Cycle News

SUPERCROSS ROUND 7 / FEBRUARY 16, 2019 AT&T STADIUM / ARLINGTON, TEXAS P56 MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS him back in and make it a race for the lead in the early laps. Webb started at the tail end of the top 10 and rounded lap one in seventh. Roczen made an aggressive pass on Tomac to take the lead after the finish line to start lap five, and then Tomac went down a couple laps later when he lost the front end in a corner trying to keep up with Roczen's pace. This handed second to Webb's teammate Marvin Musquin. At this point, Webb was gifted fifth from Tomac, who remounted seventh. While Musquin and Roczen hung around about two sec- onds apart at the front of the pack, Webb was still working on Blake Baggett (Rocky Mountain ATV/MC KTM) and Tomac's teammate Joey Savatgy. When Baggett finally made a pass stick on Savatgy, Webb struck imme- really wasn't a good day," Covington said. "I struggled a bit in practice, and in the heat race, I was in a qualifying position and I went off the track and fell way back. I had to go to the LCQ and went inside of a guy to pass him and wasn't able to jump the triple so a bunch of people went by me and I ended up not qualifying. I'm definitely not happy with this but all we can do is move forward and head to Detroit." BOWERS DQ'D Some have felt that over the years, the AMA and FIM have not been con- sistent with how they rule regarding on-track racing incidents, but they are pretty clear about what they deem to be retaliation. The AMA thought that Kawasaki privateer Tyler Bowers T- boning Justin Barcia in their heat race was over the line, perhaps because they figured it was retaliation for Bar- cia taking Bowers out at the Monster Energy Cup last October, and they disqualified Bowers for overly aggres- sive riding before the LCQ. Bowers spoke up about it on his Instagram page, and made it clear that he didn't believe the DQ had anything to do with his and other racers creating a sort of "rider's union" after the lime incident in San Diego. You can read his statement by clicking here. CBD IS DOA You might recall that Dean Wilson, then racing as a privateer, showed up at Anaheim 1 with a CBD (Cannibidiol) sponsorship, but was prevented from running the logo down on the floor but could show it in the pits. This was said to be a ruling from NBC. But then Chad Reed showed up with a new CBD sponsorship of his own last week in Minneapolis, and the AMA scram- bled to put out a ruling, effectively ban- ning CBD sponsorships outright, and stated that this policy will be in effect "until further notice." You can read the AMA release by click here. FRIESE SITS OUT Vince Friese (Motoconcepts/Smart- op/BullFrog Spas Honda) qualified for the night show in Arlington, but a crash during qualifying caused him to sit out the night show. He's day-to- day on whether he'll be returning to action by Detroit. BIG-BIKE BLOSE Husqvarna privateer Chris Blose has been duking it out with the young guys in the 250SX West all year and sits a very respectable ninth in the points standings after five rounds, but he showed up to Arlington to race the 450SX class and put in a solid day there, as well. Blose qualified 19th during the day, qualified for the main with eighth place in his heat race, then finished 17th in his first 450SX main in years. This might be enough to put him in the A practice session next weekend in Detroit. NO WINS It's hard to imagine at this point in the 2019 450SX championship, but after seven rounds, even though the top three in points are only separated by six points, two of those racers haven't won a single race yet. Neither Ken Roczen nor Marvin Musquin have won a main event in 2019, and a win for either of them at this point isn't re- ally guaranteed, since Cooper Webb is becoming as stingy as anybody regarding race wins. He has shown no signs of letting up. Briefly... Roczen was obviously disappointed to lose by less than a second.

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