Five Takeaways From Supercross Round 4 At Oakland
In years past we've recapped each Supercross race with a series of
questions posed to several of our Chaparral Motorsports employees
and industry insiders. This year we've decided to change things up
a bit and will be posing questions to you guys via our Facebook and
Instagram (@chaparralMoto) pages, so be sure to head over and give
us your thoughts on our questions. For our blog we are going to
give our insight on the Top Five Takeaways from each race. A mix of
highlights, lowlights, or just random observations; you'll get to
read what we saw, or what we thought we saw.
Editor's note: I have never raced dirt bikes, so I have no
personal experience as to the grit and grind these guys sacrifice
their bodies to week in and week out. But I love watching the races
and respect the hell out of each and every one of them for putting
their lives and livelihood on the line each and every time they
roll up to the starting line.
Webb Resets Mediocre First Two Seasons in Just Two
Weeks
With back-to-back wins Cooper Webb now has a 2 point lead over
second place Ken Roczen. More importantly, this also means Webb
snatched the red plate from his rival! In just four races (or 1
hour and 44 minutes of racing) Webb has managed to nuke the
memories of his lukewarm first two seasons of 450 SX racing. He is
extremely hot right now and putting down the performance many
thought he was going to deliver two years ago.
Webb earned his second career win on Saturday night in dominant
fashion, getting the holeshot and then eventually gapping the
second place rider by 7 seconds. Sure his teammate, Marvin Musquin
made a great push and nearly caught him on the last lap, but Cooper
held his own and kept the mistakes to a minimum to lead all 23
laps. In fact, he's now led 38 laps (AMA stats say 23 laps-I guess
they don't count Triple Crown laps?) this season and has doubled
the number of podium finishes from his first two years in the 450
class. If Cooper and Roczen can stay healthy this championship race
will be one hell of a series.
Austrian Awesomeness
The old saying goes
"win on Sunday sell on Monday." In this case it's "win on
Saturday," but no matter, after sweeping the 450 podium in Oakland
and based on its past couple of seasons, KTM should have no problem
selling motocross bikes any day of the week. Actually, between its
orange bikes and white Husqvarnas the Austrian manufacturer has
dominated with multiple championships in both the 250 and 450 SX
and MX series' the past few years. Saturday night the stage was
drenched in orange as KTM swept the 450 podium with Webb, Musquin,
and Blake Baggett going 1-2-3. I'm sure there was some anxiety
building over in Austria when reigning champion Jason Anderson
broke his arm in practice last week. But things have probably
settled down now seeing as how they have the points lead with KTM
Coop, Marvin only four points away, and Deano and his Husky getting
plenty of TV time while holding the the 6th spot
overall.
French Fried
Question. Is Cooper's performance
having an effect on his new teammate Marvin Musquin? Marvin seems
like a really down to earth and nice guy. However, after riding in
the shadow of Ryan Dungey for years I thought after Dungey's
retirement that last year was going to be Marv's year to win a
championship. He was pretty close, only 10 points away from taking
the crown, and was only off the podium five times the entire
season, which is really impressive. But you have to wonder, now
that Copper is riding like how many thought he would when he
entered the 450 class and is getting a lot of shine for it, is it
rubbing Musquin the wrong way? It's hard to tell off the track
because he's not a boisterous person and he's most likely mot going
to come and and say anything.
But Marvin isn't exactly letting Webb go either. After giving race
leader a run for his money in the first part of the Main and then
falling to 4th, Marvin made a hard charge to get back into 2nd.
Then with a little more than 6 minutes left and with a 7 second gap
separating him from Coop, Marv turned up the heat. In the last 10
laps Marvin put in 8 laps with faster lap times than Webb's and on
the final lap had closed the gap to 1 second. It came down to the
last turn and if it was any closer with Musquin in position to make
a move I wonder how eager he would have been to get his first win
of the season and get some sunlight?
250 West Class is Fire
The 250 class is always
exciting but this West coast series is exceptionally great. No
disrespect to Colt Nichols, but nobody expected him to be carrying
the red plate, but there he is with four podiums in a row. There is
currently only four points separating the top four riders, Nichols,
Cianciarulo, McElrath, and Ferrandis, then there's a nearly 20
point gap between 4th and 5th. Every week
it's been anybody's race. Coincidentally, just like Webb in the 450
class, we hadn't seen a two time winner in the 250s until
Cianciarulo grabbed the checkers on Saturday.
Speaking of Cianciarulo, I really like the kid; he's got a great
personality, gives good interviews, and is just fun to watch.
But...as fun as he is to watch, it's also nerve wracking because
there's times where he just starts making little mistakes for no
reason. I believe he's even admitted that he has trouble getting
out of his own way.
Shane McElrath had put in a very impressive heat race on his
KTM 250 SX-F after getting clipped from behind by Lopes. They
were both right there for the holshot but McElrath had the slight
lead, then after the first turn jump Lopes front tire got into
McElrath's rear and they both went down. The difference is,
McElrath kicked it into overdrive in order to avoid going to the
LCQ and rode straight from 18th place all the way up to
6th and nearly took 5th from Pettis. It was a
great charge by McElrath.
Lopes had a hell of a night. After his crash with McElrath he
wasn't able to regroup like the KTM rider and had to line up for
the LCQ. It was déjà vu though for the
Suzuki RM-Z50 rider as he had the opportunity for the holeshot
but ended up too far to the outside and went over the tuff blocks.
And with that his night was done.
Don't Bounce Barcia
Knowing the
excruciating amount of pain Justin Barcia must have been in on
Saturday night it made me wince just looking at him. There is
absolutely nothing you can do for a bruised tailbone but one of the
last things you want to be doing is jostling your body up and down
across a Supercross track. Between sitting in the corners, the
occasional rear fender tap to the butt in the whoops, and seat
bouncing, it must have been hell of a ride. But he pulled it off
and scored some very valuable points to help keep in in the top
five and only 11 points behind Webb. Just shows how mentally and
physically tough these guys are.
