Saturday Night Live: Anaheim 3

Anderson and Tomac quickly jumped into the 1-2 spots early in the race and pulled away from the field, with only third-place Marvin Musquin able to keep them in sight. At one point Tomac made a move for the lead but Anderson responded, then Tomac made some mistakes and tried to change his line choices to regroup. It didn’t work and Anderson stretched the lead, then as the whoops got worse even Anderson, normally extremely solid in whoops, started to make mistakes. The final minutes of the race became a survival game, and Anderson hung on.

“I was hitting the whoops on the right, I felt like Eli was catching me a little bit and I went to the left,” said Anderson. “Then at the end of the race I don’t think there was a good line through there. It was steep, too. I think these were the steepest jump faces we’ve had this year. It was a brutal track.”

“I tried!” said Tomac, of Monster Energy/Star Yamaha Racing. “I felt good at the beginning and I was making time in the whoops. I went for that one pass in one of those tight S-turns and the double triple. I wasn’t pumped, I cased the double after the triple and I was like “Gosh darn it.” I messed up the pass. I kept going but I made one mistake in the whoops, then I changed my line and that was it. He didn’t make any mistakes after that. Yeah, second is all we had.”

Yet another veteran hung close to the lead group, as Musquin was lurking on his Red Bull KTM. Then he crashed in the sand, while allowed Troy Lee Designs/Red Bull/GasGas rider Justin Barcia to sneak through. Barcia rode well to take his first podium since round two of the series back in Glendale.

“Good day for sure,” said Barcia. “Last weekend, last main event, we made a change because we struggled so bad, and we were struggling with the starts the last few weeks. This week I rode that setup and it was good. Felt comfortable, it was a good race track, the whoops were obviously gnarly. I had a decent start but these guys were hammering up front and I was behind Marv, and I wasn’t able to cut that gap to these two. The last few weeks have been difficult so to be up here is awesome. Like Jason said, the three of us have been racing forever so it’s pretty cool to be up there with them.”

“The three of us up here, we’ve been racing each other for an insane amount of years,” said Anderson. He and Tomac explained that the probably first raced each other at local events at age seven, and then met Barcia soon after at the bigger amateur races.

Malcolm Stewart rolled through for fourth, another rock-solid night on his Rockstar Energy Husqvarna. “I felt like the entire day was good,” Stewart said in a team statement. “I already knew the track was going to be really dry and slick because we already did two races and this was the final round. I felt like the biggest factor of tonight was the whoops and I just tried to be smart – this was one of those races where you could gain some and lose a lot, so I’m happy with taking another top-five finish. We’re definitely keeping the ball rolling.”

Musquin showed great pace early by keeping Anderson and Tomac in sight, arguably his best performance of the year. One crash ended his bid for a podium.

“I felt like I was right there all day – the speed was good and the feeling was good,” said Musquin in a team statement. “In the Main, I got a decent start and put myself in a great position in third behind Tomac. Unfortunately, I went into the inside and hit a lapper and went down and lost a lot of ground. I’m really happy with the way that I fought and rode but without the mistake it would have been a podium tonight. It hurts a little but we have to look at the positive, which was the speed and the fight I had.”

Dylan Ferrandis had another one of his typical nights—bad start, solid riding. It started worse than usual with a crash off the start of his heat race, which sent him to the LCQ. He won that and charged through for sixth in the main. Chase Sexton was okay on the tough track, taking seventh.

Defending AMA Supercross Champion Cooper Webb struggled again, taking eighth. Webb resorted to jumping whoops throughout most of the main event, but while it was safer, it wasn’t fast. He’s now 31 points down in the series standings.

“It wasn’t the best night, I’m still struggling with some stuff, but we charged hard all day,” said Webb in a team statement. “I got a decent start in the main and kind of got shuffled back. It’s not where we want to be by any means but I rode to the best of my ability tonight with what I’ve got, so we’ll go to Minneapolis and see if we can turn it around.”

Ken Roczen’s season is trending in the wrong direction, too. He crashed off the start of the main and had to come back through the pack, taking eleventh. It’s quite jarring to see Webb and Roczen, who were 1-2 in last year’s series, fighting to stay in the top ten. Aaron Plessinger, with ninth, and SmarTop/Bull Frog Spas MotoConcepts Racing’s Justin Brayton was tenth, with Roczen coming through next ahead of Dean Wilson.

The whoops were the prime factor in the 250 class, so you know what that means: Christian Craig romped to the win. He was one of the few riders who actually didn’t have problems in that section, as others were struggling and crashing throughout the main. That included his primary title rival Hunter Lawrence. Craig and Lawrence started well and were 1-2 by the first lap. Lawrence kept the pressure on for a few laps until he crashed hard in the whoops, ending his night. From there, Craig cruised.

“I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing and keeping the momentum going,” said Craig, who now has more than a one-race lead in the points standings. “It was shaping up to be a good battle, he was pushing and he was matching my speed in the whoops. It was only four laps in. Unfortunately it bit him. After I saw that I kinda checked up, I was very cautious with lappers.”

Vince Friese and Craig were involved in a heated situation last weekend in Glendale, but both bounced back in the best way at Anaheim. Craig won and Friese endured the super-tough track and avoided the massive mistakes of everyone around him, and he brought home his second career podium with a career-best second.

“I was starting to think it [a podium] wasn’t going to happen,” said Friese, of SmarTop/Bull Frog Spas MotoConcepts Honda. “I had been hearing the word podium for the last six months, that was kind of the goal we had set. I had been in position a few times and I had blown it. We were all racing the track tonight and that helped. I was so nervous and stiff. I think the track really helped with that because you had to stay focused on the track or you would get bit. It wasn’t my best riding but I got through it.”

Chaos has reigned over this 250SX West campaign. It started in the pre season when defending champion Justin Cooper broke his foot, and then continued when ’21 250SX East Champ Colt Nichols crashed and broke his arms in the first heat race of the year. Lawrence had been consistent all year but now saw a race end due to a crash (Lawrence was eventually able to slowly get up under his own power). Jo Shimoda crashed out of his heat race and didn’t compete in the main event. Michael Mosiman has been Craig’s other primary title threat, but he crashed on the first lap of the main, then raged all the way through the pack for second, then crashed again in the whoops. Somehow he still emerged in third.

“They were giving out free snacks [in the whoops]…one of the flaggers. Yeah we were all kind of hungry,” joked Mosiman about all the riders down in that section.

“There was one whoop, it was just like a curb, all the way across. Like the ninth whoop in,” said Mosiman. “There were just so many edges, you couldn’t say “Oh I know where there’s a spot without an edge.” And then because of that you would be hesitant because you didn’t know what you were going to hit. I think that’s what made it tricky.” 

“It was a tough race for me,” added Mosiman. “I made a couple of silly mistakes, and I’ve got to clean that stuff up but it’s fuel to the fire. After some post-race reflecting, it really lit a fuse under me and it’s going to be good going into this off-season break to have a lot of motivation. Tough nights like these but it’s hard to be too mad when you’re in front of fans like this.”

All of the crashes opened the door for great finishes for non-factory riders. Muc-Off/FXR/ClubMX Yamaha’s Garrett Marchbanks won his heat race but started dead last in the main. He ended up rallying back to fourth. Carson Brown scored a career best with fifth on his AEO Powersports KTM. Chris Blose, Robbie Wageman, Derek Kelley, Logan Karnow, and Ryan Surratt rounded out the top ten.