Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 1 / JANUARY 5, 2019 ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA / ANGEL STADIUM P60 place, and then Eli Tomac (Mon- ster Energy Kawasaki) managed a last-lap pass on Wilson to take third after spending the bulk of the race patiently riding around in sixth. "I was just trying to play it a little bit easy," Tomac said. "I mean, it's always easier said than done to do that. The first half, I was just trying not to blow myself up, because if you get tight in those conditions, it's over, you know? You get shot out the back by the end. And MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS I was faster than both of them, so once Malcolm went down, I made a charge on Dean, made a pass, and then checked out from there. It was definitely in my mind the whole time that I could win the thing, for sure." Wilson made a few mistakes as he got mixed in with lapped traffic and started having vision troubles. Then he tossed his goggles and quickly dropped back to second place, allowing Ken Roczen (Honda HRC) to shove his way by into second was controlling the race from the front, just in front of Malcolm Stewart (Smartop/Motocon- cepts/Bullfrog Spas Honda). As the race began to wind down, Stewart crashed out of second, and Barcia seized the opportu- nity to go after Wilson. "I knew I could win it, for sure," Barcia said. "Mentally, I kept thinking, like, 'When am I going to make this happen?' Malcolm would catch Dean, and I was just there. It worked out when Malcolm fell. I knew iii My Own Race: 7 AARON PLESSINGER 6TH 450SX Aaron Plessinger tried to keep his expectations in check in his 450SX debut at Anaheim 1. "I'm just so happy," Plessinger said. "After I got third in the heat race, I went back and FaceTimed my parents; I was so happy. I really didn't know what to expect. I probably would've been happy with just a top-10 here, but to come away with sixth place, that's a solid start. Hopefully, next week I can get in the top five, then maybe podiums." 22 CHAD REED 9TH 450SX "With the weather, it was an interesting weekend," said Chad Reed (JGRMX/ Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory Racing). "I had the feeling that no matter what I was going through, it was going to drastically change by the night program. Once the weather came I just dealt with it. I didn't get the best of starts in my heat race. The conditions were tough and challenging, so I had to go to the LCQ. In some ways, it rained quite a lot in the LCQ, so I had a feel for what the track was going to be like in the main event. The downside was that I was on the far outside gate for the main. I was dead last on the start and came up to ninth, which is respectable. I feel like I have the pace. There are just a few things I need to work on to allow me to feel more comfortable when I'm out of my com- fort zone. I have to adapt to the pace, but fortunately that's one of my strengths. Sometimes that pace comes naturally, and other times it's forced. I need to be more comfortable in that area. That's something I will work on this week." 67 ENZO LOPES 15TH 250SX Enzo Lopes made his pro SX debut, qualified for the evening program and fin- ished 15 th in the main. "Practice and the heat race were awesome," Lopes said. "I don't know what happened in the main event. Somehow I stalled my bike, and then I crashed, so that made it worse. It was unreal to line up on the gate for my first supercross race. I had that dream as a kid. I had a perspective of watching from the stands or from home. Placing third in the heat race was incredible. I had the speed, but the track was sloppy, so I couldn't attack. The main event wasn't what I wanted, but there's another race. I learned a lot."

• Cover