PREVIEW: This Week in Monster Energy Supercross – Round 3 – San Diego

It’s Round three of the AMA Supercross series, part of the Supermotocross World Championship, this weekend in San Diego, California.  After washing things down from the San Francisco mudfest, will conditions be able to show us where the chips are stacked in the series.

Words & Images: Supercross Live

450 SX Recap:

San Fran Sexton: Chase Sexton sludged his way to the eighth 450SX Class win of his career, stealing the red plate back from Jett Lawrence (9th). The victory moves Sexton into 25th on the all-time 450SX Class wins list tied with Ron Lechien and Jimmy Ellis. Sexton is the sixth different rider to win a 450SX Class race on a KTM (Ryan Dungey, Cooper Webb, Marvin Musquin, Ken Roczen, & Blake Baggett). KTM now has 62 wins and has won at least one race every season since their maiden win in 2012. That is 13 years consecutive, good for fifth all-time on the 450SX Class ‘brand’s consecutive seasons with a win’ list. Kawasaki’s 18-year streak from 2005-2022 is the all-time record.

Eli Tomac put himself into title contention with 2nd in San Francisco.

Eli Tomuck: Eli Tomac countered his uninspiring Anaheim Opener finish with a runner-up trip through the mud in San Francisco. Tomac’s 96th 450SX Class podium brings him within five of Dungey who sits third on the all-time list. He moves only one behind Dungey for fourth on the all-time top-fives list with 121. In all-time 450SX Class starts, Tomac ties Heath Voss for ninth with 165.

San Fran Suzuki: Ken Roczen (3rd) passes Ryan Villopoto on the all-time 450SX Class podiums list for 10th with his 64th trip to the box. He will be looking for his 90th top-five finish in San Diego which would tie him with Jeff Ward for eighth all-time. Roczen’s Suzuki teammate Shane McElrath scored a career best 450SX Class finish with a fourth-place ride. He has eight top-10 finishes in 32 starts. It was only the fourth time two Suzuki’s were in the top-five together in the last 10 seasons, with the most recent time also including Roczen and McElrath last season in Denver. Roczen and Baggett pulled this off for Suzuki in 2016 while Broc Tickle and Baggett did it in 2015. 2014 is the last time Suzuki had two riders in the top-five in multiple rounds.

Notes: Dylan Ferrandis (6th) & Jorge Prado (7th) won their respective Heat Races before nailing top-10 finishes in the San Fran mud. Prado has one more race before his three-race tenure is up with GasGas in the 450SX Class season. Adam Cianciarulo (8th) scored another top-10 finish, giving him a solid 26/34 mark in his 450SX Class career (77%). Hunter Lawrence (10th) made his first career 450SX Class start. Jett Lawrence (9th), Derek Drake (13th), and Jason Clermont (21st) made their second career 450SX Class starts.

Chase Sexton reclaimed the red plate with the San Francisco win.

San Diego Historical Facts:

History Lesson: The first 450SX Class round held in San Diego was on October 25, 1980 in San Diego Stadium, and is one of just two October Supercross rounds in the history of the sport (1984, Oakland). Mike Bell clinched the title over a month before in Philadelphia and tacked on his seventh win of the season in the San Diego finale. Bell outdueled Honda’s Chuck Sun and ran away with the win after Sun crashed with four laps remaining. Donnie Hansen and Marty Tripes scored podiums ahead of Sun who finished fourth. San Diego Stadium became Jack Murphy Stadium the next season in 1981 and held the finale again. Mark Barnett had already clinched the title and cruised to a seventh-place finish while Broc Glover took the victory. In 1982 Jack Murphy Stadium held their third finale in-a-row and once again no title on the line as Donnie Hansen wrapped that up in the penultimate round. Glover cruised to his second in-a-row San Diego win that evening.

Supercross Mainstay: The series took two years off from San Diego before returning as the Opener in 1985 which was won by Johnny O’Mara with a 2-2 overall (Supercross used Motocross scoring in 1985). Supercross returned to Jack Murphy every season, sans 1988, through 1996. Supercross returned to San Diego from 1998-2014 and the Stadium had been re-branded to Qualcomm Stadium. The stadium has since been demolished with the San Diego Chargers moving to Los Angeles and the San Diego Padres building a separate stadium, PETCO Park. PETCO Park hosted Supercross from 2015-2022, sans 2021, and twice in 2016. San Diego Stadium/Jack Murphy Stadium/Qualcomm Stadium hosted 31 rounds while PETCO Park hosted eight. When the series moved to the brand-new Snapdragon Stadium last season, it marked the 40th time Supercross visited San Diego.

Snapdragon Stadium: Brand new Snapdragon Stadium, home of the San Diego State Aztecs, was built near the site of San Diego Stadium/Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium and opened in 2022. It was the 63rd different venue to host a 450SX Class Supercross round and first new venue since Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2021. Eli Tomac won the race with Cooper Webb and Justin Barcia rounding out the podium. The 2024 Snapdragon Stadium Supercross will mark the 41st San Diego 450SX Class Supercross race and second in the new stadium.

250 SX Recap:

San Fran Smith: Jordon Smith made his 60th career 250SX Class start (18th all-time); 21st podium (13th all-time); 33rd top-five (7th all-time); 43rd top-10 (17th all-time); but most importantly he earned his fourth career victory and first since 2018. Smith will hold the red-plate for the first time since 2017 with a five-point lead over third-place finisher Levi Kitchen in the point standings.

Jordon Smith pushed through the slop for the San Francisco 250 win, and wears the red plate for San Diego.

M’Banks Nabs Teammate Late: Garrett Marchbanks stole his fifth career 250SX Class podium in 36 starts with a last-lap pass over teammate Phil Nicoletti. Marchbanks sits only 12-points behind the red-plate with eight Western Regional 250SX Class rounds remaining. Nicoletti, making his 41st 250SX Class start, just missed out on his first career Supercross podium. He has one career Pro Motocross podium and it occurred in the 450 Class at Unadilla in 2018 where he finished 3-5 only behind Musquin and Tomac.

Oh No Jo: Jo Shimoda saw his title hopes hit a huge roadblock with a DNF in the San Francisco mud. He sits 29-points off the red-plate with eight Western Regional 250SX Class rounds remaining. It was only the third time Shimoda had finished outside of the top-10 in his 250SX Class career (30/33). Factory HRC Honda has scored at least one point in every 250SX Class race going back to 2020. Jett Lawrence missed Glendale, Oakland, and San Diego that season and had been Honda HRC’s only rider for the Western Regional 250SX Class.

Jo Shimoda, seen here winning his heat race, ground to a halt early to put his championship in serious jeopardy.

Notes: Carson Mumford (5th) Nabbed his first career 250SX top-five finish, he was making his 19th 250SX Class start. Anthony Bourdon (6th) & Hunter Yoder (8th) First career 250SX class top-10 finishes. Matti Jorgensen (13th), Slade Varola (14th), Deegan Hepp (17th), & Ty Freehill (20th) All made their first career 250SX Class starts.

San Diego Track Map: