Quiz Answer: 21st Century AMA Supercross Season Opener – Most Wins by Manufacturer
Here is the answer to this week’s Tuesday Teaser – Which Manufacturer has won the AMA Supercross Season opener most in the 21st Century?
Words: Ben Rumbold, Images: Feld Motorsports
Several of you guessed it, but it might surprise people to know by how much this element of Supercross has been dominated by the Blue Crew!
We can’t talk about recent A1 history without mentioning Justin Barcia – winner of the season opener (although one was in Houston) for three straight years from 2019 to ’21.
From the Year 2000 race onwards, Yamaha have been pretty much unstoppable straight out of the crate, with wins for the King of Supercross, Jeremy McGrath, in 2000 & ’01, then David Vuillemin took the win in 2002, followed by Chad Reed in 2003 & ’04! No other manufacturer has bettered that total of five wins this century!
Honda were the first to break the blue stranglehold on A1 with Kevin Windham in 2005, then Kawasaki with James Stewart took the next two years running, before Yamaha resumed its dominance with Reed in 2008, Josh Grant in 2009, and Stewart himself in 2010.
Here are the tallies for each manufacturer:
- Yamaha – 11 Wins – McGrath 2000-01, Vuillemin 02, Reed 03-04, 08, Grant 09, Stewart 10, Barcia 19-20, Tomac 23
- Kawasaki – 4 Wins – Stewart 06-07, Villopoto 11-12
- Honda – 3 Wins – Windham 05, Roczen 17, 22
- KTM – 2 Wins – Roczen 14, Musquin 18
- Suzuki – 2 Wins – Millsaps 13, Roczen 15
- GASGAS – 1 Win – Barcia 21
- Husqvarna – 1 Win – Anderson 16
In recent years the KTM group has made advances with wins for Ken Roczen and Marvin Musquin, as well as that last one for Barcia on the GASGAS, and a single Husqvarna victory for Jason Anderson in 2016. Suzuki have also joined the party with Davi Millsaps in 2013 and Kenny in 2015. Ken is the only rider to have won the opener on three different brands of machinery. Kawasaki haven’t won the opener since Ryan Villopoto in 2011 & 2012.
With Eli Tomac topping up the Yamaha win counter last year, taking victory at A1 for the first time in his career, it all remains to see who can start the season with a flyer this weekend! Not to be missed!
