciarulo didn’t waste much time before taking over the lead, and Savatgy lost another spot when Justin Hill went on the attack. Hill was on the gas and slowly closed the gap on Cianciarulo, but Cianciarulo did a great job of keeping just out of striking range for most of the race. But as the race started winding down Hill made a move stick right before the whoops to take over the lead. Cianciarulo tried to retaliate in the next corner but wasn’t quite close enough. A few turns later Cianciarulo came in hot on the inside of Hill, but  Hill anticipated the move, let Cianciarulo by, and cut back down to hang on to the lead. The crowd went nuts, and they got even louder when the same thing happened again a few turns later. Hill was eventually able to build a gap and ended up winning by just under five seconds.

Behind them there wasn’t  a ton action, other than Chase Sexton zapping Savatgy for third and Aaron Plessinger crashing while charging forward. Plessinger hit his chest on the bars and wasn’t able to mount a strong recovery and ended up seventh. He also cut the track slightly when he got going again, but it wasn’t much. As of now the results aren’t reflecting any penalty.

450SX Main

Things went wrong almost immediately for several riders when this one got underway. Ken Roczen, Weston Peick, Malcolm Stewart, Josh Grant, and Eli Tomac all found themselves on the ground in the first turn. Tomac got the worst of it. After a trip to the mechanic’s area he pulled the plug on his night and headed back to the pits. Up front was Cole Seely, but Jason Anderson wasn’t far behind. Seely did a great job of staying away from Anderson, but as the race wore on Anderson started closing in and the crowd could sense a pass was on the way. Just past the halfway point Anderson pulled the trigger and made the move. Seely tried to retaliate and stay within range, but Anderson’s pace was just too fast. Seely would go on to lose additional spots to Musquin and Blake Baggett. The battle with Baggett was especially intense, with Seely and Baggett going back and forth over and over. Musquin put on a charge and started reeling in Anderson but Anderson responded and lowered his lap times to maintain a comfortable lead.

Justin Barcia ran third early after going by Musquin, but ended up dropping all the way back to eighth. Cooper Webb had issues too and ended up crashing in an incident with Roczen. Webb spent significant time off the track trying to get his front end straight again, eventually finishing nineteenth. Bummer of a night for Roczen, whose night ended after going down with Webb. It almost looked like Roczen just grabbed too much throttle and looped out. Whatever happened, his jersey was ripped up and he was clutching his forearm and wrist area and left the track on the medical mule. We’ll update you on this situation as more info becomes available.