Five Things To Watch At Tomorrows 2019 Supercross Opener In Anaheim
We are about 24 hours away from the most anticipated event of the
year for Supercross fans, the season opener at Anaheim, or more
commonly referred to as A1. We know the reigning champion Jason
Anderson is focused and ready to make a run for a repeat and we
know he's got some tough top tier challengers aiming for him with
Eli Tomac, Marvin Musquin, and Ken Roczen looking for their first
SX Championships.
But what else is going on? What are some of the other story lines
to pay attention to tomorrow? We put together this list of five
things we are excited to see play out once the firework smoke
clears and the gates fall.
Chad Reed
A legend in the sport and fan favorite, the two-time SX Champion is
back for more action and looking to shine on a new team and new
bike for 2019. Reed has joined JGRMX/Yoshimura/Suzuki Factory
Racing and will contend the series aboard a
Suzuki RM-Z450. After taking only one podium and finishing the
2018 SX season in 13th place, the 36 year old Reed is
determined to prove that age is just a number and hard work,
determination, consistency and grit is what it takes to win races.
He's already fourth on the all-time Supercross win list, with 44
main event victories, and will continue to build upon the record he
set last year when he broke a tie with Mike LaRocco for the most
starts in the history of AMA Supercross.
Cooper Webb
Chad's former factory Yamaha teammate, Cooper Webb, has moved onto
a
KTM 450 SX-F and will be riding alongside Marvin Musquin for
the Red Bull KTM Factory team. Since moving up to the 450s two
seasons ago the former 250 SX champion hasn't quite had the seasons
he'd like or fans expected on the bigger bike. While he had a top
10 finish with a 9th overall last season, he's had to
miss several races in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons due to injury,
and has only accumulated two podiums so far. So he has to be
looking forward to staying healthy and racking up some podium
spots.
Justin Barcia
Bam Bam was a fill in rider at the start of last season and got off
to a decent start with back to back third place finishes in the
first two rounds. At round four in Glendale he nearly took the top
spot. Coming out of the gate strong, by the sixth round Barcia
secured himself a full time ride with Monster Energy/Knich/Yamaha
Factory Racing team for the rest of the season. Unfortunately he
ended up sitting out rounds 8-13 after singing but came back
battling to finish the season with a 10th overall. He
has fully re-signed to the team and is looking to build on what he
started right out of the gate last year.
The 450 Rookie Class
This may be the most loaded class of rookies to jump into the
premiere class in years. You've got recent 250 SX West champion
Aaron Plessinger joining his teammate Barcia on a
YZ450F, two-time 250 SX East champion Zach Osborne jumping up
to the Husky 450 for Rockstar Energy Husqvarna, 2017 Western
Regional 250 Supercross Champion Justin Hill riding for JGR Suzuki,
and Joey Savatgy teaming up with Eli Tomac for the Monster Energy
Kawasaki team. Unfortunately Osborne is out to start the season
with a collarbone injury but will hopefully make a quick and
healthy return. As for the rest of these guys, look for them to
come out with a bang to put the pressure on their upper
classmen.
Malcom Stewart
While Malcolm Stewart has been in the 450 class for a couple of seasons, he has yet to race the season opener in the 450 class. So you can be that he wants to make his new SmarTop/Bullfrog Spas/MotoConcepts/Honda team proud and make his A1 debut a memorable one. He'll also be looking to build on his season last year where he just barely missed the top 10 with an 11th overall.
