This weekend the Monster Energy AMA Supercross series heads to Tampa for the seventh round of the 450SX season, and the opener for the 250SX East regional series.
Interest will be across both classes, with Cooper Webb taking his first win of the season one week ago in San Diego in a quality duel with his long-term rival Adam Cianciarulo.
Similarly, Cianciarulo comes into round seven of the series in the best form he’s seen since the first round of the 450SX season in Anaheim in the beginning of January, when he also finished second, that time to Justin Barcia.
Barcia himself arrives in Tampa off the back of a controversial weekend, where he clashed with both Martin Davalos (on press day) and Eli Tomac in the Main Event, with Barcia’s aggressive riding not going down too well with the #3 factory Monster Energy Kawasaki rider.
Throughout this season, Tomac has almost been paired with Ken Roczen. They both had a tough time in A1, before trading the top two places for the following three races in St. Louis, back again in Anaheim and Glendale, before Webb got between them in Oakland.
Both Tomac and Roczen suffered difficult starts in San Diego, but from that point onwards there paths diverged.
Tomac had podium pace and be it not for the two or three laps he was fighting with Barcia (regardless of your opinion on whether Barcia was right or wrong to ride how he did) he probably would have reached Blake Baggett who kind of floated under the radar to finish third last weekend. Tomac finished fourth in the end, cutting the gap to Roczen, who finished sixth, to one point.
The result was perhaps not the most frustrating or alarming part for Roczen, but rather the way in which he arrived to it. Had Roczen had a start similar to that of Tomac in his heat race, starting near the back, a charge through to sixth would have been looked at as ‘okay’. However, Roczen started this Main ahead of Tomac, and was pressuring Barcia for fourth before the factory Kawasaki rider passed him for fifth. From that point, Roczen kind of fell off. He had a decent chance to pass Barcia when the Yamaha rider checked up as Tomac finally made a pass stick on the #51, but Roczen appeared timid and hesitant. And this came after a dominant heat race win of over ten seconds. If San Diego turns out to be the worst race of Roczen’s season, then he should be in good shape, but it will be important for the #94 that such results are not repeated, especially with Webb now opening up his win tally for 2020.
In 250s this weekend, we will see the beginning of a new championship, and one that will start in a similar vein to the West Coast series. Before Anaheim 1, it was questioned whether Dylan Ferrandis was the favourite for the West series in 2020. The Frenchman held the #1W, but was somewhat gifted the championship in 2019 by Adam Cianciarulo who fell at the final round in Las Vegas.
Similarly, the 250SX East title was somewhat handed to Chase Sexton last season when Ferrandis’ main 2020 title rival, Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Austin Forkner, crashed out of the season with a knee injury.
As such, Sexton comes into this weekend with something to prove, and it will be interesting to see if the #1E can respond to the pressure.
The Honda rider’s challengers include GEICO Honda teammate, Jeremy Martin, who comes into this weekend off the back of a nasty injury suffered at Muddy Creek; RJ Hampshire (that’s Hampsheer) at Rockstar Energy Husqvarna; Shane McElrath (like McGrath) who moves to Star Yamaha; Jordon Smith who moves along with McElrath from TLD KTM only for Smith the movement sees him land at Pro Circuit Kawasaki. As Jason Weigandt notes in his 250SX East preview for RacerX, the experience of both Smith and McElrath makes 2020 almost ‘make or break’ for the pair of them.
With all that’s happened in the 450SX class so far in 2020, and the beginning of a new 250SX East series, this weekend in Tampa promises to be fascinating at the very least.
Super Crossed Up 