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/771039
SUPERCROSS ROUND 1 / JANUARY 7, 2017 ANGEL STADIUM OF ANAHEIM / ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA P58 450SX 1. Ken Roczen (Hon) 2. Ryan Dungey (KTM) 3. Marvin Musquin (KTM) 4. Jason Anderson (Hus) 5. Eli Tomac (Kaw) 6. Cole Seely (Hon) 7. Davi Millsaps (KTM) 8. Weston Peick (Suz) 9. Josh Grant (Kaw) 10. Cooper Webb (Yam) 250SX 1 Shane McElrath (KTM) 2. Aaron Plessinger (Yam) 3. Martin Davalos (Hus) 4. Mitchell Oldenburg (KTM) 5. Josh Hill (Kaw) 6. Jeremy Martin (Hon) 7. Dan Reardon (Yam) 8. Austin Forkner (Kaw) 9. James Decotis (Hon) 10. Kyle Chisholm (Hon) Martin Davalos in second. He had his work cut out for him. Plessinger found his way by Davalos just past the halfway point. Davalos had to settle for third. "I struggled a lot with bike setup today, just trying to adjust to this hard-packed condition," Davalos said. "Definitely I need to work on some things over the week going into San Diego, but I've got to give it up to the guys who were in front of me. They rode a better race." But out front, Plessinger started eating into McElrath's lead in the last few laps, but lost his head of steam with a few laps to go. McElrath hung on for his first-ever AMA Supercross victory. "I mean growing up watching Jeremy McGrath and [Travis] Pastrana and [Ricky] Carmichael, I always dreamed of racing supercross," McElrath said "That was kind of what I grew up, calling it as 'making it' I guess. It wasn't long ago where I was thinking about that and I was like, 'I've kind of exceeded my expectations or my dreams when I was a little kid.' I never really thought about it until then. I have a good opportunity to keep going with this and a good team to be with. So that just gives me more motivation just because, it's not always fun, but for the most part we enjoy everything that we do. We can push each other on the track but then we come off and we're all good. I think that's the biggest thing." CN MONSTER ENERGY AMA SUPERCROSS SERIES, AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP My Own Race: 24 AUSTIN FORKNER 8 TH 250SX Austin Forkner made his pro debut in supercross at Anaheim I and he didn't look like a rookie at all. He was sixth in qualifying, second in his heat race (narrowly edging out his Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate Justin Hill for the position) and was run- ning seventh in the main when he tangled with another rider and dropped back to 16th. But he worked his way back up to eighth to end his night. "I rode good but didn't finish very good," he said. "I got second in the heat so I got a feel for what it would be like. I got together with somebody [Justin Hill] through the whoops; I got on the brakes, and got bucked [in the whoops]. I was fine but the bike—the bars were down, the lever up, but I didn't care because I was pretty mad at that point. I was making mistakes but still catching guys, then I calmed down and started clicking off good laps. I actually set the fastest lap time of the race, so considering the conditions I think that was pretty good. I'm confident going into the next race." 2 COOPER WEBB 10 TH 450SX In his first official supercross race in the 450SX class, two-time 250SX champion Coo- per Webb didn't set the world on fire but still had good, solid, safe and productive first outing. He was 13th in qualifying, third in his semi and finished 10th in the 450SX main. "It wasn't bad, but I wanted to do better," Webb said. "Today was a bit of a struggle. Practice didn't go that well; I was kind of fighting the bike a lot, then I finally calmed down a little bit. We made the bike better throughout the day and by the main, my goal was to be in the top 10. I got 10th, so that was a good start."