It has begun. And A1 did not disappoint, here are the nuts and bolts of it.
250 Qualifying - First session saw Club MX rider, Brazilian Enzo Lopes set the fastest time in Q1 and was looking very spicy. Austin Forkner however, took the fastest time in Q2 and was the overall fastest Qualifier for the day with an ever-changing Anaheim track.
450 Qualifying – Marvin Musquin set the fastest time in Q1 and Chase Sexton set the fastest in Q2, with the only sub 1 minute lap.
250 Heats – RJ Hampshire took heat 1 over Jett Lawrence after Jett's horrible start. Notable good results were Max Vohland in 3rd, and youngster Hunter Yoder with an 8th to transfer him straight to the main. Heat 2, apart from Lopes's great effort,
saw a predictable bunch of riders go through. Cameron McAdoo would take the win. A few incidents though. Peirce Brown went down hard on lap 1 and did not continue, early reports are that he is ok, just took a hard hit. Austin Forkner had a mid-race excursion and came back to 3 rd and Australia's own Wilson Todd went down hard and took a head knock.
450 Heats – Heat 1 was an Eli Tomac clinic, from Dylan Ferrandis and Adam Ciancirulo who showed some promising speed after his lengthy lay-off. Heat 2 saw a Chase Sexton holeshot and win from “Kickstart Kenny” and Cooper Webb. Privateer rider Justin Starling went straight to the main with a 9th, Twisted Tea Suzuki’s Shane Mcelrath in 10th just missing out on a direct transfer to the main.
250 LCQ – Would you believe there was a first-turn pile-up! Ty Masterpool lead early but threw it away and just missed out on the main by finishing in 5th, AJE Gas Gas rider Jerry Robin took the win.
450 LCQ – Action off the start as Mcelrath endoing into turn 1 and that ultimately ended his night early. But the biggest news is that Chiz didn’t Chiz, he didn’t start the LCQ due to illness, if there is something out there that can take down Chiz, I don’t want anything to do with it! Another fan favorite Alex Ray just missed out in a late race battle with John Short for the 4th and final transfer spot, Freddy Noren took the LCQ win.
250 Main Event – The story of the night for the 250 class is Austin Forkner’s crash on the start straight, which saw him helped off the track by the medical crew. I feel so sorry for the guy, it was a horrific crash and no word yet on injuries but early reports are a shoulder injury. Bound to be plenty of debate as to who was at fault, side to side contact was made with RJ Hampshire before Forkner got out of control and hit the back of Cameron McAdoo, sending him flying and hitting the dirt hard. It’s a shame for him but also for the fans and Pro Circuit Kawasaki.
No Surprise Jett Lawrence took a relatively easy win from a hard-charging Hampshire and McAdoo. Good results from Mitch Oldenburg in 4 th and Max Vohland rounded out the top 5.
450 Main Event – This was one we’ll remember, here it goes.
- Justin Barcia holeshots, with Tomac, Roczen, Malcolm Stewart, and Sexton in tow
- Tomac passes Barcia for the lead
- Barcia crashes in the rhythm lane not long after the Tomac pass
- Stewart and Sexton pass Roczen
- Tomac washes out on the up ramp of the tunnel jump, giving Stewart the lead,
the crowd gets “Mookie Fever” and goes mental, Tomac dropped to 5th now 7 seconds back
- An out-of-sorts Jason Anderson crashes while in 4th and trying to make the pass up into 3rd, he had also crashed in practice so maybe that’s what was up with him.
- Sexton passes Stewart for the lead
- Tomac to 3 rd now 4 seconds back
- Roczen fading?
- Cooper Webb into 6th from a 10th place start
- Tomac is in full beast mode to 2nd now 2 seconds back
- Tomac passes Sexton for the lead after sexton totally blows the long rhythm lane.
- Stewart goes down hard, looked to have hit neutral on the on-off, and gets up wobbly, but is allowed back on the bike, that will be discussed this week for sure
- Webb is now in 3 rd and on fire
- Webb passes Sexton for 2nd
- Sexton finishes 3 rd
- Tomac wins by 4 seconds after crashing, who’s the boss?
Obviously, Eli doesn’t mind that new Yammy! And it was awesome to see Coop looking like his old self. This sport we love hey, how lucky are we fans!
Bring on round 2.
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