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/1212072
nently to eventual champ Ryan Villopoto. In 2015, his first year with the RCH Suzuki team after leaving Red Bull KTM, Roczen went 1-2-1 at the first three rounds to lead the championship going into round four in Oakland, where he made a significant error and came up short on a triple while battling Chad Reed for second early in the race. He finished 15th and relinquished his red plate, and points lead to eventual champion Ryan Dungey. Then, in 2017, he won the first two rounds be- fore his massive crash with the red plate at round three put him out for the rest of the calendar year. Roczen briefly led the title chase last year with 2-3 finishes in the first two rounds and held the red plate until round four in Oakland, then relin- quished it with a fifth-place finish in San Diego. Roczen took the red plate with a second-place at round six in Minneapolis, but he lost it for good one race later when Cooper Webb now famously snuck by Roczen for the win in Arlington, Texas, Webb winning by a record narrow margin of just 0.028 of a second. This year so far, Roczen won his first race at round two in St. Louis, then took over the points lead after finishing second at Anaheim 2. He won the Glendale Supercross with the red plate a week later and then kept the red plate with a third in Oakland and a sixth in San Diego, but he relin- quished his points lead to Eli Tomac last weekend in Tampa after finishing third in the main event. Tomac won. Here are his career supercross finishes with the red plate on his motorcycle, summarized: 2014 ...Phoenix, round 2 .........6th 2014 ...Oakland, round 4 ........6th 2015 ...Phoenix, round 2 .........2nd 2015 ...Anaheim 2, round 3 ....1st 2015 ...Oakland, round 4 ........15th 2017 ...San Diego, round 2.....1st 2017 ...Anaheim 2, round 3 ....DNF 2019 ...Anaheim 2, round 3 ....4th 2019 ...Oakland, round 4 ........5th 2019 ...Arlington, round 7 .......2nd 2020 ..Anaheim 2, round 3 ....2nd 2020 ..Glendale, round 4 .......1st 2020 ..Oakland, round 5 ........3rd 2020 ..San Diego, round 6 ....6th 2020 ..Tampa, round 7 ...........3rd Can Roczen gather it back up to challenge Tomac for the title? Has he learned how to thrive under this kind of pressure? After having over- come so much with his injuries, it's certainly possible that he's grown in this area. We'll have to see. Monster Energy Kawasaki's Eli Tomac And then there's current points leader Eli Tomac. Tomac has won 30 races in his 450SX career but has only led the points standings, including now, three times! And he's had a rough go of running the red plate, which seems odd considering he's won three 450MX National Championships in a row outdoors. Here are his career supercross finishes with the red plate on his motorcycle: 2017 ...Salt Lake City .... 1st (shared the red plate with Dungey) 2017 ...New Jersey ........ 8th 2019 ...Minneapolis ....... 6th 2020 ..Arlington ............ TBD Being the sole owner of the red plate only twice (remarkable, since he has 30 wins in the class), Tomac's points lead never lasted longer than one race, with an eighth and a sixth the two times he's raced with the red plate all to himself. This could be just a fluke, not a pattern, but we'll find out more this coming weekend in Arlington, which will be a Triple Crown race and could either help or hurt Tomac's efforts depending on how the night goes and the starts he gets. CN P128 CN III EMPIRE OF DIRT