Cycle News

VOL. 56 ISSUE 19 MAY 14, 2019 P121 As far as all-time wins, there was not much movement this year. Even though Tomac scored six wins this year, he only moved up one position on the all-time Supercross wins list. He moved up from ninth to a tie with Bob Hannah for eighth, each with 27-career wins. Another good season in 2020, could see Tomac move past Hannah and Rick Johnson, who is seventh with 28 wins. Tomac even has a shot of catching Ryan Dungey, who is sixth on the all-time list with 34 wins. Tomac would need a seven-win season to match Dungey's record. The all-time top five in AMA Supercross wins Jeremy McGrath (72 wins), James Stewart (50), Ricky Carmichael (48), Chad Reed (44) and Ryan Villopoto (41) are safe at least for the next few seasons. Incidentally, Tomac is the only rider inside the top-10 AMA Supercross wins list not to have scored a championship. The seven wins by Webb moves him into a five-way tie for 25th on the all-time Supercross wins list, alongside other seven- time winners Johnny O'Mara, David Vuillemin, Jason Anderson, and Jeff Emig. Interestingly, Webb's seven victories were the most for a first- year Supercross champion since James Stewart won a whopping 13 races en route to his first title in 2007. By comparison, Ryan Villopoto and Ryan Dungey both earned five wins when they won their first AMA Supercross championships. Jason Anderson earned four wins on his way to the number-one plate last year. Musquin, with two wins this season, moved up into a tie for 22nd on the all-time wins list with Jimmy Ellis and Ron Lechien, all with eight-career wins. After a so-so opening two rounds, Webb took victory at Anaheim II, and from that time on he was clearly the most consistent rider, winning six additional rounds and finishing off the podium just twice in that 15-race stretch. Perhaps the only time Webb might have sweated a little was at round 12 in Seattle when he finished off the podium (in fourth), and rival and team- mate Musquin had just scored his second consecutive victory. Musquin could have been only seven points behind Webb at that point, but the Frenchman was as- sessed a seven-point penalty for jumping on a red cross flag. That meant the gap was 14 points after Seattle. And then Webb respond- ed big time at Houston with a win (one of the three-race format races where Webb went 2-1-3 to sore the overall victory). Then it was Tomac making a surge and moving up to challenge Webb by winning Nashville and Denver to get within 18 points, but again Webb showed toughness in New Jersey, overcoming a flu bug and surviving challenges by Tomac and Zach Osborne to win his seventh race of the season. The win in East Rutherford pretty much sealed the deal for Webb. He needed only to finish 20th or better at the season finale in Las Vegas to wrap up the champion- ship. He avoided trouble and mis- takes and finished a solid fourth to clinch the crown. Not surprisingly, Webb led the most laps this year with 135 to Tomac's 121. Musquin was third with 74 laps led. A total of 11 riders led a main event at some point during 2019. Webb also scored the most podium finishes with 13 to Musquin's 12 and Tomac's 10. A total of 10 riders scored rostrum results this season. So many things can happen between now and next Janu- ary, but at this point, the 2020 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series sets up to be an interesting one. Can Jason Anderson come back and find the speed (and consistency) he had in 2018? Will Ken Roczen complete his miracle comeback and finally win his first Supercross title? Can Marvin Musquin breakthrough? And then, of course, can Webb repeat, or will Tomac finally hold up the number-one trophy after coming so close so many times? Perhaps like Webb did this year, a new rider will come in to challenge the established stars. One thing is for sure, super- cross fans will have a lot to talk about for eight months before the whole stadium cycle returns to Anaheim. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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