What We Noticed: Anaheim II
January 29, 2024
Sun shining and a triple crown! Here’s what we noticed from A2.
- 450 Field is AMAZING
A return to dry conditions allowed all the top riders to showcase their speed. And guess what… these guys are ready to perform. I can’t remember a season where we had so many riders riding arguably the best of their careers:
- Sexton showed that he has his old speed and the KTM where he wants it with that dominant first race win.
- Cooper Webb is perhaps the fastest he has ever been.
- Jason Anderson is back to his 2022 self: hucking big rhythms, feisty, and nailing the whoops.
- 2023 Eli is back, as fast as ever and able to come through the pack to boot.
- Ken Roczen is the best yet on the Suzuki matching his glory days of old.
- Plessinger is more consistent than ever and faster than ever.
- Jett Lawrence continues to awe: incredibly fast and can charge through the pack like everyone else is standing still.
- Triple Crowns Need Championship Points for Each Race
Okay, not full points for each race, but maybe 5, 3, 1 for podium finishes in each race? Having 3 races is epic, but I feel like adding points for a podium in each race would make it even better. It would make triple crowns the “majors” of supercross! Instead of 25 points up for grab in a night, you could have 40! The real problem with the current format is that riders don’t have an incentive in the final race if they already have an overall position secured; offering up points would push riders forward more and create better racing. In the press conference, Levi Kitchen admitted that he wasn’t worried about passing Thrasher or letting Shimoda by; Cooper Webb also admitted that he was riding to secure the overall vs. the race win. We should be incentivizing these guys to race forward always!
- Strong Shimoda and Smith
Results don’t show it, but Shimoda and Smith were perhaps just as fast if not faster than the leaders. Unfortunately, bad starts and crashes for them didn’t allow us to see a 4-rider battle for the win. Their rides to come through the pack were quite incredible to watch though... kudos! Smith is looking poised for this championship, and if Shimoda can figure out his starts, he could go on a race-win streak at anytime.
- C’mon Jett!
Amazing riding from Jett, but he can’t throw it away on the last lap! I wasn’t sure if we were going to see rookie mistakes from him after such an unbelievable 450 MX and SMX campaign last year, but the pressure in SX is causing him to crack. There was absolutely no need for him to push that whoop section on the last lap; even if he did catch and pass Eli, it wouldn’t have made a difference in the overall results. Instead, a silly error caused him to drop from 2nd to 6th… must be frustrating for him and the team. The positive side is that he continues to show speed, and in my opinion, continues to be a favorite to win every weekend. He’s not too far back in points, so the ball is still in his court at this point.
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Great Track
Fun, challenging track: two whoop sections and two rhythm sections that could be jumped differently. It was fun to watch the riders figure out the whoops as they broke down, and also start tripling into the rhythms as the night progressed; both sections enabled for exciting racing and passing opportunities. I think the track could have been better if Anaheim didn’t get a ton of rain earlier in the week (caused some soft sections to rut up), but overall best track of the year so far!
