CIANCIARULO OUT
FOR THE SEASON
It's no secret that Adam Cianciaru-
lo was riding with a shoulder injury
throughout the first few rounds of
the 2022 season. The Kawasaki
rider openly spoke about a grade-
three AC separation he sustained
just before A1. Cianciarulo rode
through the pain but suffered
another injury during practice at
the San Diego round and he'll sit
out the rest of the Monster Energy
Supercross season. "The start of
this year has been challenging for
me mentally and physically as I've
done my best to overcome a slow-
ly recovering shoulder injury," said
Cianciarulo. "I'm proud of what
I've been able to achieve given the
situation but, I'm obviously now
faced with a big setback. I'm look-
ing at this as an opportunity to fully
rehab my body, so I'm focused on
maximizing every day of recovery
to get back to doing what I love at
my best."
FUTURES ROUND TWO
Anaheim 2 hosted round two of
the Supercross Futures series.
Pro Circuit Kawasaki's amateur
standout Ryder DiFrancesco won
again in commanding fashion. This
is his second victory in two rounds
and the number-23 was only a few
clicks off the pros in terms of lap
times. Gavin Towers and Luke Ka-
laitzian rounded out the podium.
MARCHBANKS
MISSES THE MAIN
Garrett Marchbanks showed seri-
ous speed in the first few rounds
of the 2022 season. Unfortunately
for the Club MX Yamaha rider,
Briefly...
VOLUME 59 ISSUE 5 FEBRUARY 1, 2022 P49
BY RYAN NITZEN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BROWNDOG WILSON
R
ound four of the Monster
Energy AMA Supercross
Series returned for its
second stop at the big A in
Anaheim, California. In what has
been an extremely competitive
start to the series, Eli Tomac
nabbed his first win on his new
Star Yamaha team and became
the fourth different winner in the
first four rounds of the champi-
onship. It was also Yamaha's first
450SX win since Justin Barcia
at the 2020 Anaheim 1 round.
Tomac got off to a solid start,
made some hard passes and
held on for an impressive win to
extend his championship lead
to the widest margin so far—six
points to third-on-the-night
Chase Sexton.
In the 250SX West class,
Christian Craig returned to his
winning ways, claiming his third
win of the series. Craig had to
work for it a bit; however, it all
paid off for the veteran racer, as
he now leads the championship
by a steadily-growing 14-point
gap.
450SX
Tomac bested the competition to
take his first win as a member of
the Monster Energy Star Racing
Yamaha Team. The red number-
three came into the night holding
the points lead despite not hav-
ing won a race so far. This is the
earliest Tomac has ever held the
red plate in Supercross, which
could mean trouble for his rivals,
as he appears to be jelling well
with his new bike and his confi-
dence is obviously swelling.
Eli Tomac becomes
the fourth different
winner in four
races, as the
competitive 2022
Supercross season
hits its stride
JOINS THE CLUB
