The Challengers
Christian Craig has established himself as the man to beat out west in the 250 class. He’s been about as close to flawless as you can get in the first two rounds and has yet to finish any worse than first, both in the heats and mains. Someone is going to challenge him at some point, but who? Hunter Lawrence’s starts haven’t been good enough, Michael Mosiman keeps making small mistakes, Seth Hammaker hasn’t been able to hold Craig’s pace (and is now unfortunately out with injury), and last week Jo Shimoda went over the bars in the whoops. Will someone step it up and give Craig a fight this weekend? –Aaron Hansel
Two-Smokin’
Gared Steinke didn’t win his heat race last week in Oakland, but judging by the crowd’s reaction to him taking the final transfer spot on board his two-stroke KTM 125 SX, you’d think he’d just won the championship. They absolutely loved Steinke, who is a NorCal Native, making the main on his two-stroke! Unfortunately for Steinke he only made it seven laps in the main, but hey, just putting a 125 in the main is a big deal these days. Who thinks he makes some more this year? –Hansel
Racing Hurt
Eleventh place is no joke in today’s 450SX Class, which is where Joey Savatgy finished last Saturday in Oakland. The crazy part is that he suffered a big crash on Tuesday before he race, and he sustained a torn ACL. Guys riding with torn ACLs isn’t anything new, but to go out and compete less than a week after the injury is pretty impressive. Plus, he rode well! Savatgy is intent on continuing to race, so we’ll see what kind of affect the bum knee has on his results moving forward. –Hansel
The Turnaround
It’s not often you see a rider go from ninth one week to second the next, especially if there were no crashes, injuries, or illnesses involved. Yet, somehow, that’s exactly what Aaron Plessinger did in Oakland. The Red Bull KTM rider was fantastic in Oakland, running second and keeping race winner Jason Anderson in sight for most of the race. All this just one week after not being anywhere near the front in Anaheim. Afterward Plessinger said he was in a different mindset this week. Will he have the same mindset in San Diego? –Hansel
Red on Red
A red plate isn’t exactly anything new for Justin Barcia, who’s had it at the beginning of the year for the last three seasons. But he usually earns it at the opener, not at the second round. But regardless of how or when he got it, he has it now and you know he doesn’t want to let go like he has in years past. Might things be different this year? We’ll see if Barcia can break the mold by picking up wins here and there and making a multi-race run with the red plate. –Hansel
Bullet Dodged
As good as things went for Ken Roczen in Anaheim, they would go just about as bad in Oakland. After trouncing the field at the opener, Roczen had a bad crash in the whoops during qualifying at round two. Then he crashed during the main, and ended up in a very un-Roczen-like 13th place. That’s the bad news. The good? Thanks to the largely inconsistent results of the field over the last two rounds, he didn’t take a massive hit in points. Yes, he’s tied for fifth with Eli Tomac, but he’s only eight points back of championship leader Barcia. If he puts in a good ride in San Diego, he’ll be right back in position to take possession of the red plate for the second time in 2022. -Hansel
Sexton Setback
It wasn’t as dramatic of a turn as it was for his teammate Roczen, but Chase Sexton didn’t quite replicate his Anaheim in Oakland, either. After a coulda’ shoulda’ woulda’ won performance at the opener, Sexton took a heat race win in Oakland but couldn’t find that magic in the main event. He started eighth and finished ninth after making a mistake. The watch continues for Sextons’ first career 450SX win, and while that accomplishment feels inevitable, it also probably feels like it’s taking forever to Chase. One of this weekends will be the weekend. Maybe this one? -Jason Weigandt
Blu Speed
Eli Tomac has finished 6-4 on the season and Dylan Ferrandis has gone 16-6. This is not an indicator of the Monster Energy/Star Racing Yamaha teammates’ potential. For one, they qualified 1-2 in Oakland. Tomac traditionally starts the year slowly and then breaks out, and he snagged the fastest lap time of Oakland’s main event. Ferrandis’ story is similar, but his starts have been even worse than Tomac’s. The Frenchman absolutely blistered through the pack after starting 16th in Oakland. The blue bikes need to start up front, and if so the podium is theirs. – Weigandt
Breakout weekend ahead❓👀 Eli Tomac had the fastest lap time in Oakland's main event ⏱ Dylan Ferrandis came from 16th to 6th 🤔 pic.twitter.com/DGnwX7tZir
— Racer X (@racerxonline) January 20, 2022
Crash Free
The Bar-X Chapparal Suzuki 250 teammates of Dylan Schwartz and Carson Mumford have looked pretty quick this year, but mistakes have cost them dearly. From practice to the races, we’ve seen them down on the ground far more often than they would like. They took 11th (Schwartz) and 14th (Mumford) in Oakland, and Schwartz was 15th and Anaheim 1 while Mumford was tenth. There’s been a lot of carnage in 250SX West already so the door is open for young talent to start stacking the results. Can the RM Army boys do it? -Weigandt
Feeling Better?
Oakland was a so-so race for defending Monster Energy Supercross Champion Cooper Webb, who finished sixth. Why? “I came down with a cold yesterday and fought through it the best we could today but definitely didn’t feel great at all,” he said after the race. “Practice went pretty good with third but I just tried to save as much as I could for the Main Event. I had a terrible start in the main and I made my way forward as best I could. It was definitely tough battling the sickness but I’m going to get healthy this week and go into San Diego with a fresh body and fresh slate.” So…will Webb feel better by the weekend? – Weigandt
Feeling Better? (2)
The Adam Cianciarulo watch will continue as he recovers on the fly from a shoulder injury. He’s been super fast at both Anaheim and Oakland and ran in podium position in both main events. Then the slow fade began, and he went back to 11th at round one and 12th at round two. At Oakland, he maintained decent lap times for eight circuits around the track, and then the bottom started to drop. Will he have more minutes in him this weekend? -Weigandt