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/1493698
championship lead is on the edge of a knife at this point. Re- lying on mistakes from Sexton is no longer a viable plan. After crashing out of the lead two main events in a row due to unforced errors (Tampa and Oakland), that has to be a wake-up call for Chase. Being ejected and dejected at Oakland might have been the final straw for the young Honda HRC rider. I don't know that you get more of a wake-up call than throwing away the lead by crashing into the "Leader" sign. It nearly hap - pened again in the third race at Arlington, only this time Eli was kind enough to answer back with a highly uncharacteristic mistake of his own, handing the lead back to Sexton. As goes the struggle for all talent shining as brightly as Sexton, will he, can he, dial it down just enough to iron it out? Will he still be faster if he backs it down? Will he master the bal - ance before he is plagued with injuries? If the answer to any of those is yes, then Eli will have a problem. Even with Eli's error in Arling - ton, things didn't totally break Sexton's way at round seven, which brings us to wake-up call number three: Cooper Webb. Anyone who was expecting to see a two-way battle for the championship this season, including Tomac and Sexton, better think again. A victory in Tampa effectively woke the tiny sleeping giant, and now that the two-time champion has race wins under his belt and the monkey off his back, he is coming on strong. God forbid he gets you in his sights late in the race. If you fall into the factory KTM's crosshairs in the final laps, you're done. Fortu - nately for Tomac, Webb simply ran out of time in Oakland, but that shark was coming fast, and he smelled blood when Eli momentarily ran off the track. It was Sexton's turn to fall vic - tim to Webb's late-race attack in Arlington. The final laps of the third race determined the overall winner on the night, and you could argue it was due to a lapper being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Cooper had the leader in his sights on R icky Carmichael always says, "This championship begins at Daytona." To the GOAT's point, here we are on the eve of Daytona and the top-three 450SX riders are separated by only five points. While the first seven rounds hardly yielded any advantage on the scoreboard, they did deliver several wake-up calls to the top contenders of the 2023 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship. Here's a look at the wake-up calls and what we now know prior to the "beginning" of the championship. For defending champion Eli Tomac, his wake-up call is Chase Sexton's sheer speed. It would appear Chase has Eli covered in that department— Sexton's only challenge is to keep it together. Because the only one who can beat Chase Sexton is Chase Sexton, and unfortunately, he is losing (win - ning?). Perhaps Eli knows this, and is relying on the fact that his own speed is the absolute limit before you will inevitably crash. Sixty percent of the time, it works every time. But Eli's P118 CN II GUEST COLUMN BY JAMES ADAMS WAKE-UP CALLS AND WHAT WE NOW KNOW