Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1071335
CHAMPIONSHIP VOL. 56 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 15, 2019 P53 only 10 points separate first (Roczen) from fifth (Dean Wil- son) in the points as the series heads to Anaheim 2. ELI LCQ Eli Tomac slowed down early on the first lap in his heat race and kept look- ing back at his rear wheel. Something spooked him. He said later that he thought something was wrong with his rear wheel. Once he got back under way, he charged up to 10th in the heat, but came up just short of transferring to the main event. After winning his LCQ, he struggled in the main around sixth-seventh for a few laps before he got a groove going and passed his way up to fourth by the finish. "I was feeling confident coming into the weekend and felt good in qualifying," Tomac said. "The track was massive and different from most of the tracks in the series. It's never ideal to have to go to the LCQ but we got it done and stayed focused on the main event." SAVATGY DOWN 450SX-class rookie Joey Savatgy (Monster Energy Kawasaki) took a dig- ger in his heat race and was forced out of the Arizona event with a concussion, and possibly more. He has to pass a concussion protocol test in order to be allowed to race again, so we could see him back as soon as this com- ing weekend, or it may take a while, depending on how the test goes. MOOKIE'S MISHAP Malcolm Stewart (Smartop/Motocon- cepts Honda) was very fast in Arizona like he was in Anaheim the week before. Early in the first heat race, he actually stalked and passed Marvin Musquin for the lead before an error allowed Musquin back by him. In the main event, Stewart started midpack but was challenging his teammate, Vince Friese, for fifth place through the whoops when he went down, landing into the face of the follow- ing obstacle. Stewart was knocked unconscious and broke his left femur, which hit the face of the jump on his way down to the ground. He's out for the rest of the series. There's already talk of Josh Grant taking his place on the team until he recovers. PARITY Interesting note: First and second place in the Arizona 450SX main event both finished outside the top 10 at round one, with Blake Baggett finishing 12th at A1, Jason Anderson 14th. TAKEOUT Defending champ Jason Anderson took out Ken Roczen for the lead in the main event, and Roczen wasn't happy about it. Anderson was apolo- getic after the race. "Honestly, I don't think that's how you race," Anderson said. "I was a little overly aggressive, and I was kind of embarrassed after the whole incident happened, and I just want to apologize. But hopefully the next race I'll be able to not do something like that, and race straight- up; I just feel really bad." Although Roczen didn't seem overly upset about it. "We got the staggered start, and they put all of us kind of close together again, and Jason [Ander- son] drove there to the inside and took me down," Roczen said. "I'm not too happy about it, but I bounced back at least and came back to the podium—to third place—so that was super-good. It's just such a bummer; I feel like I could've won that one, but at least Blake [Baggett] passed him around the outside [laughs]. So I'm happy for him." Briefly... The 450SX main was restarted when officials had to red-flag the race to attend the injured Malcolm Stewart.