Ferrandis. Despite the disap-
pointment of his result, to many,
it was a better-than-expected
opening round for Webb. "Today
was a great day," Webb said.
"Qualifying went well. I was
second and third [in the two
qualifying sessions], which was
awesome for me, and then I
won my heat race. I've never
won a heat race at A1, so that
was cool. In the main event, I
got off to a decent start. I was
in third place and trying to get
around Jason [Anderson] the
whole race. It was kind of us
three the whole time—me, him,
and Jett. I was trying to make
passes, but I just couldn't make
anything stick. Then I had a big
crash there at the end. I don't
really know what I did, maybe hit
a kicker or something, but all I
know is the front went over, and
I took a big hit. I'm lucky to be
go around a first corner. I got
shuffled back to about 10th
and then came back strong to
fourth. I'm pumped on it; a good
start to the season."
Dylan Ferrandis came into
A1 as somewhat of an under
-
dog. It was his first race on
the privateer Phoenix Honda
Team, but he came away with
a top-five finish. The long-time
factory-supported Yamaha rider
Ferrandis held seventh for much
of the race while stalking Barcia
much of the time. The French
-
man finally saw an opportunity
just past the halfway point and
made a pass on the GasGas
rider, who, surprisingly, didn't put
up much of a fight. Ferrandis fin
-
ished just three seconds behind
Plessinger.
Webb remounted his Star
Yamaha in time to salvage sixth,
finishing 10 seconds behind
VOLUME ISSUE JANUARY , P69
ROOKIE OR NOT?
There has been a lot of discus-
sion if Jett Lawrence is truly the
first 450SX rookie to win his debut
race. Technically, he is. Josh Grant
won the Anaheim opener in 2009
aboard a JGR Yamaha but raced
the Seattle round a year prior in the
premier (450cc) class. Then there's
Ken Roczen, who the 2014 opener
in his first full 450 season debut,
but he raced select 450cc rounds
during the 2011, 2012 and 2013
seasons before going full-time 450.
Lawrence raced the SuperMoto-
cross rounds last year on a 450,
but that wasn't a standalone AMA
Supercross race, which Lawrence
has never done on a big bike. "It's
an unreal thing to kind of grasp,"
Lawrence said of being the first
rookie to win A1. "Really, because
you just think with how many years
this sport's been around, you'd
have thought someone has done it
before. But it's cool that it took that
many years for someone to do it.
I'm definitely grateful, and I'm happy
to do it for Honda and Red Bull.
They've been behind me for a very
long time now so it's good to give
back in that type of way and get up
in the history books for them. "
SPEED SUIT DEBUTS
New products and styles are
always a hot topic at the AMA
Supercross opener, and this year,
all the buzz was focused on Fox
Racing's all-new one-piece "Speed
Suit." Rockstar Energy Husqvar-
na's Christian Craig debuted the
controversial livery, which some
commented resembled a wetsuit.
The rider steps into the suit through
the neck hole before pulling the
arms up and over his body. An
internal closure system around the
Briefly...
